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PERFORMING PIETY

MUSICAL CULTURE IN MEDIEVAL

ENGLISH NUNNERIES

Anne Bagnall Yardley

PERFORMING PIETY
© Anne Bagnall Yardley, 2006.
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Yardley, Anne Bagnall
Performing piety : musical culture in medieval english nunneries /
Anne Bagnall Yardley.
p. cm.–– (New middle ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Church music—England—500–1400. 2. Church music—Catholic
Church—500–1400. 3. Church music—England—15th century.
4. Church music—Catholic Church—15th century. 5. Nuns as
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 This book is dedicated to my parents
Roger and Peggy Bagnall
with tremendous gratitude for their love and support
CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix
List of Musical Examples xi
List of Tables xiii
Preface xv

Introduction 1
1 The Religious Rules 15
2 Musical Leadership in the Nunnery 43
3 The Reality of Musical Life 73
4 Everyday Musical Practices: Psalters, Hours,
and the Office of the Dead 95
5 Pomp and Piety: Processional
Practices in Nunneries 113
6 The Consecration of Nuns 159
7 A Case Study in Benedictine
Practices: Barking Abbey 179
8 The Bridgettine Nuns of Syon Abbey 203
Conclusions 229
Appendix A: List of Nuns Holding the Position of Cantrix 233
Appendix B: The Role of the Chantress at Syon Abbey 235
Appendix C: Theoretical Material from Wherwell Abbey 239
viii CONTENTS

Appendix D: The Visitatio from the Wilton Processional 243

Notes 255
Selected Bibliography 303
Index 317
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I.1 Nuns in Choir from the Psalter of Henry VI 2

I.2 Month of February from the Calendar
in the Barking Ordinal 7
2.1 Abbess receiving the pastoral staff from
the Bishop in the Metz Pontifical 45
2.2 Procession and Mass in a Nunnery in La Sainte Abbaye 46
2.3 Theoretical Treatise on Music from Wherwell Abbey 62
2.4 Vocal Exercises from the Wherwell Psalter 63
5.1 Folio from the Chester Processional with
instructions for washing the feet of the prioress 136
5.2 Marginal Illustration from the Queen Mary Psalter
showing nun confessing to an abbess 149
7.1 Hymn to St. Ethelburga 193
8.1 St. Bridget presenting a book to the Bishop
from the Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden 205
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

4.1 London, British Library Additional 27866, f. 35 99

4.2 (a) London, British Library Additional 27866 f. 81v;
(b) Antiphonale Sarisburiense, p. 124 100
4.3 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 2–1957, f. 126r 106
5.1 Gloria laus et honor—Three versions
(a) Reigate, Cranston Library 2322, f. 86r;
(b) Huntington Library, EL 34 B7, f. 30r;
(c) London Society of Antiquaries, 717, f. 62r 129
5.2 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library,
EL 34 B. 7, f. 35v 131
5.3 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library,
EL 34 B. 7, f. 37v 131
5.4 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library,
EL 34 B. 7, f. 38r 132
5.5 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library,
EL 34 B. 7, f. 38v 132
5.6 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library,
EL 34 B. 7, f. 43r 135
6.1 Cambridge, University Library Mm3.13, f. 10v 166
6.2a Cambridge, Trinity College 249, f. 46 170
6.2b Cambridge, University Library Mm3.13, f. 7v 171
6.2c San Marino, CA, Huntington Library,
EL 34 B. 7, f. 1 171
7.1 Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 41r 195
7.2 Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 41v 196
7.3 Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 42r 197
8.1 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 2v 220
xii LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

8.2 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 3r–v 222

8.3 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 2r–v 223
8.4 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 2r 224
LIST OF TABLES

I.1 Numbers and Size of English Nunneries

in the Middle Ages 4
1.1 Extant Monastic Rules from English Nunneries 17
1.2 Terminology from the Wintney Rule 25
4.1 Psalters Associated with English Nunneries 96
6.1 Selected English Pontificals 163
7.1 Responsory Prosulae in the Barking Ordinal 191
8.1 Extant Liturgical Manuscripts from Syon Abbey 208
8.2 Matins Responsories Found in Processionals 221
PREFACE

n the fall of 1971 I entered the PhD program in musicology at

I Columbia University. Just prior to the opening of school, I
attended a retreat for Danforth Fellows to help prepare us for grad-
uate school. Florence Kennedy, a pioneer in women’s studies,
addressed the group and urged us to constantly raise the issue of
women’s roles in all of our classes. So armed with this sage advice, I
immediately made use of it in my musical paleography seminar with
Professor Ernest Sanders. As we transcribed music in a range for
male voices, I asked him, “What did the nuns sing?” He responded,
“If you’ll pardon the pun, that is virgin territory.” With that small
exchange, I knew that I had my dissertation topic! I still retain a
great sense of gratitude to the Danforth Foundation for its support of
my graduate work and their wonderful retreats and to Ernest
Sanders and my Columbia classmates for their support of my work.
Needless to say, in a project that has spanned over thirty years,
there are many, many other people to thank as well. The impetus
for deciding to publish a book on the topic came from a remark that
Susan Boynton of Columbia University made to my older brother
Roger Bagnall when she met him. She suggested that I should have
published my thesis as a complete book. He passed this remark on
through the family grapevine and I began to mull over the possibil-
ity. Susan’s support and encouragement throughout the project and
her careful reading of the manuscript have been immensely helpful
to me. Her wide knowledge of musicological and liturgical sources
has strengthened my work and the opportunity for dialogue has
sparked many interesting conversations and email exchanges.
The book would undoubtedly still be something I was mulling
over were it not for the energetic enthusiasm of my dear friend
Bonnie Wheeler, the editor of this volume and a mentor to me since
xvi PREFACE

the days at Columbia when I sneaked out of the music department

to take her Arthurian literature course. She was an important role
model for me of a successful woman academic. Throughout the
many years of our friendship her keen mind, her interdisciplinarity,
and her relentless curiosity have pushed and prodded me to think
about new things in new ways.
The support of my current institution has of course been vital to
the process of writing this book. My position as the Associate
Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Music in the Theological
School of Drew University demands most of my energies. I am very
indebted to Maxine Clarke Beach, Dean of the Theological School
and Vice President of Drew University for her support of the pro-
ject both in allowing me to take time away from the office as well as
offering encouragement along the way. Finding the time and sup-
port to write amidst my administrative duties has required the assis-
tance of my wonderful administrative assistant Alma Tuitt, who has
fended off callers and protected my writing time. Michelle
Campbell of the dean’s office has also helped immensely with phone
calls and office traffic. To all of my faculty and staff colleagues who
have encouraged me along the way I give thanks and especially to
Virginia Samuel, Virginia Burrus, Heather Elkins, and Danna Nolan
Fewell. My research assistant Lia Diorio spent hours checking all of
the footnotes, endless passages of Latin, and other such details. I am
immensely grateful for her cheerful spirit and meticulous work.
Speaking of Latin, Jesse Mann, a bookseller and medievalist, spent
an immense amount of time helping me with translations of the
Latin passages. Where he has been the principal translator, I have
indicated that in the footnote. In most instances, he checked over
and offered emendations to my translations. It has been a pleasure
getting to know him through this project.
Along the way I have received assistance from numerous librari-
ans and I offer a general thanks to all curators of medieval manu-
scripts for their careful care of these treasures. I owe a special debt of
gratitude to Hilary Ely of the Cranston Library, Reigate, England,
who made it possible for me to “see” an important manuscript from
her library through digital photos that she emailed to me.
Many scholars have also generously shared expertise. Diana Coldicott
helped me procure copies of the interesting musical materials from
 PREFACE xvii

the Wherwell calendar that is in the library at St. Petersburg.

Ann Hutchinson offered many helpful comments on the chapter on
Syon Abbey. Frank Henderson and my colleagues at the North
American Academy of Liturgy Medieval Seminar shared many use-
ful insights about the consecration of nuns, as did James Borders
who has worked in that area.
Bruce Holsinger’s meticulous reading of the manuscript for the
press and his many helpful suggestions for revisions were invaluable
in the final preparation of the manuscript. I appreciate the breadth of
his knowledge of the field and his willingness to share.
For the foundations of my interest in music and the church and
my love of the academic life, I thank my parents Roger and Peggy
Bagnall to whom this book is dedicated. They continue to support
my work and my mother has brought her English-teacher eye to the
entire manuscript. It is impossible to express my deep, deep grati-
tude for the many ways in which they have made me who I am.
During the course of writing this book I have actually come to
love the queries, corrections, rewordings, and other suggestions
made by my husband Jim who has patiently read and re-read every
chapter of the book. His enthusiasm for the project and his belief in
my work are tangible expressions of his love that mean much more
to me than any conventional gifts.
INTRODUCTION

he communal spirituality of medieval nuns is grounded in and shaped

T by the regular performance of the divine office—the nearly ceaseless
singing that occupies nuns for so many of their waking hours (figure I.1).
This constant music making shapes the vocabulary of spirituality, teaches
and reinforces the tenets of Christianity, interprets the relationships among
nuns, and even connects them to the world outside of the cloister. Singing
the liturgy is a performative act—one that shapes the very community that
gives it form. For medieval English nuns, the evidence from many specific
religious houses demonstrates how pervasively this performance reinforces
the particularity of each house even as it simultaneously links the nuns to
the church “universal.”
Perhaps no one person represents the medieval nun-musician to the
twenty-first century more evocatively than Hildegard of Bingen
(1098–1179). Hildegard’s theology of music, expressed in her letters,
makes it clear that in her view singing embodies the religious spirit in a par-
ticular way. Hildegard writes, “The body is the vestment of the spirit,
which has a living voice, and so it is proper for the body, in harmony with
the soul, to use its voice to sing praises to God.”1 As Margot Fassler points
out, citing the above letter, “Hildegard defined the rendering of commu-
nal song as an incarnational act, basic to the creative regeneration of life
which takes place within the monastic community. Singing was central to
her definition of what it meant to be a nun.”2 We know that Hildegard
composed and performed a large corpus of music, that she was an enthusi-
astic participant in liturgy. But what of the many other, anonymous, nuns
of the Middle Ages? How do we know how music affected their lives and
how their lives affected the development of music? This study attempts to
answer those questions through a focus on the English medieval musical
tradition.
In this book I approach the subject of the musical culture in medieval
English nunneries from two main perspectives: the first (chapters 1–4) is to
examine the normative practices of nunneries based on the extant evidence
2 PERFORMING PIETY

Figure I.1 Nuns in Choir from the Psalter of Henry VI

Source: British Library Cotton Domitian A. xvii, f. 74v (by Permission of the British Library)

and the second (chapters 5–8) is to draw attention to specific places, times,
or creative works that emerge from that normative practice.
The first of these tasks may be likened to the job of recreating a
mosaic floor from antiquity. Many tiles are missing completely, some are
 INTRODUCTION 3

cracked or chipped, yet in a few places the original beauty shines forth
with clarity and vibrant colors. In many instances, the outlines of the
floor and its probable appearance become clear from small bits of infor-
mation and our knowledge of other floors. Sometimes a tile may be put
in the wrong place entirely. In this work I have tried to focus almost
exclusively on what can be known about the nuns’ music through a
study of the resources from nunneries themselves, without reference to
normative male practices. My central quest has been to find and describe
everything I can about the musical-liturgical practices within English
nunneries.3
The challenges of this discovery process are many. In the first place,
the resources are scattered over the tenth through the early sixteenth
centuries, a period that encompasses tremendous political and cultural
changes. The great majority of the extant musical resources do, how-
ever, date from the final 250 years of English medieval monasticism.
I have taken the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538 under the rule
of Henry VIII as my ending point; I reach as far back as Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History of the English People from the eighth century. Thus I
run the risk of occasional lack of precision about the specific time period
under discussion.
A second major challenge is the sporadic nature of the sources. Rarely is
there enough information to study the whole picture at one specific house.
Two notable exceptions—Barking Abbey and Syon Abbey—form the sub-
jects of the last two chapters of the book. But in general, we must recreate
the mosaic through a surviving rule for nuns from one location, a few vis-
itation injunctions from another, and a liturgical manuscript from a third.
Factors of size, location, and specific monastic order then come into play to
complicate interpretation.
The third major challenge of the study is the sheer scope of information
involved in exploring such a broad array of practices. Merely understand-
ing the changing faces of Benedictine liturgy throughout this time period
is daunting enough. Considering Cistercian, Dominican, Franciscan, and
Bridgettine sources as well renders the task enormously complex. But—
and this is a crucial caveat—I believe that the insight to be gained from this
breadth of the sources outweighs the possibility of occasional overgen-
eralization. English nuns sang—Benedictine, Cistercians, Dominicans,
Franciscans, and Bridgettines all sang.4 In the big picture, the fact of their
musical participation and its effect on their spiritual life far outweighs the
differences in specific liturgical practices (e.g., a different choice of respon-
sories in the Office of the Dead). Their understanding that the praise of
God must be expressed in song—song that is ideally reverently, carefully,
and constantly performed—undergirds all of the differences of time, place,
size, and order.
4 PERFORMING PIETY

The Nunnery Landscape

The foundation of nunneries in England follows the general outlines of
English liturgical history fairly closely. Monastic life arrives on English
shores from a variety of places. In the seventh-century houses of Barking
and Minster and in such double houses as the house at Whitby, women
offer powerful ecclesiastical leadership. Their work has left little dis-
cernible influence, however, on the later musical history of women.
Monastic life in England is regularized around 970 through an important
synod held by King Edgar. The document emerging from this meeting,
the Regularis Concordia5, governs both the approximately thirty houses of
men and seven of women that have come into existence by the end of
the tenth century.6 The abbeys of nuns—Barking, Shaftesbury, Wilton,
Amesbury, Romsey, Wherwell, and St. Mary’s Winchester—like those
for monks, all follow the Benedictine Rule.7 Although a few more
houses are established by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066,
there is little change in the number and size of houses until the twelfth
century. It is this century that sees not only the growth of Benedictine
houses but also the introduction of the Cistercian nuns and the
Augustinian canonesses. Further expansion over the next century leads
to the flourishing of nunneries in the thirteenth and early fourteenth
centuries. The catastrophic events of the fourteenth century, especially
the Black Death, cause the population of both monks and nuns to drop

Table I.1 Numbers and Size of English Nunneries in the Middle Ages
1066 1154 1216 1350 1500
Order Houses Nuns Houses Nuns Houses Nuns Houses Nuns Houses Nuns

Benedictinea 13 250 72 1509 82 1909 78 763 73 1030

Cistercian 0 0 24 350 29 500 29 225 29 370
Augustinianb 0 0 11 170 23 450 23 200 25 280
Dominican, 0 0 0 0 1 5 4 73 5 181
etc.c
Total nunsd 13 250 107 2029 135 2864 134 1261 132 1861
Total male 48 844 523 8730 816 13,878 863 6762 753 9932
monastics

Notes:
a
Also includes dependencies of the Abbey of Fontevrault and the two Cluniac houses.
b
Also includes Premonstratensian and the Order of St. John.
c
Also includes Franciscan and Bridgettine.
d
Excludes the double houses of Gilbertines.
Source: This table has been compiled based on statistics in Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses.
These figures are certainly subject to much debate but the over all contours seem solid.
 INTRODUCTION 5

off by over 50 percent, a drop that is only partially reversed by the end
of the fifteenth century (see table I.1). Hence throughout the Middle
Ages, the total number of nunneries is approximately 14–15 percent of the
total number of religious houses, and the average number of nuns per
house varies from around 14 to 21.
The notable drop-off of numbers in the fourteenth century is primarily
due to the Black Death. Knowles suggests additional factors that affect the
number of monastics in the period:

The middle of the fourteenth century was in some ways a watershed of his-
tory, especially for this country. The successive visitations of the Black
Death, which began with the terrible plague of 1348–9; the economic and
religious unrest which followed and in part resulted from it; the long French
wars, which severed the connection between England and the other coun-
tries of Europe and put between this island and the south a wide belt of rav-
aged land; the eclipse of the Papacy; and, finally, that strange paralysis and
hardening of the arteries that affected for a time the intellectual and religious
life of north-western Europe and was particularly evident in the England of
the fifteenth century—all these forces and causes tended to lessen the num-
ber and impair the quality of the recruits to the religious life, to diminish
their influence in the universities and public life, to prevent healthy revivals
at home and to make it impossible for such sporadic reforms as took place in
Italy and southern France to reach England.8

These complex currents alter the monastic landscape making religious

vocations scarcer and drastically reducing not the number of houses but
their occupants. Such a radical shift in communal life and the loss of so
many “family” members in each house within this period undoubtedly
affected the spiritual climate in nunneries and monasteries in ways that are
impossible to define.
Shifts in the religious culture also impact nunnery life. While nuns have
always been forbidden to leave their nunneries, an increasing emphasis on
enclosure beginning with the papal bull of Boniface VIII around 1299
marks the later Middle Ages.9 Additionally, the English tensions between
the Lollards and the church hierarchy impacts the use of English transla-
tions as well as the overall climate of inhospitality to new theological ideas
in the fifteenth century.
Generally speaking, the early abbeys—those whose abbesses presumably
attended the synod with King Edgar in 970—remain the wealthiest and
largest throughout the entire Middle Ages. Based on statistics at the time of
the dissolution, the wealthiest houses in England are Syon, Shaftesbury,
Barking, Wilton, Amesbury, Romsey, Dartford, and Wherwell. Only the
newer houses of Syon and Dartford have encroached on the hegemony
6 PERFORMING PIETY

of the older houses and only St. Mary’s Winchester does not stay at the
top of the list. As a result, while numerically the greatest quantity of nun-
neries exists in the North and Midlands regions, wealth and power are
concentrated in Wessex and Essex in the South.

Liturgical Time
My colleague Heather Murray Elkins always begins her lecture on liturgi-
cal time by looking up at the class and asking, “What time is it?”. This
innocent sounding question opens the door to discussions of the secular
calendar, the academic calendar, and the liturgical calendar. For the
medieval nun, there is much less ambiguity about time—the liturgical year
and the daily office govern her life.10 The yearly cycle, with both temporal
and sanctoral events, structures nunnery life in regards to seasons of the
year. Liturgical calendars offer detailed instructions on how to locate Easter
and the other important occasions that define the temporal cycle. These
same calendars indicate not only major saints’ days, but also the specific
memorials for previous abbesses, benefactors, and others for whom the
house prays.
For example, Figure I.2 shows a leaf from the calendar of the Barking
Ordinal (Oxford University College, 16911). At the bottom of the page
stands the rubric for locating quadragesima Sunday (the first Sunday
in Lent): “Post lunam secundam post epiphaniam computa duos dies et in
proxima dominica erit quadragesima”12 (Count two days after the second
moon after epiphany and the next Sunday will be Quadragesima). An indi-
cation on the eighth of the month “ante locum istum non potest esse
quadragesima” (before this place it is not possible to be quadragesima) fur-
ther sets the parameters for the earliest possible starting date for Lent.
The feast days themselves demonstrate the hierarchy of such occasions
ranging from a “principal” feast on the Purification (February 2) to a
duplex feast of the Chair of St. Peter (February 22), to several feasts of
twelve lessons, feasts celebrated with a sequence at mass, memorials, com-
memorations, and obits. Each of these different levels of feasts has liturgical
and musical implications, requiring an awareness on the part of the cantrix
and others who lead the liturgy. If the local house celebrates a feast at a
higher level than the church at large, then additional chants are needed for
the occasion.
The calendar has grown to be enormously complex by the early fif-
teenth century. Consider, for example, four specific memorials indicated
for February 3 at Barking Abbey: St. Blasius, bishop and martyr, who is
remembered with a feast of twelve lessons; St. Werburga, virgin, with a
mass; and obits for Hawisia, prioress, and John, Duke of Lancaster.
 7

Figure I.2 Month of February from the Calendar in the Barking Ordinal
Source: Oxford University College 169, f. 1v (by permission of the Master and Fellows of University
College, Oxford)
8 PERFORMING PIETY

Consequently the ordinal itself lists antiphons for vespers and matins in
honor of Werburga, as well as propers for the capital mass. The feast of St.
Blasius ranks higher in importance. As a feast of “twelve lessons,” the ordi-
nal specifies that the liturgy for matins should be that of one martyr, lists
specific propers for lauds, and includes the propers for the great mass of the
day as well as appropriate antiphons for the lesser hours and vespers. But if
February 3 falls on a Sunday, Blasius is just remembered with commemo-
rative antiphons. The obits would be remembered at the communal daily
celebration of the Office of the Dead. Furthermore, the ordinal specifies
that February 3 is the day when the commemoration of the cross at matins
and vespers should be reinstated. It is not celebrated from the beginning of
Advent until after the feast of the Purification.13 A simple system of letters
alongside the numbers allows the person who plans the liturgy to see at a
glance which day of the week a feast will fall on in any given year. If, for
example, Sunday is “b” this year, then all of the dates marked with “b” are
Sundays. Since the Sunday liturgy takes precedence over minor feasts,
those feasts might be moved (as was Blasius) to the status of memorials. All
of this information is key to the proper performance of the liturgy within
the nunnery. Calendars also often provide important clues as to the prove-
nance of a manuscript. For example, the presence of the feast of
St. Ethelburga on the calendar suggests that Barking Abbey or perhaps a
nun there may well be the original owner of the manuscript.
The monastic liturgical day itself includes eight offices or hours plus the
celebration of at least one mass and often two. The basic hours or opus dei
are matins (or vigils) in the middle of the night; lauds at daybreak; prime,
terce, sext, and none celebrated at approximately 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, and
3 p.m. respectively; vespers before dark; and compline at bedtime.14 Each
of these hours has a fixed liturgical structure with matins the most elaborate
and the day hours of prime, terce, sext, and none the simplest.
The two main forms of the medieval office are the Roman and monastic
offices. For the most part, the monastic office, which is Benedictine in ori-
gin, governs the practices in medieval English nunneries. However, the lack
of an ordinal or customary from Dominican or Franciscan houses makes it
difficult to corroborate their likely use of the Roman usage. In both systems
the basic musical portions of the services are antiphons—short chants that
precede and follow the chanting of psalms, responsories—either the “great”
ones at matins that are long, complex, and usually melismatic or the short
responsories at other hours, hymns—versified, strophic songs, and that great
backbone of monastic life, the chanting of all 150 psalms weekly.
In addition to the chanting of these eight offices, most nunneries
observe both a capitular and a high mass daily.15 Although priests celebrate
the masses, the nuns sing the choral portions. By the later Middle Ages a
 INTRODUCTION 9

number of other “offices” arise patterned after the daily office. The Hours
of the Virgin, the Office of the Dead, the Office of the Holy Cross, and
other devotional services crowd the day. Some of these are individual
devotions but others, such as the Office of the Dead, are observed com-
munally.16
Thus, the nun spends many hours a day in choir singing psalms,
antiphons, responsories, and hymns, praying beside her sisters. As James
MacKinnon notes:

The intellectual élite of Europe was engaged for a goodly part of the day,
seven days a week, 365 days a year, from childhood to death, in the singing
of Gregorian chant. Surely this has at least some bearing on the existence of
a body of music of such stunning beauty and staggering quantity.17

The nuns participate in this incredible tradition, singing daily. The sound-
scape18 of the nunnery is both similar and dissimilar to that of monasteries.
As a general rule, the nuns do sing the same music; yet, if you have ever lis-
tened to women singing chant you know that it is a different experience
than hearing it sung by men. The sound is higher in pitch of course and a
bit warmer and gentler. Just as one would experience the same piece played
on violins and cellos as two different musical events, so also the sound of
women singing chant contrasts with that of men even if they are singing
the same music. The nunnery soundscape also includes the contrast of male
and female voices in the mass.
At its best, this constant music making offers nuns the opportunity to
build unity through breathing, singing, and praying together. Just the sheer
physical effects of several hours of singing each day are notable; the poten-
tial for positive spiritual effects is also great. While, as we shall see, the nuns
often fail to live up to the ideal of carefully performed liturgy, there must
also be moments of great beauty and joy.19

Performance
For me, as a musician and musicologist, the word performance signifies first
and foremost the process of making audible a musical composition, of
singing or playing an instrument, often for an audience, people who hear
or receive these sounds. In this sense performance is a process of transfor-
mation and communication, of moving a “piece” from a written or mem-
orized composition to an aural performance, from artifact to work of art.
So as I speak of “performing piety,” I am on one level discussing the actual
performance of liturgical music—what it sounds like, who sings it, and
other questions of performance practice.
10 PERFORMING PIETY

Performance also, however, conjures up much recent scholarship in the

entire field of performance studies.20 In this sense I use the term as an indi-
cation of the ways in which the musical culture in nunneries is performa-
tive—that is, in which the act of singing the liturgy forms the nuns’
behaviors and understandings of piety in all its complexity. In even more
complex ways, the recitation of the liturgy enacts not only piety but also a
variety of social and communal values. Or as Ashley et al. express it, liturgy
is “an arena of intense communication of cultural values and negotiation of
power within social formations at given historical moments.”21 Within the
culture of medieval English nunneries, this is most clearly seen in the pro-
cessional practices and the consecration service. These rituals, as we shall
see, embody communal notions of self-identity and hierarchy.

Piety and Spirituality

Words used to describe the realm of the unseen world are notoriously hard
to define. Yet it seems only fair to attempt some definition of two words
that I use frequently in this volume—piety and spirituality. I have chosen
to entitle the book Performing Piety because I believe that the process of
singing the liturgy is a morally formative act. In other words, through the
constant singing and speaking of religious texts, the nun enacts an under-
standing of what it means to be good, to live one’s life in accordance with
the desires of God. Repetition, and especially sung repetition, inscribes the
words upon the mind and heart in ways that even the rebellious have trou-
ble rejecting. Consequently the central monastic act of reciting the divine
office partakes of divine goodness in an active fashion.
In the introduction to their book Gender and Holiness, Samantha Riches
and Sarah Salih define piety as follows:

By “piety” we refer to a wide range of religious practices, both interior and

exterior. These may be continuous to—or even identical with—those of
sanctity, but the term “piety” allows us to include the activities and writings
of individuals who make no claim to more than ordinary holiness. These
pieties may take saints as exemplars but are not limited to such objects for
imitation.22

Piety in their view is a practice, an active response to demands of the spirit

rather than a belief or attitude.
Communal piety emerges from collective religious practices—chanting
the offices, singing grace before the meal, surrounding a dying member of
the community with sounds of psalms, processing on special holy days. All
of these activities help to form and create the communal expectations of
 INTRODUCTION 11

“right behavior”; that is, the events themselves perform piety in public and
audible ways. Music plays an important role in all of these practices, and
accordingly one major focus of this work is the close correlation between
musical practices and the performance of piety.
I believe that music also plays a critical role in the development of that
elusive quality called spirituality. A great many studies of English medieval
women focus particularly on this contribution by women mystics and
other writers of the later medieval period. Denis Renevy and Christiania
Whitehead detail a great many of these studies in the introduction to their
volume Writing Religious Women.23 Many of the discussions in the essays
that make up this book touch on liturgical matters. For example, in an essay
on Margery Kempe, Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa suggests that:

In liturgical ceremonies, the worshipper is separated from normal everyday

life and enabled to participate with others in a communal and transcendental
ritual through which he or she may be enriched and changed. Such a state of
liminality can be effected through the experience of Christian pilgrimage;
however, it is also accessible to congregations as they experience the liturgi-
cal rites which commemorate a saint’s feast day.24

Nuns and monks have the opportunity to participate in these rituals as part
of their everyday life. Thus they are constantly moved into this transcen-
dental, spiritual state through the daily liturgy. Within the monastic envi-
ronment, certain ceremonies and rituals emerge for specific occasions,
moving the nuns beyond the daily recitation of the office into a remem-
brance and experience of particular salvific events. Many of the Holy Week
services described in chapter 5 seem designed to move both the participants
and the observers into a deeper relationship with the divine.
As I use the term spirituality, I refer specifically to the realm of the direct
experience of God through ritual, reading, nature, or other experiences.25
A person’s or a community’s spirituality is composed of the sum total of
their experiences of the divine. Liturgy, as one specific place that aims to
move the participant closer to God, is the location of much spiritual
formation.
Music has remarkable powers to allow a direct experience of the divine,
bypassing the theological constructs of words or imbuing those words with
a new layer of meaning and nuance. As we examine the musical practices
of nunneries we can see the potential for effect on the spirituality of both
the community and the individual.
Many of the early Christian writers fear music and its potential for mov-
ing people away from God rather than toward God. Augustine’s well-
known fear that he will be so caught up in the enjoyment of music that he
12 PERFORMING PIETY

will be diverted from loving God testifies to the spiritual power of music.
Most medieval discussions of music, such as that in Chapter 19 of the
Benedictine Rule, stress the importance of believing in the heart what one
sings and point at the danger of exulting in one’s own voice. Yet in their
very caution, these sources only further emphasize the potent spiritual
power of music.

The Shape of the Book

In this book I cover a broad range of extant materials relating to the
liturgical-musical life of English medieval nuns. I have used both the list-
ings by N.R. Ker and David Bell as starting points for locating manuscripts
associated with specific nunneries.26 I have also explored numerous pub-
lished editions of bishop’s registers and examined their pontifical manu-
scripts. I am greatly indebted to the many British scholars and societies (e.g.,
the Canterbury and York Society) that have made it their life’s work to
make these important historical documents available to a wider audience.
Chapter 1 examines the basic monastic rules, especially the Benedictine
Rule, and the several Middle English versions written expressly for nuns.
These documents, like any rule books, express an ideal state of communal
life and, for our purposes, liturgy. Consequently they are formative for an
understanding of what should happen in the nunnery. The several transla-
tions of the rule into Middle English and their adaptations to female houses
offer additional insights into slightly different expectations for nuns and
monks, and into the subtle ways in which apparent “translations” also
appear to exegete the rules for the nuns. The central understanding that
emerges from this study is that singing the divine office is at the core of
monastic life across a wide temporal range and largely irrespective of the
monastic order.
The second chapter focuses on the specific musical responsibilities of the
abbess, cantrix, sacristan, and weekly liturgical leader (ebdomadaria). The
Barking Ordinal, the only extant ordinal from an English nunnery, pro-
vides a great many insights into the work entailed in each of these posi-
tions.27 The Additions to the Rule from Syon Abbey also offers a wealth of
detail for that Bridgettine house.28 The work of these nuns sets the tone for
the musical rendition of the liturgy in both its general parameters and its
concrete manifestations. Nuns serving as abbess and cantrix have the
opportunity to shape the liturgical practices of their houses, to create new
liturgical expressions, and to help find the balance between the church uni-
versal and its local manifestations.
In chapter 3, we turn from these idealized discussions to a consideration
of the tantalizing extant bits and pieces of reality—injunctions from
 INTRODUCTION 13

bishop’s visitations, inventories of nunnery goods, correspondence

between nunneries and others, and architectural remains. From these we
work at adding tiles to our mosaic of the musical life of nunneries. The
very detailed minutiae of bishops’ visitations, for example, tell us many
things about both normative expectations and frequent failures. Drunken
nuns, unpleasant and incompetent leaders, and unruly children all arise to
mediate the somewhat idyllic portrayal of nunnery practices that emerges
from the rules. The complaints also reinforce our understanding of the
importance of singing to monastic life.
The remainder of the book focuses on manuscript evidence of musical
activity in nunneries. In chapter 4 we examine psalters, books of hours, and
a few other manuscripts with musical notation. Of special interest are the
several noted (i.e., with musical notation) versions of the Office of the
Dead and the Commendation of the Soul. Additionally this chapter exam-
ines the evidence for the performance of polyphony in nunneries, espe-
cially the amazing constellation of evidence for musical instruction and
polyphony from Wherwell Abbey.
Chapter 5 examines processional practices in the nunneries with a special
focus on the rituals of Holy Week. Several manuscript sources preserve
these remarkably dramatic services allowing us to study the Palm Sunday
processionals, the washing of the altars as well as feet on Maundy Thursday,
the adoration of the cross on Good Friday, and the liturgical dramas of the
resurrection. The processional practices most clearly demonstrate the cen-
tral thesis of this book that the performance of the liturgy inscribes a par-
ticular piety upon the body of the nun through the sounds, sights, and
actions of the rituals. The Holy Week rituals offer many opportunities for
nuns to creatively engage the established rituals of the church. The nuns at
Barking Abbey emphasize the role of Mary Magdalene through their
incorporation of many of her chants in the enactment of the Maundy. The
varied adaptations of the Visitatio Sepulchri by different houses demonstrate
one particular area of this interaction of anonymous creativity with the
ordered life of the monastic.
An exploration of the dramatic nature of the service for the
Consecration of Virgins follows in chapter 6. This service is entirely differ-
ent from the corresponding service for monks and offers insight into the
church’s understanding of the nun’s vocation. By the later Middle Ages,
this ritual includes explicit rubrics designed to accent the dramatic possibil-
ities of this wedding of the virgin to Christ. Here we see vividly the ways
in which the church inscribes a self-identity on the individual nun. Yet the
incredible richness of the words and images of this service probably allow
for each nun to build an identity that is truly her own. The resonances from
the liturgies for St. Agnes and St. Agatha, as well as the repetition of this
14 PERFORMING PIETY

service for newly consecrated nuns, allows each individual to continually

reconstruct her own understanding of what it means to be the bride of
Christ.
The final two chapters of the book are studies of the musical practices in
two large, well-endowed houses—Barking Abbey and Syon Abbey—the
alpha and omega of English nunneries. Barking, founded in the seventh
century, is one of the crown jewels of the Benedictine order. Syon Abbey,
the last house established in England (1415), is the only representative of
the Bridgettine order in England. Due to the relatively large numbers of
surviving manuscripts from each of these institutions, it is possible to offer
these portraits of musical life at the end of the Middle Ages. From these
portraits we can glimpse the strength of the everyday, normative practices.
When compared with the stellar creative output of Hildegard of Bingen,
the English scene might seem to be lacking. Yet I believe it would be a
mistake to deny the immense creative contributions made by many an
anonymous medieval monastic, female or male. The evidence from
Barking and Syon helps us get a sense of just what those contributions
might be.
Much of the work of this book is descriptive—that is it attempts to
portray as clearly as possible the information available about particular
houses and their practices in order to create this mosaic of musical life. But
description always comes with a layer of interpretation as well. I write as an
Episcopalian and therefore not a Roman Catholic; I approach my work
from a historical perspective with a feminist eye; and I write as someone
who has participated in church music for over forty-five years. I have not
been immune to the power struggles of the church nor the frustration of
lousy musical performances. Yet, my own spirituality has been deeply
formed by the music I have sung. I find it hard to believe that medieval nuns
were not similarly formed by the constant performance of an extensive body
of beautiful and transcendent chant.
CHAPTER 1

THE RELIGIOUS RULES

And lokis, when ye sing, Qat yure herte acorde wid yure voice; Qan sing ye riht. Lauerd, Qu giue
vs sua vre seruise at do, to Qe felazscap of angels Qat we may cum.

Kock, Middle-English Versions

And look, when you sing, that your heart accords with your voice; then you sing correctly. Lord,
you give us our service to do that we may come into the fellowship of the angels.

The rule of a monastic community sets the framework and theological

understanding of shared life. St. Benedict expresses the relationship of litur-
gical song to religious belief in the nineteenth chapter of his rule, including
the emphasis on the importance of agreement between the heart and voice.
A popular chorister’s prayer even today admonishes each singer to “take
heed that what you sing with your lips you believe in your heart and prac-
tice in your life.” Thus the expected results of the choral recitation of the
offices were and are the creation and nurture of a core piety that bears the
fruits of the spirit. Through the daily constant chanting of the psalms,
antiphons, and responsories, each monastic internalizes the creeds and
scriptures of the faith in a deeply resonant song that echoes in the spirit
even when the actual sound dies away. In this way the monk or nun
follows St. Paul’s dictum to pray unceasingly.
The extant monastic rules from English nunneries offer insight not only
into this core understanding of the vocation of a nun, but also into many of
the small details of communal life that manifest this central commitment.
Since virtually all of the extant rules are translations into the vernacular, they
also offer us glimpses into the complex ways in which gender expectations
shape the understanding of religious tradition. In this inquiry, our focus is
the evidence from the rules for the musical-liturgical life of the nunneries.
How are changing liturgical patterns reflected in the later translations? How
do the translations reflect the different expectations of nuns and monks
although both ostensibly follow the “same” rule? These documents offer a
16 PERFORMING PIETY

specific part of the picture—the part that is least changeable and most con-
cerned with the enduring values of a well-regulated liturgical life. Thus
while we will focus on many of the small differences among the extant rules,
we will also see that all versions of the rule express the expectation that choir
nuns will participate in the eight daily offices on a regular basis.
Groups of people set apart to pursue a rigorously spiritual life offer both
great opportunity and a distinct threat to the established church. From the
early days of the church, both the desert communities and cloistered urban
groups elicit concern from the official hierarchy of the church. Indeed,
from the earliest days of the organized church the bishops seek to take some
control over these groups. Religious women always present an even
greater challenge due to the perception of their need for protection and the
requirement for male priests.1 The period up through the tenth century
witnesses a wide variety of rules for nunneries, both specific regulations for
individual communities and adaptations of male monastic rules to female
communities. By the tenth century, the Benedictine Rule clearly eclipses
the others in popularity and use although it in no way holds a monopoly.
Among English nunneries founded after the tenth century those adopting
the Benedictine Rule are most numerous, especially since not only the
Benedictines but also the Cistercians rely on that rule as the basis for their
community life. The “Isabella Rule” from the London Franciscan house
and the rule for the one English Bridgettine house, Syon Abbey, further
expand our understanding of specifically English rules. Table 1.1 lists the
extant sources of monastic rules associated with English nunneries other
than Syon. Of these seven extant rules, only the Wintney Version includes
the Latin text adapted for nuns. The others all translate the rule into the
vernacular language. While there were undoubtedly many copies of the
rule in Latin in use in the nunneries, only these seven versions are extant.
From these rules, adaptations either of the Latin original or a different ver-
nacular version, we can see both the immense adaptability of the rule and
some of the attitudes the translators hold toward nuns. Since Benedict
requires that the nuns read a portion of the rule communally each day in
the chapter house, each nunnery should have had at least one copy of the
rule.2 The nuns’ understanding of the rule proceeds from this repetitive re-
reading. Thus translations of the rule assure that the nuns will actually com-
prehend the theological and practical aspects of their basic community
document. Small changes in wording carry greater significance in this pub-
licly read document than they may in a work of devotional literature.
Julie Ann Smith traces the development of rules for nuns up through
the tenth century. She emphasizes the themes of greater enclosure for
nuns and the effect that the increasing prominence of the mass has on
nuns. In her view, one primary function of enclosure is to keep the world
 RELIGIOUS RULES 17

Table 1.1 Extant Monastic Rules from English Nunneries

MS Designation Date Title House

London BL Cotton 13th century The Rule of St. Benedict Wintney Priory
Claudius D.iii in Latin and Early
Middle Englisha
Library of Congress 4 15th century Anglo-Norman Proseb Lyminsterc
Version
London BL 15th century Northern Prose Versiond No attribution
Lansdowne 378
London BL Cotton 15th century Northern Metrical Versione No attribution
Vespasian A.xxv
Oxford Bodleian Bodl 15th century The Rewle of sustris London Minories
585 Menouresses enclosidf
Cambridge UL AB 1491 Caxton Abstractg No attribution
4.64
Oxford Bodleian Pr. 1517 Bishop Fox’s Versionh St. Michael’s,
Bk Arch A.d. 15 Stamford

Notes:This table does not include sources from Syon Abbey. They will be considered in chapter 8. Frank
Henderson maintains a website devoted to feminine versions of monastic rules at http://www.compusmart.
ab.ca/fhenders/religiousrulesforwomen.htm and http://www.osb.org/aba/rb/feminine/index.htm (accessed
February 19, 2005). This wonderful site includes the texts for several of the rules not only from English
sources but also from Continental sources.
a
Edited by A. Schröer, Die Winteney-Version der Regula S. Benedicti, Lateinisch und Englisch (Halle: Max
Niemeyer, 1888).
b
This manuscript has not been published.
c
Jeanne Krochalis, “The Benedictine Rule for Nuns: Library of Congress, MS 4,” Manuscripta 30 (1986):
21–34 argues for an association with the house at Lyminster.
d
Kock, Middle-English, 1–47.
e
Kock, Middle-English, 48–118.
f
Published in R.W. Chambers, ed., A Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book, and W.W. Seton, ed., Two Fifteenth-
Century Franciscan Rules, Early English Text Society, o.s. 148 (1914; reprint, Oxford: University Press,
1962), 81–124.
g
Kock, Middle-English, 119–40. There is also a copy of this volume in the Pierpont Morgan Library
collection. That version has the signatures of two women (owners) but has not been traced to a particular
house.
h
Barry Collett, ed., Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England With an Edition of Richard Fox’s Translation of
the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517 (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2002), 81–165.

out, preserving the safety of women both physically and spiritually from
forces of evil. Enclosure also serves to keep the nun in—to restrict her influ-
ence on the world around her. As Smith notes, “Complete enclosure was
the only means of ensuring the virginal status of its members and their
reputations for chastity, but the very act of enclosure also placed the sisters
in danger from interference and exploitation by unscrupulous laity and
clergy who were supposed to be their protectors. Enclosure became a para-
doxical situation in which the sisters could never entirely maintain their
18 PERFORMING PIETY

independence or control their own interests.”3 Furthermore, nunneries are

small businesses as well as houses of worship. Nuns need to collect rents on
their properties, purchase food, hire people to work, and generally manage
a small estate. Enclosure rules often work against the management of the
nunnery.
This same paradoxical relationship also impacts the liturgical life of nuns.
Nuns can perform the opus dei with no men present since the hours do not
require a priest; nuns cannot however celebrate mass without a priest.
Smith suggests that “over the period the expansion of the monastic liturgy
and increased focus on the Mass as votive offering for patrons undermined
nunnery existence by excluding the sisters from what was becoming the
central work of a monastery.”4 While evidence suggests that in nunneries
the Office of the Dead often fulfills the prayer needs of patrons, Smith nev-
ertheless points out the implicit liturgical requirement for the constant
presence of priests within the cloister. The monastic rules attempt to bal-
ance these competing needs, new rules often arising from a perception that
the preexisting versions are inadequate.

Pre-Eleventh-Century Sources
There are no definitive English nunnery rules remaining from the early
Middle Ages. From Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, written in the eighth cen-
tury, we learn that founders of monastic establishments often provided a
rule for these houses. Bede is generally favorable toward the imposition of
Roman rituals on the British church of the seventh century, so his descrip-
tions tend to emphasize liturgical regularity. As Bede tells it, Erkenwald
provided his sister Ethelburga with a rule for Barking Abbey around the
year 675:

Hic sane, priusquam episcopus factus esset, duo praeclara monasteria, unum
sibi alterum sorori suae Aedilburgae, construxerat, quod utrumque regu-
laribus disciplinis optime instituerat.5
[Before he was made bishop, he founded two famous monasteries, one for
himself and the other for his sister AEthelburh, and established an excellent
form of monastic Rule and discipline in both.]6

Unfortunately, Bede does not describe more specifically what this rule
entailed. He implies that the rule was similar in the two houses and that
Erkenwald himself created the rule. Bede similarly emphasizes discipline in
his description of the reign of Hildelith, second abbess of Barking.

Successit autem Aedilburgi in officium abbatissae deuota Deo famula

nomine Hildilid, multisque annis, id est usque ad ultimam senectutem,
 RELIGIOUS RULES 19

eidem monasterio strenuissime et in obseruantia disciplinae regularis et in

earum quae ad communes usus pertinent rerum prouidentia praefuit.7
[A devoted servant of God named Hildelith succeeded AEthelburh in the
office of abbess and presided over the monastery for many years until she was
extremely old. She was most energetic in the observance of the discipline of
the Rule and in the provision of all such things as were necessary for the
common use.]8

This description further amplifies Bede’s emphasis on “disciplinae regu-

laris” to include the things that are necessary for the common use.
Common life necessitates the existence of a rule that is fair and regular.
Although we do not know if there was a unique rule for this abbey or if
they used a preexisting one, various descriptions of Bede’s indicate that
they observed a regular liturgical life that included the singing of matins.9
Bede’s description of Hilda, abbess of Hartlepool in the seventh century,
credits her with bringing a well-regulated monastic life to two monasteries.
He writes:

Praelata autem regimini monasterii illius famula Christi Hild, mox hoc reg-
ulari uita per omnia, prout a doctis uiris discere poterat, ordinare curabat.
Nam et episcopus Aidan et quique nouerant eam religiosi, pro insita ei sapi-
entia et amore diuini famulatus, sedulo eam uisitare, obnixe amare, diligen-
ter erudire solebant.10
[Hild, the handmaiden of Christ, was appointed to rule the monastery and at
once set about establishing there a Rule of life in all respects like that which
she had been taught by many learned men; for Bishop Aidan and other
devout men who knew her visited her frequently, instructed her assiduously,
and loved her heartily for her innate wisdom and her devotion to the service
of God.]11

In the seventh-century Anglo-Saxon culture, the boundary lines between

men and women are more fluid than in later centuries. Many houses
include both nuns and monks; men and women alike respect abbesses for
their spiritual and mental wisdom. Hilda both learns from and imparts wis-
dom to learned men of the day, allowing her to establish a rule for her
abbey. Bede, at least, clearly relishes a sense of regular discipline and order
despite the lack of one universal rule.
Extensive Viking raids in the ninth century destroy many of the early
monastic houses. Late in the century, under the leadership of King Alfred
(reigned 871–99), new houses arise. By the second half of the tenth cen-
tury, King Edgar (reigned 959–75) recognizes the need for a regularization
of the burgeoning monastic movement and calls together a synod of bish-
ops, abbots, and abbesses around the year 970. The Regularis Concordia
20 PERFORMING PIETY

results from this meeting. The full title of the work, Regularis Concordia
Anglicae Nationis Monachorum Sanctimonialiumque (The Monastic Agreement
of the Monks and Nuns of the English Nation), gives a clear indication of
its purpose—Edgar wants to be sure that the religious observances of the
country are uniform. This document affirms the universal adoption of the
Benedictine Rule by the monastic houses and adds detailed liturgical
instructions. While the document itself uses male language (abbot, monk)
throughout, the prologue includes some special instructions for the protec-
tion of nuns. Most notably, Edgar gives his queen charge over the nuns
while he himself watches over the monks “ut uidelicet mas maribus, fem-
ina feminis, sine ullo suspicionis scrupulo subueniret”12 (so that he himself
helping the men and his consort helping the women there should be no
cause for any breath of scandal13).
As we noted previously, the concern in dealing with nuns is not only to
protect them in actuality but also to remove any possible suspicion of
wrongdoing. Many of the most influential nunneries in England presum-
ably participated in the synod, among them Barking, Shaftesbury, Romsey,
Wilton, Wherwell, and Nunnaminster.14 This synod marks the formation
of a Benedictine identity among the nunneries in England—an identity
that would continue to mark the majority of English female monastic
houses throughout the medieval period.

The Benedictine Rule

Benedict wrote his rule for monks in the first half of the sixth century. As
the rule was adapted for nuns in subsequent years, it reflected only basic
changes of abbess for abbot, nun for monk, and so on. In some sense, then,
nuns and monks living under the rule had the same responsibilities and
duties, especially in liturgical matters. These included the chanting of the
seven day-offices and the night office of matins daily with the entire psalter
spread among these services. Chapters 8–18 of the rule are an explanation
of the divine office with careful attention to both liturgical and practical
matters. Benedict sets out the order of matins with careful attention to sea-
sonal changes, which alter the time of daybreak. Thus in the summer lauds
is to follow matins, “ut paruissimo interuallo quo sorores ad necessaria
nature exeant”15 (after a very short interval when the sisters may go out for
the necessities of nature)—a supreme example of the practicality of the
rule! The rule also introduces those who play a leadership role in the
liturgy—the abbess, the cantrix, the priest, and the ebdomadaria.16 In
fact, Chapter 11, which describes the liturgy for Sunday matins, is a prime
place to compare the male, Latin version of the rule with versions for nuns.
In the Latin of the Wintney Version for nuns, the tasks allotted to the
 RELIGIOUS RULES 21

abbot in the male version are divided between the abbess and the priest.
The abbess holds the primary liturgical responsibility as she chooses the
canticles, gives the blessing, begins the Te Deum, and, finally, intones the
Te decet laus. The priest reads the gospel lesson, a role reserved for priests
and deacons in the mass but not in the offices. The presence of the priest at
Sunday matins adds a layer of ecclesiastical importance to that day even
though the priest’s duties are minimal.17
The Benedictine Rule also sets out the structure for the seven day hours
(lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline), examines the dis-
tribution of psalms in detail, and offers a theological understanding for the
recitation of the divine office. In Chapter 19 Benedict expresses an explicit
basic theology of religious singing:

Ubique credimus diuinam esse presentiam, et “oculos Domini in omni loco

speculari bonos et malos”; maxime tamen hoc sine aliqua dubitatione
credamus, cum ad opus diuinum assistimus. Ideo semper memores simus,
quod ait propheta: “Seruite Domino in timore,” et iterum: “Psallite sapien-
ter,” et: “In conspectu angelorum psallam tibi.”—Ergo consideremus,
qualiter oporteat nos in conspectu Diuinitatis et angelorum eius esse; et sic
stemus ad psallandum, ut mens nostra concordet uoci nostre.18
[We believe that the divine is always present and that “the eyes of God
observe the good and evil in every place”; we should believe this the most
without doubt when we attend the divine office. Therefore let us always
remember what the prophet said: “Serve the Lord in fear” and further “Sing
wisely” and “In the sight of the angels I will sing to you.” Therefore, let us
consider how we ought to behave in the sight of God and his angels; and
thus let us remain in singing the psalms so that our mind and our voice are
in harmony.]

This passage may be the single most important passage in the Benedictine
Rule regarding the performance of the liturgy. It presents Benedict’s safe-
guard against letting either aesthetic considerations or personal pride block
the primary purpose of the divine office—the worship of God. Put in
another way, this short chapter of the rule defines the Benedictine aes-
thetic. Beauty is found in the correlation of mind and heart, in the sense of
God’s presence in worship, and in the behavior of monks and nuns before
God. Thus the standards that should be used to “judge” worship are not
musical or liturgical standards but spiritual ones. Indeed, the place of wor-
ship is often understood even as a battleground in the fight with the forces
of evil. Christopher Page suggests, for instance, that in the twelfth century,
such notions are an important part of the Cistercian understanding of
monastic life. He comments, “In this battleground with the supernatural,
the Cistercians in their choir, performing the ritual which was the centre of
22 PERFORMING PIETY

their monastic life, placed themselves in the front line.”19 One important
power of chant is to ward off the devil and fill the space with the holy,
something that is achieved through the unity of the heart with the voice in
singing.
Benedict’s challenge reflects a medieval, Boethian understanding of
human music as a reflection of the harmony of our own bodies and of the
universe itself. The singing of the office theoretically helps to “tune” the
nuns’ souls.20 Benedict also suggests that the monastic serve God “in fear.”
Nuns and monks are, in fact, subject to punishment for mistakes incurred
in the recitation of the office. The rule specifically calls for children to
receive a beating for their mistakes.21 So in this brief chapter, Benedict sug-
gests that the church is the site of the most intense divine scrutiny, a place
where nuns’ virtues and faults will be magnified. Certainly the optimal state
is one in which the heart and mind are in accord. Even the negative state,
however, is understood as a path to God. By subjecting herself to penance
the nun can increase her humility and move toward a deeper knowledge of
the divine. Benedict is supremely practical and recognizes that sloppiness in
performance may be an indication that the monastic is not serving God to
the best of his or her ability. Thus nuns who make mistakes in the recital of
the psalms, responsories, antiphons, or lessons are to abase themselves in
front of the whole choir, lest they receive an even greater punishment for
not voluntarily noting their faults.
Other parts of the rule that give information about procedures relating
to the choir services are contained within the chapters dealing with faults
and punishments. From these parts of the rule it is clear that Benedict
attaches great importance to the particular order in which the nuns stand in
the choir; this order is determined by the time of a nun’s profession and
reflects the hierarchy of the nunnery. Therefore, it is considered a punish-
ment to be made either to stand apart from the other nuns or to stand at the
lowest end. In all these matters the decision as to the severity of the pun-
ishment rests with the abbess. Even offenses unrelated to the communal
worship of the convent may be punished by the loss of rank in the choir.
A nun who commits a grave fault may lose many privileges, including not
only the right to stand in her accustomed place, but also the opportunity to
take any sort of leadership in the services.
The Latin version of the rule found in the Wintney manuscript does tai-
lor the contents of Chapter 62 “De Sacerdotis Monasterii” to a nunnery. In
the original rule, this chapter describes the role of a priest within the abbey
making it clear that except for priestly functions he takes his place among
the monks in the order in which he enters the monastery. The Wintney
Version replaces this information with information about the relationship
of the priests to the nuns:
 RELIGIOUS RULES 23

Si qua abbatissa presbiterum uel diaconem ad celebrandum missarum solemp-

nia monasterium ingredi permiserit, tales eligat qui digni sunt sacerdotio
fungi. Qui sint patientes et humiles, caueant elationem et superbiam; nec ibi
quicquam presumat preter offitium altaris agere, aut cum sororibus colloqui,
et non ibi amplius immorentur, nisi tantum in missarum celebrationibus.
Quibus rite et deuote celebratis, statim foras egrediantur.22
[If any abbess will allow a priest or deacon to enter the monastery to cele-
brate mass, she should choose ones who are worthy to be engaged in the
priesthood—those who are patient and humble, who avoid pride and arro-
gance, nor anyone who would presume to do something outside of the
office of the altar, or talk with the sisters and not stay there except only in the
celebration of the mass. When these things have been duly and devoutly cel-
ebrated, they should at once leave.]

This section sets forth clearly the power of the abbess to control which
priests can enter the nunnery and what qualifications she should expect
of them.

Translations of the Benedictine Rule

The translation of the Benedictine Rule into Middle English serves
ostensibly to make the contents of the rule accessible to those who lacked
a good knowledge of Latin. All of the extant Middle English versions, with
the exception of the Caxton Rule, are “feminine” adaptations, so they
change both content and language of the Latin original. Even the slight
changes made in the Latin rendering of the rule influence its meaning and
reflect gender roles and expectations.23 In general, the portions of the rule
dealing with hospitality and work show more modifications than the litur-
gical sections. Translations from Latin into Middle English offer an even
more powerful medium than the Latin nunnery versions to change and
modify the original intent even while claiming an exact rendering. Nancy
Bradley Warren, in her excellent work on translations, suggests that

In later medieval versions of monastic rules for women the process of transla-
tion from Latin to the vernacular is, like the religious identities these rules help
shape, Janus-faced; it is ambiguous in its socially transformative functions.
Translation works to shift boundaries and to shore them up. The vernacular
acts both as servant of orthodoxy and as agent of subversion, serving to
empower as well as to constrain, and sometimes doing both at once.24

Translation is “Janus-faced” because it implies a lower educational level for

women than for men at the same time that it purportedly supports women.
As is evident in the section on nunnery libraries, women were major
24 PERFORMING PIETY

consumers of translated spiritual writings. While this trend may have orig-
inated in a lower level of education, it put nuns in touch with the vanguard
of later medieval religious thinking. So, in approaching the Middle English
versions of the Benedictine Rule we must look for both the pitfalls and the
strengths in these works.
Most of these rules date from the period after the enactment of
Arundel’s Constitutions in 1409. These constitutions signal a radical shift
from the fourteenth-century climate that engenders many theological
works in Middle English to the more reactionary fifteenth-century concern
with eradicating Lollard and other heresies. Nicholas Watson argues that
“all but the most pragmatic religious writing could come to be seen, by the
early fifteenth century, as dangerous: a perception that led inexorably to a
by and large successful attempt to inhibit the further composition of most
kinds of vernacular theology.”25 Translations of the Rule of St. Benedict
presumably fall into a safer category—the mere translation of a respected,
“orthodox,” rule into Middle English for the nuns. Of the vernacular rules
from nunneries, one falls well before the fourteenth-century high point of
vernacular theology, five during the fifteenth century in the wake of the
constitutions, and one in the early sixteenth century influenced by human-
ist values. As we shall see, the cultural and religious climate impinges on
even the act of translation.

The Wintney Early Middle English Version

The earliest English translations of the Benedictine Rule are considered to
be the work of Bishop Aethelwold (c. 908–84). These Anglo-Saxon trans-
lations, none of which is specifically for nuns, exist in five manuscripts.
Mechthild Gretsch argues that the Wintney Version, preserved in a manu-
script dating from the thirteenth century, draws upon the earlier Anglo-
Saxon versions for this translation into Early Middle English, quite possibly
with another version or versions in between.26 Since the work is written for
an abbey, it may originate in a different nunnery, quite possibly one nearby
in Hampshire or, as Gretsch suggests, in one of the abbeys from which the
nuns at Wintney drew priests.27 The author seeks to interpret and expand
the liturgical directions of the rule for the nuns. Instead of just listing the
number of the psalm, for example, the translator inserts the Latin incipit. In
the instructions for weekday matins service, the translator expands the
instructions to sing a canticle each day according to the Roman usage by
specifying the exact canticle for each weekday. The interpreter’s concern
seems to be that the nuns know precisely what should be sung.
Translations also often serve to bring a document up-to-date. The cele-
bration of the mass is mentioned very sparingly in Benedict’s original
 RELIGIOUS RULES 25

Table 1.2 Terminology from the Wintney Rule

Latin Term Early Middle English Latin Term Early Middle English

vigilia noctium uhtsang antiphona antaefne

matutinum dae{redsang responsorium repsa
prima primsang uersus fers
tercia undernsang letanie haelsunge
sexta middae{sang benedictio bletsunge
nona nonsang ympnum lofsang or ymne
vespera aefensang psalmus sealme
completorium nihtsang cantrix singestre

version. As the mass becomes an increasingly more important part of

monastic life, we find new interpolations in some of the translated versions.
In this edition, “In sanctorum uero festivitatibus uel omnibus solempnitat-
ibus”28 becomes “on Godes hal{ena freolstydum { on aealcan odrum
massedae{um”29 (“On the feasts of saints or on all solemn days” translates
as “On God’s holy feast days and on all other mass days”). The translator
equates a solemn feast day with a day on which the community celebrates
mass, and presumably one on which the nuns receive communion. One
notable change occurs in the passage about matins on Sunday where the
abbess begins the Te decet laus. The Middle English version reads “aend
Paraefter be{inne se preost: ‘Te decet laus’ ”30 (and thereafter the priest
begins “te decet laus”). Here the vernacular version distinctly changes the
Latin allowing the priest to encroach slightly on the liturgical position of
the abbess.
From a liturgical-musical standpoint the manuscript also provides a clear
index of Early Middle English terminology for the offices and their ritual
components as table 1.2 demonstrates. The Early Middle English title of
each hour emphasizes the musical component through the use of the word
“sang” at the end. “Aefensang” is, of course, the forerunner of the con-
temporary Anglican equivalent “Evensong.” Although medieval terminol-
ogy is inconsistent, this document gives basic terms, some of which
changed over the course of the Middle Ages. For example, cantrix is later
more commonly rendered as “chantress.”

The Anglo-Norman Prose Version

The fifteenth-century Middle English version of the rule preserved in
Library of Congress, MS 4, is apparently a translation not from the Latin
but from a prior French translation of the rule. The rule ends with the sen-
tence: “Here endeth the rule of seint Benet that out of frensch tunge take
26 PERFORMING PIETY

is and in englissch set”31 (Here ends the rule of St. Benedict that has been
taken out of the French language and translated into English). Krochalis
suggests that this manuscript may be associated with the Benedictine prior
of Lyminster in Sussex,32 although this view is not shared by all scholars.33
Like the Northern Prose Version, this translation starts each chapter with a
description of the contents of this portion of the rule. Thus, for example,
Chapter 19 begins “In Pis sentence us techeP seint Benet how we schullen
bere us whanne we beP in Pe church at service” (In this sentence St.
Benedict teaches us how we should carry ourselves when we are in the
church at service). Unfortunately the translator does not include most of
the liturgical material in Chapters 11 through 18, compressing them into a
single paragraph on folio 13v of the manuscript.

The Northern Prose Version

The early fifteenth-century Middle English version of the rule commonly
referred to as the “Northern Prose Version” (London BL Lansdown 378)
has not been attributed to any particular house of nuns; nevertheless, the
rule is clearly written for religious women with the exception of the first
two chapters where the translator uses male forms of words (e.g., abbot).
Most chapters of this translation begin with a short introductory sentence
in which the author invokes St. Benedict’s name and close with a brief
prayer. Chapter 19, cited earlier in the Latin version, is a good example of
the translation process in this work:

In Pis sentence tellis sain benet hu ye sal do yure office, when ye cume in-to
Pe kyrke. Ye sal true Pat god may se in alle stedis baPe vyl & gude. Ye az at
say yure seruise als ye stode by-fore god, wyd als gude deuocyon, And think
wat te prophete saide: “Seruite domino etc.—Ye sal serue god wyd ahe, &
here hym wyd dowte.” And in oPir stede sais he: “Psallite—ye sal singe god
wyslike”; Als haly write sais: “In conspectu etc.—Lauerd, I sing to Pe in Pe
siht of Pin angels to loue Pe.” loke ye do yure seruise als ye stode by-fore
god almihti. And lokis, when ye sing, Pat yure herte acorde wid yure voice;
Pan sing ye riht. Lauerd, Pu giue vs sua vre seruise at do, to Pe felazscap of
angels Pat we may cum.34
[St. Benedict tells in this sentence how you shall do the office when you
come into the church. You shall believe that God can see all things both evil
and good. You should say your service, as you stand before God, with all
good devotion, and think what the prophets said: “Seruite domino—You
shall serve God with awe and hear him with fear.” And in another place he
says, “Psallite—you shall sing to God wisely.” As Holy Scripture says, “In
conspectu—Lord, I sing to you in the sight of your angels to love you.”
Look that you do your service as if you stood before God Almighty. And
 RELIGIOUS RULES 27

look, when you sing, that your heart accords with your voice; then you sing
correctly. Lord, you give us our service to do that we may come into the
fellowship of the angels.]

As Warren has pointed out in her analysis of portions of this rule, the trans-
lator implies in the opening line that what follows is precisely a translation
from the Latin even though it is not. By this technique the author asserts
the authority not only of Benedict but of those who know and understand
Latin, particularly the clergy and those in ecclesial authority.35 In this par-
ticular chapter the nuns anticipate hearing directly what Benedict has to say
about worship. The passage actually never mentions the “opus divinum” of
the Latin. Even the translation from scripture is slightly skewed as “in con-
spectu angelorum psallam tibi” becomes “Lauerd, I sing to Pe in Pe siht of
Pin angels to loue Pe.” The language also takes on a much more imperative
tone in the Middle English. “Ergo consideremus” becomes “loke ye do
yure seruise.” The final prayer moves the understanding of God’s presence
in worship to a more eschatological tone, invoking the service of God here
on earth as a means of reaching heaven. The analysis of this short passage
makes it abundantly clear that the nuns should beware of believing
that they are hearing the words of Benedict. They are instead listening to the
interpretation of Benedict’s words aimed at an audience (nuns) that the
translator perceives to be less worthy, less literate, and less able than monks.
The paradoxical nature of translation remains: the nuns, assuming they
did not understand Latin well, have far more access to the rule of their
order through its daily reading in the vernacular, yet they do not really
get Benedict but rather a version deemed appropriate for women by the
translator.36
While some aspects of the translation appear to work against the nun’s
involvement in the hierarchy, the Northern Prose Version offers some very
specific regulations for the relationships of priests to the nuns. Nunnery
rules usually replace Benedict’s discussion of priests in Chapter 60 with
comments regarding canonesses. In this version, however, the translator
remains close to the original thus giving the abbess control over the priest’s
ability to say mass and to participate in the community.

Bot to{-whePir sal Pe howse be grauntid him, And recaiue benicun, and
singe his messe, yef Pabbes cumandis him.37
[But nevertheless he shall be allowed to enter the house and receive a bene-
diction and sing his mass, if the abbess commands him thus.]

The abbess has, as it were, the power to hire and fire the priests. She must
accept them and bless them, an important role reversal since priests usually
28 PERFORMING PIETY

give the blessings. As in the Wintney Version, Chapter 62 similarly

includes information that varies from the Latin original. Rather than
describe the priest’s place in the order of monks, the author adds this
advice: “And Pinke Pat he ne come noht to Pe kirke, bot til godis seruise.
And yef Pe cuuent wille, & Pabes consentis Par-to, Pai mai auance hym for
Pe godenes of his life”38 (And it is suitable that he does not enter the church
until the time of God’s service. And if the convent wants and the abbess
consents to it, they may advance him because of the goodness of his life).
The convent needs the priest to say mass, but the nuns also need to main-
tain a separation from men. Thus, the rule restricts the priest’s right to enter
the church to specific times. The convent, through the power of the
abbess, has the authority to keep him or to dismiss him. The priest also
makes no appearance, in this version of the rule, in the Sunday matins ser-
vice. Instead the abbess assumes the entire leadership: reading the gospels,
intoning chants, and blessing the nuns.39 The translator of the rule may par-
ticipate in a somewhat patronizing attitude toward nuns as needing to hear
the rule in English, but does give to the abbess just as full an authority over
priests and over her community as an abbot has.

The Northern Metrical Version

If the Northern Prose Version manipulates the Latin in many instances, the
Northern Metrical Version (London BL Cotton Vespasian A.xxv), from
the mid-fifteenth century, is an even less exact translation. This versified
rendering of the rule sacrifices completeness and exactness to the charms of
a poetic rendering. One can easily imagine a nun who heard this read reg-
ularly walking around the rest of the day with the verses going, unbidden,
through her mind. Antha Spreckelmeyer suggests that this version may
even have been intended to counteract the portrait of the prioress in
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.40 Certainly some of the verse is written in the
common Middle English lyrical structure of rhyming couplets in iambic
tetrameter. The Lay Folks Mass Book, from the fourteenth century, contains
similar rhyming passages in offering a commentary upon mass for the
“lewed” or unlettered people.41
The author of the metrical version of the rule begins with a prologue to
the normal prologue of the rule. The text implies, once again, that the
words included here are an exact translation of the Latin, a fact that is clearly
disproved on comparing the versions. In the prologue the author writes:

Bott tyll women to mak it couth

Pat leris no latyn in Par {outh,
In ingles is it ordand here,
 RELIGIOUS RULES 29

So Pat Pay may it lightly lere.

For ilkon Pat Par-to er vun
Er haldyn it clerly for to kun
And to fulfill it att Par might
In word and dede both day and nyght.42
[But to women to make it known
That learn no Latin in their youth,
It is provided in English here,
So that they may easily learn.
For each one who comes to it
Is bound to know it clearly
And to fulfill it if they may
In word and deed both night and day.]

The author/translator is indicating very clearly that the work is being trans-
lated because of the lack of Latin knowledge among women. Women need
the translation because of their missing education. However, translation is
not all that occurs.
In rendering Chapter 19 into verse, the translator not only mentions
that God sees all things evil and good, but also stresses that he hears both
the rich and the poor, a fascinating insertion into the text: “In ilka place es
redi bown / To here our prayer & orisown; / And euyl & gude, al heres
ne, / Rich & pouer in ilk degree”43 (In each place [God] is willing to hear
our prayer and orison. He hears all, evil and good, rich and poor to the
same extent). Does this insertion of a reference to economic status reflect a
situation where rich nuns attempted to take precedence over poor? Or is it
merely a sense of appropriate parallel construction to the poetry? Certainly
class structures do not evaporate when nuns enter a convent and this warning
is timely.
The writer condenses the entire nine chapters (Chapters 9–18) of the
original into a brief six-line compendium:

Mor how Pai sal serues do,

Nedes not her’ to tel Pam to;
Pai knaw Per salmes & ilka verse.
Parfor Pe rowle I wil reherce,
How Pai sal do wirchep alway,
When Pai to god sal sing or say.44
[More of how they shall the service do,
Needs not here to tell them to;
they know their psalms and each verse.
Therefore the rule I will rehearse,
How they shall do worship always,
When they to God shall sing or say.]
30 PERFORMING PIETY

Ironically, the author’s extreme shortening of the chapters on divine

service, keeps the versified rule from altering liturgical practices due to gen-
der. The author appears to assume that the nuns are proficient in their wor-
ship duties, knowledgeable about the division of psalms and the contents of
each hour. Of course this confident assertion simultaneously de-emphasizes
the place of worship when the rule is read aloud in the chapter.
On further reading the rule, however, we find that the author has
included several additional references to worship procedures that are not
present in the original Latin, incorporating several allusions to the mass. In
Chapter 43 even the Latin title has been changed from “De his que ad
Opus Dei vel ad mensam tarde occurrerint” (“On those who come late to
the divine office or to meals) to “Ut cito veniant ad missam et ad mensam”
(“How they should come speedily to mass and meals”). In the title the opus
dei, the backbone of monastic worship, is represented or replaced by the
mass. Of course this may just represent a fondness for the parallel construc-
tion of “ad missam et ad mensam.” The chapter itself opens:

Als son als Pai here Pe beles

To mes, matyns, or oght els,
Pan sal Pai hast Pam on al wise
Sone to come to godes seruyse.45
[As soon as they hear the bells
To mass, to matins, or anything else,
They should hurry in all ways
To come soon to God’s service.]

The author may again be using mass as much for alliterative purposes as for
exact detail, but the message does reinforce the thoroughly entrenched
practice in the later Middle Ages of at least one conventual mass each day.
It also assumes that mentioning mass will conjure up the opus dei.
Chapter 48 on daily work in the nunnery also includes mass as part of
the regular round of worship:

And lessons sal Pai rede Pan next

Fro Pe third our vnto Pe sext.
And efterward thurgh wirchep*
Fro oures & mes wend vnto mete.
And efter mete, Pen sal Pai slepe,
And silence al samen sal Pai kepe,
So Pat none do oPer disese,
Bot ilkon paid oPer to plese.
Sone efterward, when Pis es done
And Pai haf said Pe our of none,
 RELIGIOUS RULES 31

Vntil Peir werk Pen sal Pai gang

Vnto Pe tyme of euynsang.46
[And lessons shall they then read next
From terce until they get to sext.
And afterwards through worship [strengthened]
From hours and mass go unto meal.
And after meal, then they shall sleep,
And silence all together shall they keep,
So that none causes discomfort to another,
But each is satisfied to please the other.
Soon afterward, when it is done
And they have said the hour of none,
Unto their work they shall then go,
Until the hour of evensong.]

We learn from this passage that mass is celebrated after sext and before the
main meal of the day, information which is consistent with materials from
other sources. The passage also indicates the way in which work is inte-
grated into the liturgical day between none and vespers (evensong). Thus
through poetic license the translator has inserted the celebration of mass
into Benedict’s liturgical day as it was practiced in the fifteenth century.
This Metrical version has enormous charm that should not distract us
from recognizing that careful comparison to the Latin original reveals many
changes of meaning and content.47 Even the order of the chapters has been
routinely disrupted. As Warren suggests:

What monks and educated men learn from the Latin is not at all the same as
what women religious learn from the vernacular verse translation. The Latin
and English versions of the Benedictine Rule do not shape men’s and
women’s work, their service to Holy Church, as either the same or equal in
spite of the theoretical sameness the passage implies. In the verse translation
of the Benedictine Rule, language difference in fact marks gender difference,
and difference is, in the course of this version, once again an indication of the
lesser perfection of the feminine.48

This version of the rule, however easy it is to learn, does not teach nuns
exactly what monks learned, although the Latin phrases scattered liberally
throughout the verse would offer convenient reference points to the Latin
original that probably existed in all Benedictine houses. The paradox that
we noted earlier is especially clear here: the stated purpose of the transla-
tion, allowing women to understand the rule as men do, is subverted by the
very process that makes it possible. Men continue to control women’s
understanding through the translation process. Some of these alterations
may have resulted from the author’s attempts to versify factual material, the
32 PERFORMING PIETY

process we refer to as poetic license; others undoubtedly reflect both liturgical

reality and gendered assumptions about the qualities of leadership by
women as we will see in the next chapter when we examine the leadership
roles in the convent.

The Caxton Abstract

A printed book dating from 1491, known as the Caxton Abstract of the
Rule of St. Benet, presents the rule in a version intended for both men and
women. This edition is fascinating for its use of inclusive language. After a
very brief introduction indicating that the rule is for both men and women
who are ignorant of Latin, the author begins “he or she Pat is to be made
hede or souereyn in a monestary”49 (He or she that is to be chosen as the
head or superior in a monastery). The entire description of the characteris-
tics of the “sovereign” is gender-neutral, and the author refers to monks
and nuns as the “congregation” or the “subjects.” Much of the description
is in the plural to avoid use of gender-specific pronouns. Although some of
the later chapters revert back to male pronouns (e.g., Chapter 53 on receiv-
ing guests), the overall message of the Caxton Abstract is that Benedictine
nuns and monks follow the same rule.50 While this gender-neutral
approach may reflect an interest in wider sales for a printed book, it is an
interesting reminder that the Benedictine Rule is remarkably flexible for
communities of both men and women.

Bishop Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule

Scholars of medieval nunneries owe a great debt to Bishop Richard Fox,
head of the Diocese of Winchester in the early sixteenth century. Two
important documents arise from his concern for the nuns in his care—the
printed translation of the rule and a version of the service for the consecra-
tion of nuns with English rubrics.51 By the early sixteenth century when
Bishop Fox published his translation into English of the Benedictine Rule,
humanist values and an emphasis on learning were part of the cultural
scene. Fox himself was active in politics as well as religion; he wrote the
rule for nuns as he retired from political life and gave more time to his role
as a bishop. Fox emphasizes the importance of learning for nuns, especially
the abbess. He translates even the portions of the rule that he thinks do not
apply to women (e.g., going away from the monastery), leaving the pro-
nouns male, and suggesting that the nuns have the right to know what is in
the original rule even if it does not apply to them.
The preface to the volume indicates the good relationship Fox had with
the abbesses of the major houses in his diocese and reminds them (and us)
 RELIGIOUS RULES 33

of the bishop’s pastoral duty toward them. He comments that “certayne

deuoute and religiouse women beinge within our Diocese & vnder our
pastorall charge and cure”52 (certain devout and religious women in our
diocese and under our pastoral charge and care) even though they are
bound by the rule, cannot understand it when it is read in Latin. He
describes himself, as bishop, as having the care of their souls. He then sug-
gests that the whole basis for this project is a request from the abbesses
themselves:

For these causes / and specially at thinstant requeste of our ryght dere and
welbeloued doughters in oure lorde Ihus / Thabbasses of the monasteris
of Rumsay / wharwel / Seynt Maries within the citie of Winchester / and
the prioresse of wintnay: our right religious diocesans / we haue translated:
the sayde rule into oure moders tonge / commune / playne / rounde englis-
she / easy / and redy to be vnderstande by the sayde deuoute religiouse
women.53
[For these causes [stated previously] and especially at the immediate request
of our dear and beloved daughters in the Lord Jesus, the abbesses of Romsey,
Wherwell, and St. Mary’s in the city of Winchester, and the prioress of
Wintney, our right religious diocesans, we have translated the rule into our
mother tongue, common, plain, round English, easy and available to be
understood by the said devout religious women.]

As Collett has observed, “his use of the word ‘diocesans’ was significant, for
it denoted the full authority and pastoral responsibility of the heads of
female houses, a point developed in the translation of the second chapter of
the Rule.”54 Fox is on the one hand granting the abbesses this stature and
on the other hand time calling them daughters (not sisters) implying a lesser
status. As we will see in our discussion of leadership in the nunnery, Fox
strongly supports learning for nuns and gives the abbess great authority; she
does not, however, have the same authority as a priest.
Like earlier translators, Fox invokes the name of Benedict both to give
authority to the text and to imply that he is rendering an exact translation.
And indeed much of the work is a fairly accurate translation of the original;
however, Fox has interpolated a number of editorial comments as well. His
version of Chapter 19 exhibits his clear translation of the passage on per-
forming the divine office:

The xix chapiter treateth of the doctrine of syngynge.

We beleue that god is euery where present / that he beholdeth in euery
place / both them that be good / and them that be euyll / But specyally let
vs then thynke & beleue / that it is soo without any maner of doubt / whan
we be at the diuine seruice / therfore let vs allway haue in remembrance /
34 PERFORMING PIETY

that the prophete sayth. Do your duety and seruice vnto god with fere / And
agayne. Syng ye wysely and intentyuely. Moreouer he sayth I shall synge
vnto the in the face and syght of angelles. Therfore good susters (sayth
seynt Benet) let vs well consyder / howe we must behaue our selfe in the
syght of all myghty god / and of his angelles. And whansoeuer we comme
to gydder / to synge the seruice of god / let vs take good hede / that
our mynde accorde to our voice / and that they twayne renne both oon
way / and vppon oon thynge.55

The only real interpolations in the original are the addition of Fox’s sig-
nature phrase, “therfore good susters (sayth seynt Benet),” and the brief
“and intentyuely” after “Syng ye wysely.” While Fox himself refers to
the abbesses as daughters, he always has Benedict refer to the nuns as sis-
ters. In this case, as in the other chapters dealing with the opus dei, Fox
has left Benedict’s instructions alone. The regular chanting of the offices
seems to be so natural a part of the nun’s life that it needs no additional
interpretation. There is no mention of a priest in the instructions for
Sunday matins, nor indeed even in the other parts of the rule since Fox
translates those portions as pertaining only to the male religious houses
(e.g., Chapters 60, 62).
The Benedictine Rule is at once the purveyor of the central Western
monastic tradition and, in its Middle English versions, the place for the
expression of cultural values. As Renevey and Whitehead have expressed
it, “we share in the view of medieval translation as a site of powerful cul-
tural exchange, and that some of our texts serve as testimonies to that phe-
nomenon in the late medieval period.”56 These Middle English versions
point to a “powerful exchange” between the church hierarchy and the ver-
nacular spiritual tradition patronized by both lay and religious women. The
nature of the translations reflects changing cultural patterns so that the
sixteenth-century version from Bishop Fox reflects the humanist currents
of the time with a more open view toward women and learning than do
the fifteenth-century versions.
The very existence of so many versions of the Benedictine Rule in
Middle English for women is in itself a powerful statement of the culture of
the time. The church trained religious men in Latin and assumed that they
could understand the rule in its original language. The rule, written origi-
nally for monks, did not need to be adapted either in content or in language
for monks. For nuns, both language and content needed to be changed. The
style of the ensuing translations and the particular understanding of the
power and role of nuns varies from translation to translation. In all of them
one thing remains quite constant—the nuns must sing the 7 daily offices and
matins including all 150 psalms every single week. The liturgical accretions
of feast days, processions, liturgical dramas, and other rituals did not need to
 RELIGIOUS RULES 35

be identified in the rule itself because they fit into that framework. The rule
describes the sine qua non of monastic life, that without which there would
be no community, the chanting of the offices.

The Augustinian Rule

The “Augustinian Rule” is surrounded by scholarly debate and questions
of authenticity that have little bearing on the practices of those establish-
ments that professed the rule.57 The principal problem in dealing with this
rule is that it is not a single document but a compendium of writings, some
of which are only questionably attributed to St. Augustine. The bulk of the
rule is a letter written by Augustine to a convent of nuns of which his sis-
ter had been a member. The letter, CCXI, written around 423, antedates
both Caesarius of Arles’s and St. Benedict’s rules. Augustine intended it
more as a set of instructions to a particular community than as a general
rule. This short paragraph is the only discussion of prayer and worship:

Orationibus instate horis et temporibus consitutis. In oratorio nemo aliquid

agat, nisis quod est factum, unde et nomen accepit; ut si aliquae etiam praeter
horas constitutas, se eis vacat, orare voluerint non eis sint impedimento, quae
ibi aliquid agere voluerint. Psalmis et hymnis cum oratis Deum, hoc versetur
in corde quod profertur in voce: et nolite cantare, nisi quod legitis esse can-
tandum; quod autem non ita scriptum est ut cantetur, non cantetur.58
[Be instant in prayer at the hours and times appointed. Let no one do any-
thing in the oratory but that for which it was made and from which it takes
its name, so that if some of the sisters have time and wish to pray even out-
side the appointed hours, those who wish to do something else there may
not be a hindrance to them. When you pray to God in psalms and hymns,
meditate in your heart on what you utter with your voice, and do not sing
anything that is not noted to be sung; what is not noted to be sung is not to
be sung.]59

This short passage, then, is the only guide that Augustine gives to the nuns,
perhaps because their observances were already formed. Augustine empha-
sizes the importance of actual meditation on the words of the songs, the
internalization in the monastic’s heart of the liturgy both spoken and sung.
Besides this brief passage, there exists a document that is normally referred to
as “Regula Secunda”; it frequently appeared before the letter as part of the
rule in the earlier Middle Ages. By the twelfth century, however, this passage
was deemed inauthentic so it was no longer considered part of the rule.
The Lateran Council of 1215 enacted a canon forbidding the adoption
of any new monastic rules, thereby forcing new orders into a formal adop-
tion of either the Benedictine or Augustinian Rule. The Augustinian
36 PERFORMING PIETY

Rule is sufficiently vague that many orders adopted it. They then added
constitutions of their own which formed the basis for the practices of
individual houses. Among the orders in England, then, that used the
Augustinian Rule were the Augustinian Canonesses, the Premonstraten-
sians, and the Dominicans.

The Augustinian Canonesses

There were fewer than twenty-five houses of Augustinian canonesses in
England during the Middle Ages. Some began as Benedictine and later
changed to Augustinian making an exact determination difficult. There are
hardly any surviving books from these houses and no rules or customaries
from which we can glean a picture of the musical-liturgical practices of an
English house. We do know, however, that in at least two houses such
manuscripts did exist. In a report to Henry VIII concerning Lacock Abbey,
the investigator writes:

The Ladies have their rule, thinstitutes of ther religion and ceremonies of the
same writen in the frenche tonge which they understand well and are ver
parfite in the same, albeit that it varieth from the vulgar frenche that is nowe
used and is moche like the frenche that the common lawe is writen in.60
[The ladies have their rule, the institutes and the ceremonies of their reli-
gion, written in French, which they understand well and in which they are
proficient, although it varies from the common French used now and is very
like the French in which the common law is written.]

This report is from the sixteenth century, but it is likely that the volume
itself would have been written in an earlier century when French, not
English, was the common language of nuns. However, the investigator
makes it clear that these nuns retain proficiency in French even into the
sixteenth century and that this proficiency is unusual.
An inventory of Easebourne Priory during the early fifteenth century
indicates that the house had two ordinals in French.61 The visitation took
place after the time when the priory had become Augustinian, but there is
no indication of whether the volumes themselves represented Benedictine
or Augustinian practices or whether there was really much difference. The
Abbey at Canonsleigh had a copy of the Ancrene Riwle, the very popular
rule written for women who followed a solitary religious life. Although this
document does not provide for communal worship, it played an important
role in the expression of women’s spirituality in the medieval period.
Bishops’ visitations contain references to the importance of following
the rule but no specific indication of physical volumes at any of the
 RELIGIOUS RULES 37

Augustinian houses. For example, the episcopal injunctions issued to the

priory of Gracedieu in 1440–41 stipulate that “houres of contemplacyone
dayly be had in the cloystre after your rule, and that alle your susters
nyghtly lyg in the dormytory and ryse to matynes and come to messes and
houres dayly”62 (the hours of contemplation should be held daily in the
cloister according to your rule, and that all the sisters nightly lie in the dor-
mitory and rise to sing matins, and come to masses and the hours daily).
Thomas Spofford, Bishop of Hereford, visited the Augustinian priory of
Limebrook in 1422 and enjoined the nuns: “Also we ordeyn and charge
you that dyvyne servyse, as mateyns at midnight, evynsange, and oures in
thair tyme be dewly observed and keped”63 (And we ordain and charge
you that the divine service—matins at midnight, evensong, and the other
hours in their time—be duly kept and observed). Clearly these Augustinian
canonesses kept a regular round of worship with the same services as the
Benedictines. The lack of extant manuscripts makes it impossible to track
these in any detail.

The Order of Premontré

The Order of Premontré had originally established double houses of
canons and canonesses in which the nuns took no part in the choral recita-
tion of the office but merely prayed silently. With the abolition of these
double houses in 1140, however, the nuns in the new, separate houses did
sing the divine service. The four English houses of this order were founded
after this date: Broadholme, Guyzance, Orford, and Stixwould. A. Erens
comments:

When later the sisters lived in an independent house, the divine office
formed an integral part of their life. The statutes do not say anything about
it, but they talk of it quite clearly when they make the distinction between
“choir sisters” and “non-choir sisters.”64

The only reference to choir sisters in the Statuta Primaria Praemonstratensis

Ordinis (The Principal Statutes of the Premonstratensian Order) issued in
1294 is in the discussion of the habits to be worn by the nuns:

Et ubi sorores cantantes habentur, scapularibus albis sine capuciis uti poterunt,
dum tamen non portentur discincta, et etiam non cantantes, si velint habere.65
[And when they have choir sisters, they may use white scapulars without
hoods, yet nevertheless they may not be carried unbelted, and also the non-
choir sisters if they want to have (them).]
38 PERFORMING PIETY

Our sources for the English houses are practically nonexistent, but a
surviving fragment of a visitation record from Guyzance Priory indicates
that the nuns must have been involved in singing the services:

Precipientes firmiter et districte ne aliqua monialis in ecclesia nostri Ordinis

de G. recipiatur, nisi tali forma quali recepte sunt apud Yreford et
Brodholme—viz. quod sunt habiles ad legendum et cantandum, [pro] ut in
statutis Ordinis est contentum.66
[Being admonished firmly and strictly that no one should be received in the
church of our order at G. (Guiyzance), unless by such a manner as they are
received at Orford and Broadholme—namely, that they are capable of read-
ing and singing, as it is contained in the statutes of the order.]

There is no record of Guyzance after the mid-fourteenth century, suggest-

ing that the house disappeared during the time of the Black Death.67

The Dominican Nuns

Edward III established the only house of Dominican nuns in England in
1356 for a prioress and thirty-nine nuns, under the supervision of the
Dominican friary at Kings Langley which provided chaplains for the
nuns.68 The Dominican Order, like the Premonstratensian, officially
adopted the Augustinian Rule and then adopted constitutions which added
to this scanty rule. The nuns sang the office daily, following the liturgical
procedures for all Dominican houses. Paul Lee comments:

Great emphasis was placed on ensuring that the same liturgy was used in
every part of the order, so its use may be assumed at Dartford. Revisions of
the Dominican liturgy throughout the 1240s and 1250s resulted in a final
version produced by Humbert of Romans, approved by the general chapter
in 1256, which was contained within fourteen volumes: the ordinary,
antiphonary, lectionary, Psalter, book of collects, martyrology, processional,
gradual, the missal for high altars, the missal for side altars, book of gospels,
book of epistles, pulpitary and the portable breviary.69

Thus although these books have not survived at Dartford, we can assume that
the nuns did have a full set of books in accordance with Dominican practices.
Several books with attributions to Dartford do survive including an
English commentary on the Rule of St. Augustine (Oxford, Bodleian
Library Bodl. 255), an Hours of the Virgin of Dominican use (Taunton,
Somerset County Record Office DD/SAS C/1193/68), and a noted
Office of the Dead with some processional offices (London, Society of
 RELIGIOUS RULES 39

Antiquaries, 717). These manuscripts and the various ones containing

devotional literature, are an indication that the nuns at Dartford read devo-
tional and historical literature.70

The Rule of the Enclosed Minoresses

The history of the rule of the Order of St. Clare, the Second Order of St.
Francis, is a complicated tangle of documents and petitions to the pope. By
the time of St. Clare’s death in 1253, the rule had been approved in the
form in which she desired, encompassing the controversial Privilege of
Poverty and making clear the relationship of this order to that of St.
Francis.71 Shortly thereafter the house at Longchamp (France) requested
approval of a new rule that combined features of previous rules, but most
notably renounced the Privilege of Poverty. They received permission for
this “Isabella Rule” in 1259 and a reaffirmation in 1264. Meanwhile, in
1263 Urban IV issued a bull, “Beata Clara,” which approved what became
the final rule of the order. The Isabella Rule is of interest, however, for the
one surviving English version of a rule for Franciscan nuns is from “The
Minories,” a London house that members of the community at
Longchamp established in 1293.
Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 585, dating from the fifteenth century,
preserves “The Rewle of Sustris Menouresses Enclosid” (The Rule of
the Enclosed Minoresses) on folios 48r–72v, followed by an appendix
that incorporates two distinct documents: folios 72r–78v contain a
papal document that makes some modifications to the rule and folios
78v–101r presents a detailed discussion of the ritual performances in the
abbey.
The rule itself devotes very little space to matters liturgical. The follow-
ing passage is the only one to deal with the opus dei.

For to do Pe office & seruise of god by day & be nyht to Pe preysing of god
& to Pe gladnes of his glorie, The sustris schul haue hem & gouerne hem, as
it is writen here after.
Pe sustres whoche canne rede & singe schal do Pe office reuerentli &
mesurabli after Pe custome & Pe ordre of freris menoures, & Pe oPer schal
sey xx Pater noster | for matyns, v for laudis; For prime, tierce, sexte, none,
& complin, For eche owre vii Pater noster, And for euynsonge, xii Pater nos-
ter. And in Pis same maner be alle Pinges in Pe office of oure blissid ladi; be
hit kepte wiP deuowte preyinge for Pe dede. And {if Per be any sustris
couenable & of gode witte, The abbes, {if sche PenkiP hem goode, to
ordeyne & assigne a maystresse couenable & honeste for to teche hem songe,
to performe Pe office & seruise of god stedfastli.72
40 PERFORMING PIETY

[In order to do the office and service of God both day and night for the prais-
ing of God and the gladness of his glory, the sisters shall be allotted and shall
govern themselves as it is written here.
The sisters who can read and sing shall do the office reverently and mod-
erately, following the customs and order of the friar minors, and the other
[sisters] shall say 20 Pater noster for matins, 5 for lauds, 7 each for prime, terce,
sext, none and compline, and 12 for evensong. And in this same manner all
things of the office of our Blessed Lady shall be kept, with devout prayers for
the dead. And if there are any sisters who are suitable and knowledgeable,
the abbess, if she thinks them good, should order and appoint one of them as
a mistress, suitable and honest, to teach the nuns song so that they may per-
form the offices and service of God steadfastly.]

Since one of the basic precepts of Franciscan nuns was the spiritual rela-
tionship between the nuns and the Franciscan friars, it is not surprising that
they followed the same liturgical practices. They clearly observed all of the
hours. The specific demarcation of the responsibilities of nonchoir sisters
follows the pattern established by Clare in her rule.73 With the prospect of
saying the Pater noster seventy-two times daily, the nuns should flock to
avail themselves of the instructional services of the sister whom the abbess
appoints to teach singing!
One distinctive feature of this rule is its insistence on the separation of
the women from the outside world. While enclosure is an important aspect
of nunneries of other orders, no other rule discusses this matter so exhaus-
tively. There are detailed instructions on the appropriate occasions for
priests to enter the precincts of the cloister, and also on the times and man-
ner of the nuns’ confessions and communions. For example:

Pe sustris first wole be confessid whan it nediP & schul resseyue twies
eche moniP in reuerence & deuocioun Pe ful holi bodi of owre lorde Ihesu
criste, P also {if it likiP hem eche sonday in lentyn & in Pe Auent, but {if it
so be Pat ani of hem bi resonable cause leeue hit & bi licence of Pe
Abbesse.74
[The sisters should first be confessed when it is necessary, and shall receive
twice each month in reverence and devotion, the full holy body of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and also, if it please them, each Sunday in Lent and Advent,
unless any of them abstain for a good reason and with the permission of the
abbess.]

As we noted above, information on the nuns’ relationship to mass is infre-

quently present in other rules. In the appendix to the rule, these instruc-
tions are further amplified to discuss how the nuns help serve communion
at the altar and how they receive from the chalice.
 RELIGIOUS RULES 41

The Appendix to the Rule of the Minoresses

The material appended to the Rule of the Minoresses in Bodley 585 pro-
vides a valuable contribution to our knowledge of musical and liturgical
practices in a Franciscan order. Indeed the level of detail in this source is
only exceeded by that in the Barking ordinal and the documents from Syon
Abbey. The matters covered include bell ringing, the proper blessings
before meals in different seasons, changes from the ferial observances to
those of feast days, the procedures for receiving communion, and other
details of liturgical observances. The appendix is not an ordinal but a more
general document so it sets forth the general principles of liturgical practice
rather than the precise chants or prayers to be used on specific occasions.
The volume includes a number of instructions for rituals in the refectory
as well as in the church. This is, in fact, a very practical treatise, concerned
as much with the smooth performance of the service as with its content.
The instructions are thoroughly in keeping with the principle in the rule
that says that the nuns shall perform the office reverently and moderately.

In alle Pese festis Pey schal haue IIII ciergis at masse, at euinsonge, & at
matyns, II at Pe auter & II at Pe chandelabris. In alle oPer times Pey schal
haue II ciergis. At masse, whan Pat Pey syngin in Pe quere, Comunly Pe one
syde of Pe quere schal turne hem to Pe oPer side, but at Pe chapitres towarde
Pe awter & at Pe orisons whan Pey bowen hem or makyn prostracioun &
whan Pe offertori is seyde, Pey schul turne hem towarde Pe awter til Sanctus,
whan Pey encline hem or make prostracioun.75
[In all these feasts there should be four candles at mass, evensong, and matins,
two at the altar and two at the candelabras. At all other times there should be
two candles. At mass when they sing in the choir, usually one side of the
choir turns towards the other side, but at the chapters they turn towards the
altar; and at the prayers, when they bow or prostrate themselves, and when
the offertory is said, they should turn toward the altar until the Sanctus when
they bow or prostrate themselves.]

These very careful instructions make it clear that the duties of the nuns in
the choir include not only singing but also such actions as turning and
bowing together. Of course this passage also confirms the choral participa-
tion of the nuns in the mass.
There are a few direct comments on the music and its performance. The
passage on psalmody discusses the performance practice of both spoken and
sung psalmody:

But at Pe lessons whan Pey schul sey psalmodi, Pan Pey schul sey distinctly
& atrete, & also whan Pey haue seyde & endid on Pe one syde Pe verse til
42 PERFORMING PIETY

time Pat Pe oPer syde schal biginne Pe oPer verse, & specialli in Pe offices
of oure ladi & of Pe dede. Whan Pey synge, Pat Pey make none treyne ne
poynt of metre, but Pat Pey make pause euenli & auenauntli.76
[But at the lessons when they say psalms, they shall say them distinctly and
slowly without break, and also when they have said and finished a verse on
one side until the time that the other side begins the next verse, and espe-
cially in the Offices of our Lady and of the Dead. When they sing they
should not lengthen [the notes] nor make rhythmic emphases, but they
should pause evenly and suitably.]

The instructions concerning the endings of verses would apply equally to

sung and spoken psalmody.77 Having observed, apparently, a tendency to
emphasize parts of the musical phrase, the author stresses the necessity for
an even and regular flow of chant.
The “Rewle of the Sustris” and the “Appendix” provide a wealth of
detail that demonstrate that the Minoresses carried out a disciplined and
regulated liturgical life. Besides the house in London, there were two other
major houses of Franciscan nuns in England in the Middle Ages, the abbeys
at Bruisyard and Denney. There are extant books from the libraries of all
three abbeys, but this is the only volume that includes a rule.

Conclusions
Despite the variety of monastic rules for nuns and their translations into
Middle English, the central core values in all the convents is the perfor-
mance of the divine office regularly and devoutly. In the ideal embodiment
of the monastic life, the opus dei is the basic element in the spiritual forma-
tion of religious men and women. It steeps them in the psalms; it regulates
their time and their very breathing; it is both a constant duty and an
aesthetic delight. As followers of monastic rules, English medieval nuns
participate in this magnificent musical-religious tradition. No words can
really capture the essence of this spiritual discipline, nor its potential effect
upon the formation of the hearts and minds of those who participate in this
practice. Singing the opus dei is the fundamental building block of the nun’s
spiritual life. While, as we shall see, this idyllic picture is often interrupted
by personal idiosyncrasies, power struggles, poverty, and a host of other
factors, the nun does indeed form the core of her piety as she performs
the office.
CHAPTER 2

MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY

o community thrives without effective leadership. Medieval monas-

N tic houses offer a wide variety of opportunities for leadership ranging
from positions that rotate weekly to the ultimate leadership position of
abbess. St. Benedict devotes much of his rule to discussions of authority and
its ramifications in daily life. The rule simultaneously encourages commu-
nal decision making and creates a hierarchical structure that vests great
authority in those who serve as leaders. The hierarchy, theoretically, rests
not on worldly measures of class and wealth but on the time of profession
and spiritual gifts. Although there are several notable examples of royal and
wealthy women who led nunneries, more recent research supports the idea
that nuns choose leaders based on competence and not just on their back-
ground and status. Marilyn Oliva’s extensive research on the practices of
nuns in the diocese of Norwich shows in fact “a pattern of office-holding
that was based more on merit than on social rank.”1
Among those who hold the primary responsibility for musical and litur-
gical matters are the abbess, cantrix2, sacristan, and ebdomadaria (weekly
cantrix). In the enactment of their roles, these nuns shape the community’s
understanding of their performance of the opus dei. The abbess holds the
greatest responsibility for spiritual direction, the cantrix oversees liturgical
practice and regulates the music itself, and the sacristan maintains the phys-
ical space and the items of worship. All three of these women offer signifi-
cant guidance toward the monastic ideal of communal worship. The
following examination of their respective roles and duties will demonstrate
the wide scope of their potential musical and liturgical activities. Monastic
women have the opportunity to follow specific professions within the nun-
nery although that vocation is always subsidiary to their primary vocation
as nun.3
44 PERFORMING PIETY

The Abbess—Mother, Shepherd, Physician

No single image can adequately summarize the role and importance of the
nun who serves as the head of a monastic establishment—the abbess in an
abbey or the prioress in a priory.4 The abbess must simultaneously admin-
ister the properties of the abbey, serve as spiritual leader and example, make
daily decisions about discipline, represent the abbey in external affairs, and
worship regularly with her community. In sum, she is a busy chief execu-
tive officer who must answer at the last day not only for her own conduct
but also for the nuns under her charge. Both the monastic rules and the ser-
vices for blessing the abbess make it clear that failure to discharge her duties
effectively will call God’s wrath down upon her. Mother, Shepherd,
Physician, Mirror, Steward, and Teacher are among the many medieval
images for the abbess.
After the election of an abbess, the bishop of the diocese usually
approves the election and consecrates the abbess. During the consecration
service he gives her a copy of the rule as well as a pastoral staff, a symbol of
her authority (see figures 2.1 and 2.2). Prayers for this service, preserved in
the bishops’ pontificals, stress the varied role of the abbess. For example,
the following prayer accompanied the delivery of the rule in the Pontifical
of John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, in the fifteenth century:

Take here, ladye, the rules ordeynyd of holy fathers to rule and to kepe
the which ys commyttyd by God unto the, as nyghe as God will geve
the hys grace, and as the frayle nature will permytt and suffer. Take here
the moderly overseyng and provydence of this the flock of God, and the
cure and charge of ther bodyes and of ther sowles. And be to them a
mother, a guyder, and a faythfull governer, that by the mercyfull good-
nesse of Allmyghty God and by thyne ensample of godly levyng thou
mayst so leede and conducte them yn the lawes of God and observance of
thy relygyon, that thow wt them may come to the everlastyng glory.
Amen.5
[Take here, Lady, the rule which was ordained by the holy fathers to rule
and keep you and which is given by God to you, as nearly as God will give
you his grace and that your frail nature will permit and allow. Take here the
maternal oversight and providence of this, the flock of God, and the care and
oversight of their bodies and souls. And be to them a mother, a guide, and a
faithful governor, that by the merciful goodness of Almighty God and by
your example of good living, you may so lead and conduct them in the laws
of God and the observance of religion that with them you may come to the
everlasting glory. Amen.]

This prayer accomplishes several things simultaneously: it stresses the

importance of the rule of the order, it emphasizes that the rule comes from
 45

Figure 2.1 Abbess receiving the pastoral staff from the Bishop in the Metz
Pontifical
Source: Fitzwilliam Museum 298, f. 82v (by permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)
46

Figure 2.2 Procession and Mass in a Nunnery in La Sainte Abbaye

Source: British Library Additional 39843, f. 6v (by Permission of the British Library)
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 47

the holy fathers, it names the duties of the abbess to oversee the nuns, it
stresses the importance of the abbess’s own behavior as a model, it under-
scores the presumed frail nature of women, and it concludes that only
through the correct discharging of her duties will the abbess come to ever-
lasting life. The very fact that this prayer is written in Middle English
demonstrates once again the assumption that nuns did not understand Latin
well.6 This prayer reinforces for the abbess and her community the double
message of authority and frailty that is also present in the translations of the
monastic rules.
Although the original Benedictine Rule intersperses directions for the
abbot throughout the rule, two chapters are especially germane: Chapter 2,
“The Qualities of an Abbot,” and Chapter 64, “The Election of an
Abbot.” Many of the feminine versions of the rule translate abbot into
abbess fairly literally, but others shift the images and descriptions in sub-
tle or not-so-subtle ways. The very basic belief that God will call to
account each monastic superior underlies both masculine and feminine
versions. Thus every abbess would understand that her role carries
immense responsibility both for her own soul and the souls of those over
whom she rules.
The manuscript identified as the Anglo-Norman Prose Version trans-
lates the passage fairly literally, seeming to have no problem with compar-
ing the abbess to Christ. On folio 4r we read:

The abbesse other prioresse, he seith, that is worthy to be aboue the othere in
the cherche, all tyme {e schal haue in mynde what name sche bereth, and be
doinge in ded here name schewe. Ffor the name of the abbesse or prioresse
be tokeneth “moder.” Ffor {e schal be to here Nunnes as the moder to her
dou{tren & holde the place of ihu crist in the cherche.7
[The abbess or prioress, he says, who is worthy to be above the others in the
church, shall always have in mind what name she bears and in her actions
show forth her name. For the name of the abbess or prioress means mother.
For she should be to her nuns as a mother to her daughters, and hold the
place of Jesus Christ in the church.]

Thus in this rule the abbess is given full authority within the nunnery.
Many of the other rules, however, do not make the equation of the abbess
with Christ.
Benedict suggests that the abbot holds the place of Christ within the
abbey due to his title of Abba, Father. The triune imagery of God as Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost generally ascribes sonship to Christ. Hence the initial
word derivation of abbot from abba (father) would seem to relate to the
first person of the Trinity, not to Christ. Bishop Fox’s 1516 translation into
48 PERFORMING PIETY

Middle English, clearly a variant for the benefit of the nuns, makes better
theological sense:

for she [the abbasse] occupieth the place of almyghty god: in the monastery / in
somoche as she is named after hym / thapostle sainge thus. ye haue receyued
the holy goste: by whom ye be made the children of god / in whom we cry
all to geder to almyghty god / & call him Abba pat[er] / that is to say fader /
of the whiche name all abbottes & abbasses take their names: thabbot to be
to his couent a fader / & thabbasse a moder.8
[for she (the abbess) occupies the place of Almighty God in the monastery
inasmuch as she is named after him, the apostle saying thus: you have
received the holy ghost by whom you are made the children of God to
whom we all cry together and call Abba father, that is to say father from
which name all abbots and abbesses derive their names, the abbot to be a
father to his convent and the abbess a mother.]

So Fox immediately equates the role of the abbess within her limited world
to that of Almighty God. Nancy Bradley Warren suggests that by avoiding
the comparison of the abbess to Christ, Fox evades any confusion of abbesses
with priests who stand in Christ’s place.9 However, Fox does not avoid the
association later in the rule when he writes: “Thabbasse stondeth in christes
stede and shall be called Madame & abbasse / & this name she hath not of hir
owne presumpcion and vsurpacion / but for the honour & loue of christe”10
[The abbess stands in Christ’s place and should be called Madame and
Abbess. She does not have this name by her own rights but for the honor and
love of Christ]. This version is a fairly exact rendering of the Latin with the
use of “Madame” (or “my lady”) in place of “Lord,” a reflection of contem-
porary secular usage. The Northern Prose Version refers to her as “dame”
(from the Latin “domina”) and suggests that she stands “in godis stede”11 (in
God’s place), while the Northern Metrical Version expresses the passage:

Qe Priores als principall

Es “lady” & leder of Qam all.
And not al for hir awn bi-houe,
Bot for hir staite & cristes luf.12
[The prioress as ruler is lady and leader of them all. And not for her own
sake but for her position and Christ’s love.]

Lady, dame, and madame are all terms appropriate to aristocratic women
and thus counterparts to Lord. All of the versions emphasize, as does the
original, that the term applies to their positions and not to their person.
Warren’s analysis of the metrical version suggests that it is especially
adverse to granting the prioress a stature comparable to that of an abbot.13
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 49

On the other hand, some of the changes seem to be more a function of

rendering prose into verse than an actual aversion to Christ-like images.
For example, in Chapter 2 the author of the metrical rule avoids describing
the prioress as Christ’s deputy but later in the passage writes:

A priores may knaw wele Qan,

Sche beres Qe charch of a hird-man.
And als a graue bihoues hir be,
Qat cure hase tayn to kepe hir fe.14
[A prioress may well know that she bears the responsibility of a shepherd,
and it behooves her to be like a steward who has taken charge to keep her
property.]

Since Christ as shepherd is a very common metaphor, the linking of the

prioress (abbess) as a shepherd does emphasize that she plays at least a por-
tion of Christ’s role. The pastoral staff carried by the head of the abbey fur-
ther indicates her role as shepherd. The Archbishop of York presented the
crozier to the abbess with the words “Accipe baculum pastoralis officii
quem praeferas catervae tibi commissae ad exemplum justae severitatis et
piae correptionis”15 [Accept the staff of the pastoral office which you
should carry in front of your whole flock as an example of fairness, strict-
ness and of tender reproof]. In this way, the image of abbess as shepherd
was literally in front of the nuns on many occasions.16
While there are many interesting variations in the rules that signal dif-
ferent understandings of the abbess’ relationship to the church hierarchy,
the authority of the abbess within the monastic community is clear. She is
to arbitrate differences of opinions, chastise nuns for their offences, delegate
authority to other people, and embody the virtues she seeks to cultivate in
her flock. As the Bishop of Lincoln says in his service for blessing the
abbess, “Take here, ladye, plenarye and full powre and auctoryte of all this
monastery and of all therunto belongynge, ynwardly and owtewardly, spir-
itually and temporally”17 [Take here Lady, total and full power and author-
ity over this monastery and everything that belongs to it, inwardly and
outwardly, spiritually and temporally]. There is no ambivalence about her
authority.
In the fourteenth-century allegorical work The Abbey of the Holy Ghost,
the anonymous author expresses the central characteristics necessary for
leadership in his description of the abbess and her second-in-command, the
prioress:

And than the gude lady Charite, als scho Qat es most worthy by-fore all oQer,
sall be abbas of this sely abbaye. . . . Qe lady Wysdome sall be prioresse, for
50 PERFORMING PIETY

scho es worthi, Nam prior omnium creaturarum est sapiencia, Qat es, alQer-
firste es Wysedome made, and thurgh Qe lare and Qe concele of Qis prioresse
sall we do alle Qat we do.18
[And then the good lady Charity, that is worthiest of all, shall be the abbess of
this happy abbey . . . the lady Wisdom shall be the prioress for she is worthy—
for first among all creatures is Wisdom—that is wisdom was made first and
through the learning and the advice of this prioress shall we do all that we do.]

Charity and wisdom should lead us in our lives; thus they allegorically
become the abbess and prioress of our lives. While the author uses these
characteristics as allegory, I would agree that ideally they are also the qual-
ities that an actual abbess or prioress must possess if she is to be an effective
leader of her community. She must be loving enough to fulfill her role
without alienating the other nuns. She must be savvy enough to make
shrewd business deals with tenants and others on the outside. She must
be spiritually mature enough that the other women may emulate her.
It is precisely due to her importance as a spiritual guide that the abbess’s
role as liturgical leader is so critical to the proper functioning of the musi-
cal life of nunneries. Her role, while in some sense ceremonial, also entails
significant musical duties. It requires her to lead chants, read scripture, and
bless the convent. As abbess she takes a specific role in processions and gen-
erally adorns feast days with her musical participation. For example, the
ordinal from Barking Abbey directs that on vespers for Christmas Day:

Incipiant abbatissa, priorissa, presentrix et succentrix et due ex senioribus.

Similiter in omnibus principalibus festis incipiantur ad primas uesperas respon-
sorium a sex, ad secundas uesperas uero a quatuor.19
[Let the abbess, prioress, precentrix, succentrix, and two of the senior nuns
begin. Likewise on all principal feasts the responsory at first vespers should be
started by six, at second vespers by four.]

This group of six is, potentially at least, a balanced group since the suppos-
edly superior ability and generally younger voices of the precentrix and
succentrix can offset the possible lack of musical quality from the abbess
and prioress. Assuming that there are two competent singers ex senioribus
the group would both give honor to nuns in high positions and possess a
reasonable degree of musical proficiency.
There are many other occasions when the abbess has the responsibility for
intoning chants. Most commonly she starts the antiphons before the canticles
and the opening chant of the mass on principal feast days. In a few instances
the abbess serves as a musical intermediary between the priest and the choir.
For example, on Holy Saturday at vespers, the priest intones the incipit, the
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 51

abbess sings a small portion of the chant, and then the choir enters:

Qua finita, incipiat sacerdos ubi stat ad altare Ant. Uespere autem sabbati.
Abbatissa uero subiungat. Que lucescit in prima sabbati. Cum chorus totam
decantauerit. incipiat precentrix. ps. Magnificat.20
[When this is finished, let the priest begin the antiphon Vespere autem sabbati
where he stands at the altar. The abbess should follow with Que lucescit in
prima sabbati. When the chorus has sung the whole antiphon, the precentrix
should start the psalm Magnificat.]

By progressing from priest to abbess to choir, the liturgy recognizes the

special roles of both priest and abbess in the liturgy. It highlights the dual
sense of authority that nuns live with—the priest as the person with the
power to celebrate mass and hear confessions alongside the abbess who has
control over the spiritual and temporal life of the abbey.
In one other place the role of the abbess is defined by a restriction on
her activities:

Nota quod abbatissa non incipiet ad horas hiis quatuor diebus nisi tantum
antiphonas ad Magnificat. et ad Benedictus et ad processionem.21
[Note that the abbess does not begin anything at the hours on these four days
except the antiphons at the Magnificat and Benedictus and the procession.]

This passage describes the period from St. Stephen’s Day (December 26)
through December 29. The functions to which it restricts the abbess are
those that are most frequently allotted to her anyway. In comparison with
her duties on Christmas Day, however, the abbess’s role on the following
days is negligible, and therein lies the most probable rationale for this
restriction: if the abbess were to play as prominent a role on the four days
succeeding Christmas as on the major feast day itself, the importance of
Christmas would be lessened. Her vocal participation in the service signals
the importance of the particular feast.
The abbess also has responsibility for guiding liturgical decisions. Sybill
Felton, the abbess who commissioned the Barking Ordinal, seems to have
had a particular interest in the conventual liturgy. Indeed, such an interest
was often the impetus for the creation of such a manuscript. Felton evi-
dently felt that the practices of the house needed to be clearly articulated
for future generations as well as for the current one. The instructions for
Trinity Sunday indicate one small example of the type of change that an
abbess might make as well as the possible resistance from the community:

Ad processionem solebant dici. Gloria tibi trinitas, et R. O beata trinitas. sed

modo ordinatum est per dominam Sibillam de Felton abbatissam ut in loco
52 PERFORMING PIETY

predictorum dicatur V. Salue festa dies. et eat processio circa claustrum, deinde
ad feretrum sancte ethelburge, et sic procedant in nauem ecclesies. et audiant
sermonem.22
[At the procession it has been the custom to say Gloria tibi trinitas and the
responsory O beata trinitas, but lately Lady Sybill Felton, abbess, has ordered
that in the place of the preceding be said the verse Salve festa dies and the
procession should go around the cloister, then to the bier of St. Ethelburga,
and thus they ought to proceed into the nave of the church and hear the
sermon.]

Felton apparently wants to bring the convent into the more contemporary
usage of that adaptable processional hymn Salve festa dies for this festival
occasion. The author of this ordinal manages to record both the old and
new practice perhaps so that the nuns would know how the change
occurred, perhaps as a slight protest against the change. One must wonder
whether perhaps the community is divided about this change. Do some
prefer the more ornate responsory to the refrain-laden Salve festa dies? Is this
an example perhaps of the cantrix (potentially the actual scribe of the ordi-
nal) expressing a difference of opinion on liturgical matters? Or does it just
reflect an interest in recording the change because it is new? The tone
seems to contrast with the veneration of an earlier abbess, Katherine
Sutton, who arranged for the Easter dramas (see chapter 5).
Although the work of Sybill Felton is the only English nunnery ordinal
that is extant, various visitation records indicate that bishops held other
abbesses and prioresses responsible for providing corresponding materials
for their own establishments. John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, enjoined
the prioress at Benedictine house of Studley Priory that she provide an
ordinal for the house so that the rules were clear.23
These passages illustrate that the power of the abbess is, then, a very far-
reaching one. She enjoys great symbolic significance in the service and
accepts the musical responsibilities concomitant with her position; she has
charge over liturgical affairs and some freedom in deciding which practices
to follow; and she has the responsibility for chanting prayers and lessons on
many occasions as well. She delegates many of these functions to another
nun on ferial and lesser feast days, for the significance of the abbess’s par-
ticipation on principal feasts depends partially on its infrequence on other
occasions.
Many extant records from bishops’ visitations also attest to the impor-
tance of liturgical participation in the abbess’s duties. At the Augustinian pri-
ory of Gracedieu, a nun comments: “Item dicit quod priorissa propter
senium et impotenciam abdicauit a se omne regimen temporalium nec
interest diuinis, sic quod inutilis est”24 [Also she says that the prioress by rea-
son of old age and incapacity has renounced for herself all the governance
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 53

of matters temporal, nor does she take part in divine service, so that she is
useless]. Clearly the sisters of Gracedieu are in trouble with a totally inef-
fective prioress who does not even maintain her important liturgical role.
The bishop’s visitation offers a chance to raise and hopefully resolve this
issue as the bishop is the one person with authority to “fire” the abbess and
call for a new election. How often does this happen? A study of the dynam-
ics of bishops in the election of abbesses is beyond the scope of this work,
but this small item certainly does raise the important issue of the abbess’s
musical leadership. There must have been many occasions when the abbess
either lacked vocal ability or lost it as she aged. It seems likely that the
ebdomadaria, the weekly leader, filled in for her on most occasions.
Often the abbess or prioress is so busy with her other duties that she
does not attend worship on ferial days. This makes her appearance on feast
days even more of a signal to the convent. The abbess, by virtue of her
position, serves as exemplar to the convent; through her musical leadership
she effectually demonstrates the importance of regular musical participation
in the liturgy.

The Cantrix
Cantrix, precentrix, cantarista, cantatrix, singestre, chauntres, and chantir
are among the Latin and Middle English words given as titles for the
woman who holds the primary responsibility for the musical portions of
the liturgy. Determining the exact nature of her duties and their evolution
during the Middle Ages is a challenging task, but it seems clear that by the
later medieval period there are four distinct areas that fall to her charge: the
general oversight of liturgical practices, the musical regulation of the ser-
vice, the vocal instruction of the nuns, and many specific soloistic duties.
The office of cantor is mentioned by name only once in the Benedictine
Rule—a brief indication in Chapter 9 that the cantor should begin the
Gloria Patri. Later in the rule, Chapter 47, Benedict makes provision for the
abbot to delegate his responsibilities for the oversight of worship to another
monk, but he gives no specific designation to this role. Fassler demonstrates
that the roles of the cantor and the armarius (librarian) changed radically as
the monastic culture moved from oral to written transmission in the tenth
to twelfth centuries. In this move, which predates most sources from
English nunneries, the two positions evolved into one:

The new office, with its dual nature, became the norm throughout Western
monasticism, with important consequences for the production of musical
and liturgical books throughout much of the Later Middle Ages. . . . The
production of liturgical books was supervised by the cantor himself; he was
54 PERFORMING PIETY

the person who ordered and no doubt designed these books; he was the offi-
cial who corrected mistakes and was responsible for changes in the traditional
texts and music when they were made.25

While Fassler’s work focuses on this transitional period, the available

sources from English nunneries primarily provide information on the four-
teenth through sixteenth centuries. In this work we will thus seek to estab-
lish what exactly we can know from English nunnery sources about the
female counterpart to the cantor in the later Middle Ages.
The earliest specific references to an English cantrix are found in the
Wintney Version of the Benedictine Rule which translates the Latin can-
tor as cantrix in the Latin portion and singestre in the English portion.26
Since this translation probably dates back to the late eleventh century, it
provides an early indication that English nunneries had such a position.
Records from Romsey Abbey indicate that in 1333 Olive Beaufou,
chantress, participated in the election of the abbess there.27 Visitation
records of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries mention
“cantrices” and “precentrix.”28 Certainly there is clear evidence that the
office of cantrix is well established by the early fourteenth century. By that
time, the term precentrix has also appeared. Generally speaking precentrix
seems to indicate the highest cantrix when there is more than one. At
Barking Abbey the precentrix, and her assistant, the succentrix, are noted
individually but the term cantrices also appears. For example, the descrip-
tion of the annual distribution of books in Lent gives this list of monastic
officers:

omnes obedenciarie. scilicet. libraria, suppriorissa, tercia priorissa, circuitri-

ces, magistre scolarium, cantrices, secretarie, refectorices, elemosinarie [et]
celerarie, coram abbatissa humi prostrate.29
[All of the subalterns, namely the librarian, sub-prioress, third prioress,
patrolers, mistresses of the novices, chantresses, secretaries, refectory staff,
almoners, and the cellaress, prostrated on the ground in front of the abbess.]

On the other hand, when specific people are listed as in the instructions for
the small group of six nuns, the precentrix and succentrix are listed sepa-
rately. Appendix A, a list of the names of specific cantrices that I have
located, indicates a variety of terminology. For example, Burnham has a
cantarista30 and sub-cantarista while Romsey has a precentrix, cantatrix,
third cantatrix, and fourth cantatrix. Winchester names a precentrix fol-
lowed by the second, third, and fourth cantrices. The term precentrix
clearly denotes the first person in the hierarchy when it is used; both “sub-
precentrix” and “succentrix” denote her assistant.
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 55

The author of the allegorical The Abbey of the Holy Ghost not only char-
acterizes the abbess and prioress but also the “chaunterese.” He writes:
“Orysone salle be chaunterese, Qat with hertly prayers sall trauele daye &
nyghte. . . . Iubilacio, hir felowe, sall helpe”31 (Prayer shall be the
chantress, she that with heartfelt prayers shall work day and night. . . .
Jubilation, her partner shall help). Even in the allegorical abbey the cantrix
has an assistant. Prayer and praise, the two cornerstones of worship, fill the
roles of the cantrices. Both are critical attributes of a leader of music in the
abbey. The cantrix must have a heart of devotion and a joy in her work if
she is to be an effective leader of others. Prayer and praise should underlie
all of the specific duties she undertakes.

Oversight of the Liturgical Life

Fassler cites customaries that give very specific instructions for the division
of labor within the monastery, especially concerning the creation of the
weekly tabula or table with its assignments of liturgical duties.32
Unfortunately no customary or ordinal is available from an English
nunnery prior to the Barking Ordinal compiled in 1404. This ordinal
specifically reminds the cantrices that it is their duty to understand the
complex monastic calendar.

Sollicite sint cantrices et cura diligenti kalendarium inspiciant. terminoque

septuagesime et quadragesime, pasche quoque et pentecostes absque errore.
reperto numero predictarum ebdomadarum. ab octauis sancte trinitatis usque
ad aduentum domini: diligenter enumerent ut secundum paucitatem uel
numerositatem uel equalitatem dominicarum ordinetur obsequium. ne quod
absit incuria illarum uel necligencia diuinum officium irracionabile fiat.33
[The cantrices should be diligent and should examine the calendar with
watchful care. When Septuagesima and Quadragesima as well as Easter and
Pentecost have ended, and when the number of the aforementioned weeks
from the octave of Trinity until Advent have been figured out without error,
they should carefully count so that the observance is ordered according to
the lesser, greater, or equal number of Sundays, lest—God forbid—due to
their carelessness or negligence the divine office be performed irrationally.]

In a volume filled with specific liturgical minutiae, this statement is a clear

reminder that someone needs to step back and do the annual planning. The
complexity of the late medieval liturgical calendar demands careful over-
sight by those in charge. Indeed many of the instructions in the ordinal
exist simply to clarify the exact precedence of one feast over another
depending on the day of the week and the liturgical season in which it falls.
The Barking Abbey cantrices definitely need to plan so that the entire
56 PERFORMING PIETY

convent does not worship erroneously. The specific notes at the bottom of
each month of the calendar give the cantrices additional information for
planning. For example, a note at the bottom of the calendar for February
(figure 1.2) reads: “Post lunam secundam post epiphaniam computa duos
dies et in proxima dominica erit quadragesima”34 [After the second moon
past epiphany, count two days, and the following Sunday will be Lent].
The Additions to the Rule from the Bridgettine Abbey at Syon are even
more explicit about the role of the cantrix. The section entitled “Of the
office of the chauntres” begins by discussing the general attributes
necessary:

The chauntres and subchauntresses euerychone owe to be cunnyng and

perfyte in redyng and syngynge, hauynge experience of the ordinal and
makyng of the table for the quyer, with habilite of voyce, of the whyche one
whom the abbes assygnethe schal be the chefe chauntresse. To whos charge
principally it belongeth for to haue besy attendaunce aboute dyuyne servyse,
that al thynge be done in goode rewle, and that nothyng be omytted thor-
oughe her negligence or of any other to her power.35
[The chantress and sub chantresses should all be skillful and perfect in read-
ing and singing, having experience with the ordinal and with making the
table for the choir, and also having vocal ability. The abbess should assign
one of them to be the chief chantress. Her main charge is to be industrious
about the divine service so that everything is done according to the rule and
that nothing is left out because of her negligence nor anything else in her
power.]

In this opening passage the author emphasizes the duty of the cantrix to
maintain the overall oversight of the liturgy. She needs to be experienced
with the ordinal, to understand the rule, and to be able to see the larger
liturgical needs as well as the specific performance roles. At Syon the “chefe
subchauntress” is specifically instructed to “sette the table after the forme
expressed to fore”36 (to arrange the table as it is said before). This distinc-
tion actually contradicts a previous passage where the chantress herself is
given responsibility for the table.
The table (or tabula) is posted weekly in the choir so that each person
knows what to do. It lists the incipits of chants and the nuns responsible for
intoning them. At Syon in the fifteenth century, the responsibility for writ-
ing the table lies with the chantresses:

Wherefor that the more certeynte be had in our lordes seruyse in the
chirche, chapter, and freytour, the chauntres schal euery fryday make the
table, and sette it in suche a place of the quyer that alle the sustres may loke
ther up on, and se what they schal do.37
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 57

[Wherefore, so that things shall be clearer in the lord’s service in the church,
the chapter house, and the refectory, the chantress shall make the table each
Friday, and set it in a place in the choir where all the sisters can look at it and
see what they should do.]

It is the chantress who must be clear about the feast days, knowing which
liturgy is celebrated on which day. She must keep track of the abbess’s
availability for her liturgical role, know the ability of the other nuns, and
assign the weekly leaders. All of this requires intricate knowledge of the
specific history and liturgy of the individual house as well as of the church
in general.
Although the sources from Barking and Syon offer the most definitive
statements of the nun’s responsibilities for the oversight of the liturgy, some
visitation records also attest to this part of the cantrix’s role. The Bishop of
Lincoln issued the following injunctions to the Benedictine nunnery of
Godstow in May, 1520:

Memorandum quod ordinetur chorus in psallendo, cantando, legendo et alijs

diuinis officijs per precentricem et in eius absencia per succentricem quia
moniales seniores ibidem nolunt decantare et legere secundum quod precen-
trix ordinauerit.38
[It is to be noted that the choir ought to be ordered in psalmody, singing,
reading, and other divine duties by the precentrix, and in her absence by the
succentrix, because the senior nuns in this place do not wish to sing and read
according to that which the precentrix ordered.]

In this particular case the bishop is upholding the rights of the office of the
precentrix over the rights of seniority. This distinction is very important
because much of the hierarchy in the nunnery rests precisely on that
seniority. Clearly older nuns have challenged the authority of the cantrix at
Godstow, and she has appealed to the bishop to defend her rights. Bishop
Fleming obviously recognized this potential tension in his instructions to
the nuns at Elstow in 1421–22:

Item quod magis idonea monialis in precentricem deputetur et ordinetur; et

quod seniores, si habiles et idonee fuerint ad officia huiusmodi, minoribus
preferantur.39
[Also that a more suitable nun be deputed and ordained to be precentrix; and
that elder nuns, if they shall be capable and fit for such offices, be preferred
to younger.40]

First and foremost the nun chosen to serve as the cantrix must be compe-
tent in musical and liturgical matters; however, preference should be given
58 PERFORMING PIETY

to senior nuns to minimize the dynamics of a younger nun issuing orders

to an older nun.
Of course the cantrix does not always succeed in her work. In a record
of a visitation at the Benedictine house at Sheppey by the Archbishop of
Canterbury in 1511, the prioress voices a complaint: “Agnes Revers, pri-
oress, says all is in good order, except that she doubts whether Anicia
Tanfeld, cantarista, behaves well to the sisters, and whether she provides
properly for the observances in the choir.”41 This criticism underscores the
role of the cantrix as the overseer of liturgical life as well as the importance
of her appropriate interactions with the other nuns. It also raises interesting
questions about the role of the prioress (or abbess) vis-à-vis the cantrix. The
prioress has the right to remove the cantrix at the time of the year when the
obedienciaries are named. Perhaps Anicia Tanfield, despite her failings, is
the best available musician and the prioress is hoping to improve her work
through the authority of the bishop.
As we develop an understanding of the role of the cantrix from a variety
of sources, we see that indeed one of her principal functions is to oversee
the liturgical life of the nunnery, working in concert with the abbess, the
sacristan, and others within the community. This task places her at the cen-
ter of monastic life and gives her immense authority to shape communal
spirituality.

The Regulation of Music

As part of her oversight of the liturgy, the cantrix potentially has a number
of duties relating to the upkeep of liturgical books, the choice of chants for
specific occasions, the creation of chants if necessary, and the setting of
tempos and pitches in the performance. Just exactly what can we document
about these activities? The maintenance of liturgical books is a particularly
difficult area because there is very little direct evidence of the production
of books at nunneries. One tantalizing product of an enterprising nun, pre-
sumably the cantrix, is the system devised at Syon Abbey for keeping the
processionals up to date. In two of the five processionals, chants have been
added in an appendix. These pieces are assigned letters which are then ref-
erenced in the margin, earlier in the book, at the appropriate liturgical
occasion. According to the Additions to the Rule from Syon this work is part
of the chantress’s duties: “Also it is her charge to haue alle the bokes in
kepyng that longe to dyuyne seruyse, chapter, and freytour, and to se that
they be corrected, and made of one acorde”42 [Also it is part of her duties
to take care of all the books that are used in the divine service, the chapter
house and the refectory, and to see that they are corrected and made to
agree with each other]. The cantrix, in essence, has control over what the
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 59

convent reads and sings although her work is always subject to the over-
sight of the abbess. In this particular instance she is bringing two earlier vol-
umes into conformity with later practice.
Bishops’ visitations also offer some insight into the use of books within
the nunnery. In at least one case it is the precentrix herself, obviously dis-
couraged by the condition of the liturgical books, who complains to
Bishop Nicke:

Domina Margareta Harman praecentrix per XXXV annos elapsos dicit se

nihil novisse correctione seu reformatione dignum nisi quod libri divinorum
in choro indigent reparatione.43
[Lady Margareta Harman, precentrix for the past thirty-five years, says that
nothing needs correction or reform except that the books of the divine ser-
vices in the choir need repair.]

Harman, the precentrix of the Augustinian priory at Campsey, has no other

complaints to make to the bishop except that these volumes are in a state
of disrepair. She presumably understands their maintenance to be her
responsibility even if she does not actually make the repairs herself. She
receives the necessary authority in the bishop’s injunctions which state that
the books should be restored.44
Another important aspect of the position of cantrix is the choice of
chants for many liturgical occasions. While much of the liturgy is fixed,
there are many other places where there are options. The cantrix needs
to know the acceptable choices and to make them. The Barking Ordinal
is full of references to occasions for which the cantrix selects the specific
chants for the liturgy. For example, on the Feast of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary at vespers, the Ordinal notes: “Sequencia dicatur hiis
quatuor diebus ad uesperas. et in disposicione sit presentricis que sequen-
cie debeant decantari ad uesperas et ad missam”45 [The sequence should
be said on these four days at vespers and let it be at the discretion of the
precentrix which sequences ought to be sung at vespers and at mass].
Here the cantrix chooses the particular Marian sequences that are most
appropriate for the four days after this principal feast. The sequence is a
later addition to the liturgy, and thus there is a less rigid tradition church-
wide of what should be sung. Similarly the Feast of St. Ethelburga, cele-
brated primarily locally, offers several opportunities for the cantrix to
choose the music. It is precisely in this context that the cantrix’s duties
could surely involve the creation of text and music for specific occa-
sions.46 Ideally the person who holds the position of cantrix is the nun
with the greatest musical ability, the person the convent would naturally
turn to for new music.
60 PERFORMING PIETY

These instructions to the cantrix underscore the dynamic nature of

medieval liturgy. New feasts were constantly added to the calendar, new
relics acquired, musical tropes added to preexisting chants, and such genres
as the sequence and liturgical drama expanded. All of these changes require
a nun who keeps current on the liturgy and adapts the practices of the par-
ticular house accordingly.
The cantrix’s duties also include the appropriate regulation of musical
performance. The Syon Additions again give the most detailed and practical
descriptions of what these duties entail: the chantress should balance the two
sides of the choir so that they are even, set the tempo at a moderate pace so
that it is neither too fast or slow, and pitch the chants in a moderate range.47
These instructions join the spiritual and the practical together. Thus the
solemnity of the feast day and the need to finish before the Syon brothers
begin their liturgy are both factors in the choice of tempo. This discussion
of the chantress’s duties, reproduced in full in appendix B, gives a marvelous
picture of the complexity of the job. These instructions also underscore
the effect of pitch and tempo on the spiritual and physical well-being of the
nuns. For example, if the music is too slow it can depress the spirits; if the
pitch is too high or too low, it tires the voices. Since nuns spend several
hours a day chanting, these directives are more than quaint suggestions—
they are necessary to the appropriate regulation of monastic music.

Teaching Music
At least two people shared the responsibility for the teaching of music in
the nunnery—the cantrix and the magistra scolarium or novice mistress.48
The Franciscan rule decrees that “{if Qer be any sustris couenable & of gode
witte, The abbes, {if sche QenkiQ hem goode, to ordeyne & assigne a
maystresse couenable & honeste for to teche hem songe, to performe Qe
office & seruise of god stedfastli”49 [If there be a sister who is proper and of
good intelligence, the abbess if she thinks it appropriate, should assign a
proper and honest mistress to teach them singing, so that they can perform
the office and service of God steadfastly]. Is this person the novice mistress
or the cantrix? Certainly at Barking the list of officials includes the magistre
scolarium, novice mistresses, as well as the cantrices. Since novices learn
both through direct participation in the service and through classes with
their novice mistress, the novice mistress and cantrix both serve as instruc-
tors. The Benedictine Rule makes it clear that children can be punished by
beating for their mistakes during the service, an indication that the peda-
gogical methods also included a dose of punishment.50
The most direct indication of the teaching of music in a specifi-
cally ordered fashion comes from Wherwell Abbey in Hampshire. Two
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 61

manuscripts from that abbey preserve vocal exercises and other pedagogi-
cal information. Three leaves of a twelfth-century calendar from the abbey
include a Guidonian hand and other teaching materials (see appendix C).51
The manuscript includes a calendar as well as “verses on the death of
Matilda, abbess of Wherwell, and an epistola consolatoria by E., prioress of
Wherwell.”52 The Guidonian hand, used from the eleventh century
onward, is a basic way to teach the syllables of the hexachord, the six-note
scale of the Middle Ages. Each joint of the hand is assigned a letter name.
The letter is then followed by a syllable (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la) identifying its
place in the hexachord. The hand in the Wherwell manuscript is a simpli-
fied version. It gives the letters with only a few syllable notations. It also
lists the letters in a border around the outside of the folio. However, the
preceding page presents a rather unusual set of circles giving each note with
complete information about it (figure 2.3). In each circle, one note is
given—for example, C fa ut. Above the circle is a note in Anglo-Norman
“en space” or “en reule” indicating whether the note is on a staff line or in
a space. Furthermore, under the note name, the range of the gamut from
which the note is taken is indicated as grave, acute, or super acute. Under
the circles is an abbreviated theoretical treatise on the solmization and the
process of mutation from one hexachord to another (appendix C). This
passage does not seem to come verbatim from any of the major medieval
treatises, but it seems to be instead a distillation of the material that would
have been found commonly in Guido’s Micrologus and other works.
The final page in this set, folio 12, includes vocal exercises evidently
intended to put into practice the information from the preceding short
treatise. The exercises are notated on a twelve-line staff, with note names
indicated at the left of the bottom ten lines. The exercises wind their way
through the hexachords, focusing especially on the differences between
b-natural and b-flat. After rising a full two-and-a-half octaves, the exercises
come to a rest on F fa ut. Two four-line staves follow with easy vocal exer-
cises that take the singer through the bottom hexachord (see appendix C,
example C.1). A fourteenth-century manuscript from Wherwell, contain-
ing a psalter and Office of the Dead (figure 2.4) also includes a set of exer-
cises that are very similar to vocal warm-ups commonly used today, except
that they are based on the g-hexachord, not the octave. These two manu-
scripts, the only two with such clear musical pedagogical materials from an
English nunnery, certainly indicate that music is taught in a systematic fash-
ion at Wherwell either by the cantrix, the novice mistress, or both. They
are an exciting sign that vocal expertise is valued in nunneries.
The cantrix also teaches through the correction of mistakes in choir and
the choice of specific people to serve as weekly leaders in the choir. She is
the person who points out mistakes and encourages a better performance of
62

Figure 2.3 Theoretical Treatise on Music from Wherwell Abbey

Source: St. Petersburg Library, Russia, Publ. Lib Q.V.I, 62 f. 11r (by permission of the Manuscript
Department, St. Petersburg Library)
 63

Figure 2.4 Vocal Exercises from the Wherwell Psalter

Source: British Library, Additional 27866, f. 147r (by Permission of the British Library)
64 PERFORMING PIETY

the chant. Her role is often to teach her peers and even her elders, a job that
requires great tact. The precentrix at Godstow who is resented by the
senior nuns, perhaps lacks a light touch in making these corrections. Since
the nuns spend so much time actually in performance, there is little time for
rehearsals in the contemporary sense of the word. The cantrix undoubtedly
gives her instructions informally in most situations unless the mistakes are
so notable that they have to be corrected publicly.

Vocal Leadership
From early monastic times the cantor or cantrix served as a soloist, begin-
ning chants, singing solo verses, and leading or regulating the music
through performance. This role was undoubtedly the principal one during
the period of oral transmission and it remains a prominent part of the role
in the later Middle Ages even as the cantrix acquires other duties. The
vocal leadership of the cantrix literally sets the tone for worship. While the
abbess has a ceremonial musical role in liturgy, the cantrix fundamentally
has a musical job to do. For example, at Barking Abbey, the rubrics for
Ascension specifically mention that the cantrix controls the solo group of
six: “Abbatissa incipiat Salue festa dies. sex sororibus, a cantrice premoni-
tis”53 [Let the Abbess begin Salve festa dies, with six sisters, having been
cued in by the cantrix]. At Syon Abbey the cantrix is “also to entune to the
abbes softly alle the antems that sche is to begyn in double festes and
other”54 [Also to intone softly for the abbess all the antiphons which she is
to begin on double feasts and other occasions]. Indeed the term precentrix
comes from the verb precinere which means “to sing before.” Since the
pitch of chant is entirely relative, the person who starts has to choose a
pitch that will work for the particular chant as sung by that specific vocal
ensemble. She must have a sense of the entire chant so that she is aware of
the range. The cantrix has to evaluate the situation and give a soft pitch to
the person who actually intones the chant if necessary.
The Franciscan Rule distinctly depicts the cantrix’s role as one of musi-
cal leadership in the service: “For to {eue Qe antemes & for to tune Qe
psalmis Qer schul be ii chaunteressis, one in Qat one syde & one in Qat oQer
side in eche quere ordeynid & assignid, whiche schullen |, {euin Qe
antemis & entune Qe psalmis eche on here syde”55 [There should be two
chantresses to start the antiphons and to intone the psalms, one on one side
and one on the other side ordered and assigned to each choir. They should
start the antiphons and intone the psalms, each one on her side]. The pres-
ence of two cantrices not only assumes that they begin the antiphons and
psalms but also assures that each side of the choir has a lead voice. Since
most choral singing depends heavily on a leader and followers, the presence
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 65

of at least one confident singer on each side is critical to good choral per-
formance. It remains true today that in many choral groups most singers
wait a slight fraction of a second to follow the “lead” singer. Even if that
person has no official status, her function is most evident when she is absent
and the section falls apart. Thus the practice of having at least two cantrices
makes abundant practical sense.56
The presence and role of the cantrix as a soloist is evident in many sources.
Both the Wilton and Chester Processionals explicitly mention the cantrix as
beginning chants. On feast days, especially, she usually intones several chants.
At Syon Abbey, the cantrix with one of her assistants stands in the middle of
the choir to start the chants.57 On ferial days this office belonged at Syon to
the rectrices or “two begynners,” jobs that rotated weekly.
An examination of the cantrix’s responsibilities at Barking Abbey on
Christmas Day gives an idea of the special duties she undertakes for feast
days. She begins the opening antiphon for vespers and joins with the select
group of six (abbess, prioress, precentrix, succentrix, and two senior nuns)
to sing the solo portions of chants at vespers, matins, the procession, and
mass. There are also three chants that either the abbess or the precentrix
begins. Finally in the refectory after the meal she is responsible for leading
the chant Hec est dies:

Post refeccionem autem, cum gracias domino deo exoluerint, incipiat pre-
sentrix, uoce excelsa, hunc uersum. Hec est dies. sicque uterque chorus alter-
natim concinentes eundem, non desinent repetere donec omnes in ecclesiam
conuenerint.58
[After the meal, however, when they will have given thanks to God, let the
precentrix begin, in a loud voice, this verse: Hec est dies. Thus by turns each
side of the choir singing the same thing, they should not stop repeating it
until everyone has come together in the church.]

The strong voice of the cantrix expresses the celebrative character of

Christmas as does this act itself of singing in the refectory, something that
is repeated on several principal feast days at Barking. The initiation of this
chant during the mealtime liturgy demonstrates how pervasive the role of
the cantrix is. It does not stop at the doors of the church but continues into
the chapter house, refectory, and cloister. In addition to her singing roles
on Christmas, she also arranges for all of the other people who serve on this
principal feast day. She is certainly in “besy attendaunce aboute dyuyne
servyse,”59 [full of activity for the divine service] as the Syon Additions
describe her work.
The sound and style of the cantrix’s voice is formative for the nuns in the
convent, and especially for novices in training. Her voice is an exemplar of
66 PERFORMING PIETY

good singing. The vocal leadership of the cantrix helps to create the specific
sound of the nunnery choir. In order to be respected as the musical leader,
the nun who is cantrix needs to be a competent soloist, able to embody that
which she teaches. An interesting anecdote from a bishop’s visitation to the
Augustinian house at Goring in 1530 confirms our understanding of the
importance of the cantrix. It seems that the house does not have a cantrix
at the moment. It also appears that the nuns know exactly who ought to be
fill that role—Margarete Wodall. There is a strong insistence on her abilities
and the problems created when she is absent from the divine service. Of the
eight members of the house, four specifically comment on her abilities both
in the choir and in business affairs. Apparently the prioress has assigned her
various managerial roles that take her away from worship.60 Particularly in a
small house where a handful of nuns sings the service, the problem of losing
a musically talented nun to other duties is severe.
Mechtild of Hackeborn (c. 1241–98), author of Liber Spiritualis Gratiae,
served as cantrix at the German nunnery of Helfta. According to Theresa
Halligan, her “special duties were to direct the choir, train young novices,
and teach in the convent school.”61 Numerous comments in her own writ-
ings as well as those of her fellow nuns attest to her beautiful voice and the
extreme piety of her life. As the Middle English translation of her works says:

Oure lorde also so plenteuoslye fulfyllede here with grace ande weth geftes
of nature besyde gostelye gyftes that sche hadde Qat in kunnynge ande
vnderstandynge, in syngynge ande fayrenesse of voyce sownynge, ande in
alle thynges that langede to here relygioun sche was fulle experte ande fulle
profytabylle to the qwere ande to the cloystere insomoche that hitt semydde
here plenteuoslye vysitede with alle oure lordes gyftes.62
[Our lord also filled her plenteously with grace and with gifts of nature besides
spiritual gifts so that what she had in wisdom and understanding, in singing
and beauty of sonorous voice, and in all things that belong to her religion
were very expert and advantageous to the choir and to the cloister in so much
that it seemed that she was fully endowed with all of our lord’s gifts.]

This listing of Mechtild’s gifts corresponds well with the desirable traits of
a good cantrix, a position that she filled for many years at Helfta. The
beauty of her voice is seen as a great asset to the community and a call to a
vocation within the vocation.

The Ebdomadaria or Weekly Cantrix

While the abbess and cantrix have important roles as soloists on feast days
and other occasions, there are numerous other short musical solos in the
liturgy. Most musical leadership in the nunnery rotates on a weekly basis
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 67

with the ebdomadaria leading for a week at a time and many other indi-
vidual nuns assigned to specific chants. Indeed, as we will see in chapter 7,
the musical training of novices relies on these small opportunities to intone
a chant. Every choir nun should be able to take her turn in the rotation
unless she is truly unable to sing adequately.
The role of the ebdomadaria is similar to that of the abbess, except that
since it rotates weekly no one person gains the power that the position rep-
resents and everyone has an opportunity to participate. The ebdomadaria
reads or chants some prayers and lessons and begins certain chants. The
Franciscan Rule notes that “And after Qat Qe ebdomo[da]ri make a syngne,
as | hit is aboue seyde, for to make hem redi & Qan sche schal bigynne Qe
office in here sege & here visage turnid to Qe awter”63 [And after that, the
ebdomadaria makes a sign, as it is described above, for them to make them-
selves ready and then she begins the office in her seat, with her face turned
toward the altar]. The person who fills this role does so for a week at a
time, hence her name which comes from the Latin word hebdomada, mean-
ing a period of seven days. On principal feast days that fall within that
week, the abbess would start the service; on other days the ebdomadaria
leads the choir.
The Barking Ordinal often lists the ebdomadaria as a possible substitute
for the abbess. On Trinity Sunday, for example:

Ad Terciam; omnes conueniant, abbatissa si presens fuerit incipiat. Ymp.

Ueni creator spiritus. cum genufleccione. si non. ebdomadaria incipiat predic-
tum ympnum.64
[At terce everyone should come together; if the abbess is present, she should
begin the hymn Veni creator spiritus genuflecting; if not, the ebdomadaria
should begin the aforesaid hymn.]

Even on some occasions when the abbess is present, the ebdomadaria

retains the primary leadership of the service. For example, at matins on the
octave of Easter, the abbess reads a lesson but the ebdomadaria leads the
versicles and begins the antiphons. Another function that often falls to
the ebdomadaria is beginning mass. A frequently recurring phrase in the
ordinal is “Magna Missa in medio choro a sola ebdomadaria incipiatur”65
[The Great Mass should be begun in the middle of the choir by the ebdo-
madaria alone]. On feast days the group of six nuns usually assumes this
function.
At Syon Abbey there appear to be three people who rotate weekly—the
ebdomadaria and the two “begynners.” The Additions to the Rule specify
that the two halves of the choir should switch sides weekly beginning
with evensong on Saturday. The ebdomadaria should be on the side of the
68 PERFORMING PIETY

abbess. The author then describes the exact role of the ebdomadaria:

The ebdomary is bounde euermore to be one of the fyrst in the quyer, and
to absteyn and withedrawe herself from alle thynges that wyke that myght
lette her to performe her office. Ande whan the abbes executethe not the
seruyse sche schal begyn the Invitatory, and {eue the thrydde blyssyng whan
the abbes redethe the thrydde lesson, and also fulfyl the office of the abbes in
principal festes, as it is seyd before, excepte in suche thynges as belonge to
the priores or serges, as it schewethe in dyuers places of thes Addicions, and
in the Ordynalle.66
[The ebdomadaria is always obligated to be one of the first in the choir and
to avoid and abstain from those things that might keep her from performing
her office that week. And when the abbess does not perform the service, she
should begin the Invitatory and she should give the third blessing when the
abbess reads the third lesson, and also do the things that the abbess does in
principal feasts, as it is said before, except for the things that fall to the pri-
oress or the searchers as it is told in other parts of the Additions and in the
Ordinal.]

This description clearly links the ebdomadaria’s role to that of the abbess.
The opportunity to serve in this role accomplishes many things: First, it
trains nuns in leadership roles through actual practice, a type of internship.
Second, it reminds the convent that the right of blessing can rest with any
nun. It is a form of egalitarianism in a rather hierarchical structure. Third,
it may encourage nuns to mentally “try on” the role of the abbess. These
instructions stress the prerequisites for spiritual leadership—the ebdo-
madaria needs to withdraw from whatever busy activities would keep her
from full concentration on her role as liturgist for the week. This passage is
an acknowledgment that the job of leading worship requires spiritual and
physical preparation. The ebdomadaria must arrive early in church and pre-
pare herself mentally and spiritually for her role.
At Syon Abbey, however, there are two other nuns who serve by
the week. The Additions continue with a paragraph entitled “ “Of the
begynners”:

The rectours of [sic] the two begynners of masse, or of any other thynge by
the wyke, schal begyn the ympnes, psalmes, antemes, and responses in ther
stalles, but at masse they schalle do ther office in myddes of the quyer, ston-
dyng, syttyng, and enclynyng alway to the este, saue at matens they schal
conforme them to the quyer as moche as they may, as it schewethe of the sex
and twenty chapter.67
[The rectors or the two beginners of mass, or of anything else that rotates
weekly, should begin the hymns, psalms, antiphons, and responsories in
their choir stalls, but at mass they should lead from the middle of the choir,
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 69

standing, sitting, and bowing always to the east, except at matins they
should act like the choir as much as they can, as it states in the twenty-sixth
chapter.]

Some of these duties (e.g., beginning mass) fall to the ebdomadaria at

Barking. The table assigned many of the other roles to specific nuns. The
creation of these additional weekly leaders adds to the opportunities for
musical growth. All of the nuns in rotating positions presumably take their
cue from the abbess and cantrix who establish the normative practices for
the house. By assigning the ebdomadaria, the cantrix is able to test the
potential of each nun for more substantive positions.

The Sacristan
The physical environment of worship plays a key role in the liturgical
experience. Liturgists, in fact, often say that “the building always wins,”
meaning that when a particular style of worship does not respect the phys-
ical environment it usually does not work. Within the nunnery the sac-
ristan has the primary responsibility for the physical maintenance of
worship space and such items as chalices, patens, candles, vestments, and
liturgical books. The Northern Metrical Version of the Benedictine Rule
includes a wonderful description of the role of the sacristan:

The Priores, & oQer nane,

Aw for to ches a segerstane
To ring Qe bels in right aray
Til al Qer seruys nyght & day.
And wisely aw hir forto wirk
To kepe enourmentes of Qe kirk,
Als chalese, boke, & vestmentes,
Relekes, waxe, and annual rentes.
Er aw to ordan al bedene,
Als vessel, close, & kep Qam clene.
Indentures suld Qai be ilkon,
And Qe priores sal kepe Qe tone,
So Qat when on sal out flit,
By Qer endenturs may Qai wit,
What thynges efter on er left
To hir Qat sal resaf Qam eft.
And who so wil reklesly wirk
Or files Qe Qinges of haly kirk,
Qai salbe chasted greuusly
Efter Qer warkes es worthi.68
70 PERFORMING PIETY

[The prioress and no one else

Should choose a sacristan
To ring the bells in the right order
to tell them of their services night and day.
And she should wisely work
to care for such ornaments of the church
as chalices, books and vestments,
Relics, candles, and annual rents.
She should provide altogether for
keeping clean the vessels and clothes.
Each of them should have an inventory
and the prioress should keep one
So that when something moves out
They will know from their inventory
Just what things are left after
For the one who receives them back.
And anyone who works recklessly
or defiles the things of holy church,
They shall be chastised hard
According to the worthiness of their work.]

Several of these tasks have a direct bearing on the musical practices in nun-
neries. The sacristan rings the bells. In figure 2.2 the upper part of the pic-
ture shows a nun, presumably the sacristan, ringing the bell. Bells are a
critical part of monastic life as different bells signal virtually all activities:
certain peals call nuns to worship, others accompany processions, and oth-
ers herald meals. The sacristan thus controls the whole tempo of the
monastic day and with it the flow of worship. Many of the bishops’ injunc-
tions relate to keeping appropriate times of worship. While ultimately the
abbess bears responsibility for this, in reality, the sacristan, as her designated
subaltern, carries out the plan.
The sacristan is also in charge of the chalices, books, vestments, reliquar-
ies, and candles. A description of the items in the keeping of the sacristan at
Wherwell Abbey in the early fourteenth century includes three ciboria, a
pyx, eleven chalices (some designated for specific altars), two crosses, four sil-
ver basins, six cruets, two candlesticks, three censers, two incense holders,
and two crowns for the high altar.69 The sacristan could easily have spent
much of her time just keeping the silver polished. Along with caring for the
objects themselves, she also keeps an inventory with copies for herself and the
abbess (or prioress). The value of the silver, gold, and jewels, in the church
forms an important part of the nunnery’s financial records.
Candles light the church and form an important part of the worship
atmosphere especially in the night offices. The sacristan and cantrix need to
 MUSICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE NUNNERY 71

work together to provide appropriate lighting. For example, the Barking

Ordinal notes that:

Et nota quod sacrista deliberabit precentrici, pro qualibet nocte quatuor noc-
tium. vj candelas ad decantandum hanc sequenciam. scilicet. Letabundus. ad
vesperas.70
[And note that the sacristan will consult with the presentrix before each of
the four nights, (to provide) six candles for the singing of this sequence,
namely, Letabundus at vespers.]

So the two leaders plan carefully that there is sufficient light for the perfor-
mance of the sequence on this feast day. The cantrix especially needs to
communicate any unusual requirements beforehand so that the nuns can
perform the liturgy. While one might assume that this is the case, it is reas-
suring to have it confirmed by the ordinal.
Barking Abbey follows a custom of scattering flowers during the
sequence on Pentecost:

Prouideat quoque sacrista ut a ministris ecclesie flores diuersi generis per

chorum hiis quatuor diebus inter sequenciam dispergantur.71
[Let the sacristan see to it that flowers of diverse kinds are dispersed through
the choir by the ministers of the church these four days during the
sequence.]

Here the sacristan bears responsibility for procuring and providing the
flowers in a timely fashion for this annual ritual. Like the cantrix, the sac-
ristan clearly must keep a close eye on the liturgical calendar to know pre-
cisely what the convent needs for each celebration.
The abbess, the cantrix, the sacristan, and the ebdomadaria together
provide leadership for the musical life of the nunnery. Their spirituality
affects the communal spiritual life; their musical skill guides others to make
beautiful music; their organizational skills allow the praise of God to flow
unceasingly. Each person from novice to abbess can test and try her skills in
the art of singing. Each absorbs the community ethos from those in official
positions during her most formative years. The quality of worship life
undoubtedly ebbs and flows depending on the abilities of this leadership.
The abbess bears ultimate responsibility for flaws and laxity in worship
practice, but the actual work of correcting and improving liturgy certainly
falls on the cantrix and sacristan.
Does the work of the cantrix and of the sacristan prepare them to accept
the roles of prioress and abbess at a later time? Can we determine if there is
any type of “corporate ladder” in the nunnery? Since our knowledge of the
72 PERFORMING PIETY

actual members of individual houses is sporadic, it is not possible to gather

any reliable statistical information; however, there are at least some cases in
which it is possible to trace a nun through multiple leadership roles. The
records indicate that Clemencia de Balliol is precentrix at Elstow when she
becomes abbess in 1294. Similarly, Juliana of Hampton serves as precentrix
before becoming prioress of Little Marlow in 1298.72 Barbara Jernygham is
the precentress of the Augustinian priory of Campsey Ash in 1499, the sub-
prioress in the 1526 visitation, and holds no position in 1532. Margaret
Harman, listed in the 1526 records as having been precentrix for thirty-five
years, does not actually appear in the earlier visitation. In 1532 she holds
the position of sacristan.73 Alicia Wytchill, precentrix of Studley in 1520, is
elected prioress in 1529.74 Certainly in some instances the cantrix, having
honed her leadership skills in that role, moves on to another leadership role
within the nunnery. In many houses this is a matter of pure necessity since
the number of offices exceeds the number of nuns. Communal life rests on
the expectation that every person contributes her skills as needed and
appropriate. Many women undoubtedly stretch their musical and adminis-
trative skills as they move into the role of cantrix. At any given time from
the thirteenth century onward, there are at least 130 women serving as,
essentially, professional musicians in England. They teach music, arrange
and compose music, and perform music constantly. The opportunity for
creative engagement of the liturgy is there.
CHAPTER 3

THE REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE

lthough monastic rules and the extant liturgical sources offer a docu-
A mentary view of the ideal musical practices in medieval English nun-
neries, such additional sources as visitation injunctions, records from the
dissolution, architectural remains, and the charting of extant books from
nunnery libraries provide a realistic corrective. The size of monastic houses
(ranging from tiny to well populated), the social class of the nuns, the rela-
tive wealth and poverty of the establishment, and the quality of leadership
all impact the character of the liturgy. While some contemporary authors
express concerns about the ability of nuns to fulfill their basic liturgical
duties1, the extant information strongly suggests that despite poverty and
the lack of a comprehensive education, most medieval choir nuns sing the
office regularly, their piety formed daily by the texts of the psalms, the
poetry of the hymns, and the music of both the core Gregorian chant
repertoire and later medieval additions. The ceaseless round of worship,
this central duty of monastic life, is both burden and blessing to the
medieval nun, not an ideal but a reality.
Many aspects of communal life affect the nature of that reality. Do nuns
know and understand liturgical Latin? Do they read non-liturgical devo-
tional works? Are there enough choir nuns to perform the divine office?
What issues arise in their renditions of psalmody and chant? These are some
of the many questions that are raised in our study of the source materials.
The nature of these written materials contributes to our difficulties in
assessing the climate of specific nunneries at definite points in time. The
information that we have provides somewhat fragmentary evidence that
must be woven together rather than a linear well-documented study of one
particular establishment.2 As described in the introduction, the process is not
unlike the piecing together of an ancient tile floor with entire sections miss-
ing, some tiles in such poor condition that only the barest outline is clear, and
perhaps a beautiful section that gives the viewer an inkling of what the
74 PERFORMING PIETY

original looks like. The vast majority of our sources for our understanding
of English nunneries come from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries,
although some are from earlier dates. Thus they document monastic life after
the ravages of the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century.

Books and Learning in the Nunnery

Over the last few decades, scholars have devoted considerable attention to
the nature of women’s spiritual experience in later medieval England. The
feminist movement has sparked a wave of scholarship that has uncovered
new sources and reconsidered old ones, thereby reconfiguring the land-
scape of medieval scholarship. As a result, we now understand much
more about nuns’ participation in the production, ownership, and use of
manuscripts and printed books than we did in the mid-twentieth century.
From these studies we can see that medieval English nuns are neither as
ignorant as some have believed nor as productive as the most ardent scholar
might wish. They are, however, active participants in the medieval book
trade.
David Bell’s volume What Nuns Read consolidates and adds to this
scholarship. Bell lists 144 surviving volumes that can be attributed to spe-
cific nunneries. These manuscripts come from just forty-six or approxi-
mately one-third of the nunneries. The bulk of these books date from the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; 53 percent are liturgical volumes, many of
them psalters. Of the non-liturgical volumes the great majority are in
Middle English.3 Bell also reminds us that only about 14 percent of extant
medieval manuscripts can be traced to specific monastic houses.4 There are
no surviving catalogues from nunnery libraries, so it is impossible to gauge
the full extent of even one such collection.
We know from the fifteenth-century ordinal that at Barking Abbey the
libraria (librarian) distributes books to the nuns every year on the first
Monday in Lent according to the procedure presented in the Benedictine
Rule. Since Barking Abbey supports around forty nuns, we can assume that
their library includes at least forty volumes that are appropriate for devo-
tional reading. These volumes are in addition to antiphonals, processionals,
and other liturgical volumes that reside in the church. Additionally, the
ordinal suggests that “libraria in medio capituli extendat tapetum, libros
omnes de armario superponentes”5 [The librarian should place a rug in the
middle of the chapter house, placing on it all the books from the cabinet].
Hence there are evidently additional books besides the ones that the nuns
return. In the Barking ritual, each nun returns her book from the previous
year as the librarian calls her name, either confessing to the abbess that she
has not read all of it or simply bowing to the cross if she has. The librarian
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 75

then distributes the books for the coming year.6 Finally the passage in the
ordinal concludes with a wonderful description of how the nuns should
and should not treat their books.

Cauendum sit ergo omnibus et precipue iuuenculis ne libros commissos

negligenter custodiant, ne in choro uel in claustro apertos reliquant, ne in
illis quod non est scribendum scribant, ne folia inde secare presumant. ne
illos quod absit per incuriam amittant. sed in tanta mundicia et integritate
conseruentur. ut tales ac tantos eos anno futuro reddere ualeant: quales ac
quantos a libraria preterito reciperant. Si qua uero in aliquo horum delinquerit:
in capitulo corripiatur.7
[All should take care, and especially the young, not to treat the books
entrusted to them in a negligent way, not leaving them open in the choir or
the cloister nor should they write in them what must not be written, nor
should they presume to cut a leaf from there, nor should they lose them,
God forbid, through carelessness, but rather they should keep them safe in
such cleanliness and soundness that they may return them in as good condi-
tion and amount in a future year as they received from the librarian in the
past. If someone truly mistreats them in any of these ways, she should be
censured in the chapter house.]

By detailing the potential wrong behaviors of the nuns, this passage con-
firms that the nuns actually read their books, that some of them at least are
able to write and have the impulse to annotate the books, that they medi-
tate on them in the cloister and the church, and it even confirms that they
might be tempted to cut out a page. The faults listed are compatible with
the actual use of the books. The entire injunction is also translated into
French.8 While Barking unquestionably holds a position near the top of
English nunneries in wealth, status, and learning, there is no reason to
assume that other Benedictine nunneries did not hold the book distribution
each year as required by the Benedictine Rule.
Indeed the material appended to the Anglo-Norman Rule (Library of
Congress MS 4) is very close in wording to the Barking Ordinal, apparently
translated from the same French version. There the nuns are enjoined:

Of eche and of alle, and nameliche of these younge ladies, that thei be
nougt negligent for to leue here bokes to hem assigned behynde hem in the
quer, neyther in cloystre, nether leye here bokes open other vnclosed, ne
withoute kepinge, neither kitte out of no book leef ne quaier, neyther write
therinne neyther put out, withoute leue, neyther leye no book out of the
place.9
[Of each and all and namely of these young ladies, that they are not negligent
to leave the books assigned to them in the choir, nor the cloister, nor leave
their books open and untended, nor cut out a leaf or a quire from the book,
76 PERFORMING PIETY

nor write anything in it, nor take it out without permission, nor leave any
book out of the nunnery.]

Although no one has found located the source of this manuscript, it is clear
that these instructions traveled in Benedictine circles in Latin, French, and
Middle English.10
The ability to read and sing constitutes one of the basic requirements for
entry into monastic life. Bishop Gray’s injunctions to the nuns at Elstow in
1432 set forth the requisite skills of a nun:

Ceterum vobis abbatisse, et cuilibet vobis in dignitate vestra abbaciali succe-

denti, in virtute obediencie et sub penis supra et infra scriptis iniungimus et
mandamus vt decetero nullam admittatis in monialem dicti monasterij nisi de
consensu expresso maioris et sanioris partis conuentus eiusdem; et tunc non
ullam, nisi in cantu et lectura et aliis requisitis in hac parte doctam, vel ex
verisimili in proximo de facili imbuendam, et talem que onera chori [illegi-
ble word] ceteris religionem concernentibus poterit supportare.11
[Moreover to you, abbess, and anyone succeeding you in your dignity
as abbess, by virtue of obedience and under the penalty above and herein
written, we enjoin and command that from now on you admit no one as a
nun to the said monastery unless by the express consent of the larger and
sounder part of this convent, and then no one unless taught in singing and
reading and the other necessary things in this part, or it is probable that in
the near future she may easily be instructed and will be able to manage such
things as the burdens of the choir [and] the other things concerned with
religion.]

Note that the only two specific skills required of a nun are reading and
singing. Without the ability to sing she cannot carry out the “burdens of
the choir”. Choir service is her principal work. Thus, the most important
skills for a nun are the ability to read and sing; in order to maintain the flow
of monastic worship new nuns must acquire these arts. Reading and
singing are always mentioned in tandem, the assumption being that you
cannot sing the services unless you can read the words. The basic skills of
reading and singing appear to have constituted the curriculum of elemen-
tary schools in England during the period. Some nunneries do educate
young boys as well as young girls but there is very little surviving evidence
of exactly what they were taught.12 The prevalence of comments about
reading and singing in bishops’ injunctions indicates that nunneries do at
times accept women as nuns who do not have these skills.
Almost a century later, in 1521, a similar injunction is given to the
Augustinian nuns at Burnham. Anna Belfeld, when examined by the bishop,
comments that “sunt in monasterio alique moniales que nesciunt legere et
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 77

cantare”13 [There are in the monastery some nuns who do not know how
to read and sing]. At another point in the visitation, one nun makes the
following suggestion:

Petitur . . . quod non recipiatur aliqua in monialem nisi de consensu omnium;

monialium vel saltem maioris partis earundem, et quod ille que in moniales
recipiuntur sint docte et informate in lectura et cantu antequam admittantur.
Iniunctum est abbatisse quod hoc faciet reformari.14
[It is requested that no one be received as a nun unless by the agreement of
all the nuns, or at least the majority of them, and that those who are received
as nuns shall be instructed and informed in reading and singing before they
are admitted. The abbess is enjoined to make this reform.]

The bishop agrees with this suggestion. What is less clear from the visita-
tion reports is the level of skill required. Certainly these passages imply that
a reasonable amount of instruction takes place before the nun formally
enters the convent. Did the nuns read Latin well? Bell offers a scale on
which to assess their proficiency:

The first and simplest level is the ability to read a text without understanding
it (this is not difficult in Latin and requires only a few minutes of instruction);
the second level is to read and understand a common liturgical text; the third
level involves reading and understanding non-liturgical texts or less common
texts from the liturgy; and the fourth level is the ability to compose and write
a text of one’s own.15

Certainly some nuns and monks exist on the first level. They sing the office
and read or chant the psalms without a real understanding of the meaning
of the Latin. Presumably, over time, they come to gain a sense of the
import of the text. The majority of nuns seem to function at least on the
second level—reading and understanding liturgical texts. It is less clear how
many of the nuns actually reach levels three and four, but almost certainly
some do. Bell concludes that “although there can be little doubt that from
the fourteenth century onwards most nuns would not have been able to
read and understand a non-liturgical text in Latin, the minority of those
who could was, I think, greater than most people have suspected.”16
What these nuns do read increasingly, however, are devotional works in
Middle English. Indeed a study of vernacular sources indicates that the
nuns participate in the move toward theological writing in the vernacular
to a much greater extent than monks. As we have seen in our study of
extant Benedictine rules, virtually all of the sources in the vernacular are
for nuns. These versions were clearly written to accommodate the nuns’
limited education. While scholars have often assumed that the lack of
78 PERFORMING PIETY

Latin literacy puts nuns at a severe disadvantage, Bell disagrees, suggesting

instead that:

The interest of the nuns in fifteenth-century books and literature stands

in marked contrast to the unimpressive record of their male counter-
parts. . . . As a consequence, therefore, of what most men would have seen
as their limitations, the spiritual and devotional life of the English nuns could
have been richer, fuller, and, one might say, more up to date than that of
their more numerous brethren, who, for the most part, were still mired in
the consequences of a conservative and traditional education.17

Many of the fifteenth-century volumes from nunneries include the works

from the corpus of fourteenth-century devotional writings—the Northern
Homily Cycle, Richard Rolle’s Prick of Conscience, The Chastising of God’s
Children, and Walter Hilton’s The Ladder of Perfection to name a few.
Manuscripts from Barking and Thetford also include some excerpts from
the Wycliffite Bible. All of these works and several others are part of the
explosion of vernacular theologies in the fourteenth century. As Nicholas
Watson points out, the early fifteenth century marks a period of religious
and theological retrenchment with Arundel’s Constitutions of 1409 ham-
pering the continued writing of works in English.18 Yet volumes do con-
tinue to be written in English during the fifteenth century for intelligent lay
audiences as well as for nuns.
In his study of lay involvement in English religious life in late medieval
England, Eamon Duffy argues that lay people of the period are intricately
involved in religion, knowledgeable about the liturgical calendar, and inti-
mately connected to the sacrament of communion through the visual
experience of the mass. The translation of primers, mass books, and other
devotional material into English significantly improves the ability of nuns
as well as lay people to access the mysteries of religion.19 Indeed, we know
that the nuns at Syon Abbey provide the impetus for several works in
Middle English written by the Syon brothers. While it is true that nuns do
not, generally, receive a first-rate classical education, they do have access in
the late medieval period to increasing numbers of fine works in English.
These works augment their liturgical experiences by providing food for
thought, opportunities for further meditation, and new images.
This brief overview of the use of manuscripts in nunneries helps to place
the regular worship in a slightly broader context. The nuns spend several
hours a day singing and reading. There is surely some intrinsic reward for
each nun in raising her standard of literacy to the point that she can under-
stand what she is singing. Also the basic regimen of monastic life presup-
poses periods of study and meditation on the annual volume distributed in
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 79

Lent. All of these activities offer the nun an opportunity to worship God
with her mind as well as with her heart and soul.

The Bishop’s Visitation

A bishop’s visitation in the Middle Ages bears many similarities to an
accreditation visit in universities today. The bishop and his staff send word
ahead of time of their visit. When they arrive, the nuns escort them in pro-
cession to the high altar for mass or vespers depending on the time of the
arrival. After worship the whole community adjourns to the chapter house
where the bishop sits in state and one of his staff preaches a sermon. The
head of the house (abbess or prioress) delivers several official documents
including the charter of the house, a report of its current financial situation,
and proof of her election as head of the house. If all these are satisfactory,
the nuns leave the chapter house and return individually so that the bishop
can examine them. If the nun brings up issues worth noting, they are writ-
ten down as detecta (things found in the examination). The bishop compiles
these into his findings (comperta). If there are significant discrepancies or
problems that arise, the bishop calls nuns in as needed for further question-
ing. Then at the end of the process the bishop issues a list of detecta and com-
perta along with verbal injunctions. After the visit he sends written
injunctions with the command that they be read regularly (e.g., quarterly)
in the chapter house.20
In some cases the extant bishops’ registers include only a notice of the vis-
itation, in others the detecta, and in others the injunctions. Sometimes all
three are included as well as a listing of the nuns in the house. Reading
through the records gives an interesting picture of monastic life. Many of the
injunctions are highly stylized and repetitive. Liturgical issues usually appear
at the beginning. Often it seems as if specific groups of nuns have agreed
beforehand on the issues they will raise, hoping that if they all complain
about the same thing, the bishop will take their side.
The language of the injunctions also provides some indication of the
language used in the convent. In the later thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies, the injunctions appear in Latin and/or French. By the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, they are in Latin and/or English. The bishops state
clearly and frequently that they have issued the injunctions in French or
English so that the nuns will understand them.21 Failure to comply with the
bishop’s orders carries numerous penalties. By writing in French or English
the bishops clearly try to avoid a defense of ignorance in future visits.
Among the many issues that appear in the visitation records, several
recur with great frequency. Business matters provide many problems.
Often accounts have either not been kept properly or the abbess has not
80 PERFORMING PIETY

shown the accounts to the convent annually as the rule requires.

Sometimes a nun misuses the seal of the convent. On many occasions the
bursar has not dispensed the allowance for clothes to each nun. Often nuns
accuse an abbess or prioress of squandering the funds and resources of the
house. The bishop is the one person who can supersede the authority of the
abbess. The success or failure of the abbess in running the business affairs is
a clear barometer of her leadership abilities.
Excessive talking and drinking appear frequently as problematic activi-
ties. Bishops regularly enjoin that the nuns keep silence in the cloister,
chapter house, and other places. When nuns talk with an outsider, another
nun must be present. A frequent injunction calls upon the nuns to retire
to bed immediately after compline instead of socializing and drinking
together.
The relationship of nuns to the rest of the world is a third major cate-
gory of complaint. Numerous injunctions bewail the presence of children
and lay women in the dormitory. Others stress the importance of locking
the enclosure at appropriate hours. The nuns cannot exchange letters or
gifts with relatives nor journey out of the convent without the consent of
the abbess. Indeed the injunctions cover the full range of issues that arise in
communal living.
Both the nuns’ complaints and the bishops’ rejoinders provide useful
information on the priorities and problems in monastic worship. Among
the many musical and liturgical topics that appear in the visitation records
are poverty and its effect on music, carelessness in performance, attendance
irregularities, and failure to observe individual feasts appropriately.22 Each
of these specific examples adds a small tile to our mosaic of musical life in
nunneries.

Poverty
Poverty is both an ever-present reality in most houses and a believable
excuse for irregularities in practice. Thus nuns may exaggerate their level of
poverty on occasion, especially to avoid accepting a new member.
Nevertheless, statistics from the time of the dissolution show that only
11 percent of the nunneries have incomes over £250 whereas 52 percent
have incomes less than £50.23 By contrast, approximately 35 percent of the
Benedictine monasteries had incomes of over £250 at the time of the dis-
solution.24 The seventeen houses with incomes over £200 could easily
support large numbers of nuns to participate in the choral recitation of the
office and the mass. To appreciate the distinctions, we can examine the
income per nun at the time of the dissolution. Barking has £28 per nun,
Shaftesbury £20, and Tarrant £10. These three nunneries are all from the
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 81

top 11 percent. From the poorer nunneries, Little Marlow averages £4,
Newcastle-on-Tyne £3, and Lambley less than £1. One should also keep
in mind the fact that the money actually supports not only the choir nuns
but all of the lay sisters, servants, children, and others who live in the
precincts. For example, at St Mary’s Winchester 102 people actually live in
the nunnery although there are 26 nuns. So while their annual income of
£179 translates to almost £7 per nun, in reality it is less than £2 per per-
son actually living there.25 To put these numbers in perspective, an
unskilled laborer at the time of the dissolution would have earned approx-
imately £7 per year.26
What effect does this poverty have on the performance of music? The
vast majority of nunneries have fewer than twelve to fifteen nuns, espe-
cially after the Black Death which caused the number of nuns to drop pre-
cipitously. Some have as few as four nuns. The hardship that this causes
the few nuns who have the responsibility for the services is reflected in
some of the complaints made to bishops. When Bishop Alnwick visits the
Cistercian nunnery at Nun Cotham in 1440, the nuns grumble about the
services:

Item dicit quod tante moniales in numero preficiuntur officiis exterioribus

quod non possunt sequi chorum, et ideo residue moniales grauius pondus
portant in diuino obsequio. . . . Item dicit quod moniales temporibus
autumpnalibus exeunt ad opera autumpnalia, per quod chorus non
sequitur.27
[Also she says that so many nuns in number are set in charge of the external
offices that they cannot go to quire regularly, and so the rest of the nuns
bear too heavy a burthen as regards divine service . . . Also she says that in
the autumn season the nuns go out to their autumn tasks, whereby quire is
not kept regularly.]28

After hearing these and other complaints, the bishop issued a set of injunc-
tions in Middle English. Concerning the choir services he says:

Also, for as muche as ther be but fewe in couent in regarde of tymes here to
fore, and of thoe that now are ther are so manye putte to owtwarde offices
that the qwere may not conuenyently be servede, we charge yow prioresse,
vndere payne aforesaide, that ye ordeyne that ther be more multitude to
sarufe the qwere bothe nyght day, other owtwarde offices lefte.29
[Also since there are fewer nuns in the convent than previously, and so many
of those nuns are put in external offices that the choir cannot conveniently
be served, we charge you, prioress, under the aforementioned penalty, that
you assign more nuns to serve the choir both night and day, leaving their
external offices.]
82 PERFORMING PIETY

There are about fourteen nuns in this house in 1440, so the plight of this
nunnery is perhaps not desperate; a mere redistribution of the available
nuns will presumably make it possible for the offices to be performed
properly.
A letter in the register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, in the
early fourteenth century, reveals a house that suffers from much more
severe poverty. Queen Philippa has requested that the Benedictine nun-
nery at Polsloe accept a lay sister. The nuns respond in a letter to the queen:

E, sil plesoit a vostre deboneire Hautesce de savoir de nostre simple estat,

nous sumes si poveres, Diu le siet et tot le pois, qe quant qe nous avoms ne
suffist mie a petite sustenaunce de nous, qe devoms faire, de jour et de nut,
le Service Dieu, si par eide des amys noun, ne ni puissoms estre chargees de
seculieres saundz abregeir le noumbre des nos Religiouses, en emenusement
du Service Dieu et prejudice perpetuel de nostre powere Mesoun.30
[And if it please your debonair highness to know our simple estate, we are so
poor [God knows it and all the country] that what we have suffices not to
our small sustenance, who must by day and night do the service of God,
were it not for the aid of friends; nor can we be charged with seculars with-
out reducing the number of us religious women, to the diminution of God’s
service and the perpetual prejudice of our poor house.]31

The nuns write to the bishop requesting his aid (hence the letter is in his
register), and he intervenes on their behalf. Although the nuns may exag-
gerate for effect, the evidence does suggest that the convent has trouble
supporting even the choir sisters and that the addition of another lay sister
would be a burden. An additional sister of either type does not increase the
overall income of the house, although some nuns do bring a small dower
with them. Poverty affects the musical practices in nunneries by reducing
the number of nuns available to sing. Since monastic music presupposes
two sides of the choir that alternate in the performance of psalmody, six to
eight nuns seems a minimal number for even a moderately decent render-
ing of the offices.

Carelessness in Performance
While poor economic status has a major effect on the performance of the
liturgy, it is far from the only negative factor. Many of the complaints
exhibited in bishop’s visitation records center around sloppiness, haste, and
rushing. It is, of course, easy to understand why these arise. Who would
not occasionally be bored with their seven days a week job of singing the
divine services? Even with the amazing number of feasts enlivening the
ritual, boredom surely plays a role in the collective psyche as well as in
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 83

the moods of individual nuns. Pressing duties might also keep some nuns
from appearing for the hours or encourage them to rush through them.
The most frequent criticism leveled at the actual performance of the
divine service is that of too much haste and a corresponding lack of devo-
tion. During Bishop Nicke’s visitation of Carrow in 1526, several nuns
complained about this aspect of the services:

Domina Anna Marten suppriorissa, dicit quod nihil novit reformatione

dignum sed dicit quod sorores dicunt et cantant velotius quam debent et sine
debita pausatione . . . .
Domina Margareta Steward habitu religionis induta xxviii annos inquisita
dicit quod male pausant cantando et dicendo . . .
Domina Agnes Warner dicit inquisita quod non observatur pausa in cantu,
et aliis horis dicendis sed velotius cantant.32
[Lady Anna Marten, subprioress, says that nothing needs to be reformed, but
she says that the sisters speak and sing faster than they ought to and without
the necessary pauses.
Lady Margareta Steward, who has worn the religious habit for twenty-eight
years, being asked, says that they pause poorly in singing and speaking.
Lady Agnes Warner, being asked, says that the pause is not observed in song
and in saying the other hours but rather that they sing too fast.]

It appears that the last two nuns were responding to a direct question from
the bishop and that he was attempting to verify Anna Marten’s complaint.
Psalmody, especially, traditionally requires a pause during the middle of the
psalm verse. Rushing through these pauses is an efficient way to speed up
the tempo of the service, but it totally ignores the meditative rationale for
the pause. The bishop thinks that the problem deserves an injunction:
“Item quod divinum servitium cum majori devotione et debita pausatione
celebretur et in cantando et in dicendo”33 [Also that the divine service
ought to be celebrated with greater devotion and the necessary pauses both
in singing and in speaking]. This type of corrective remark can often be
immensely helpful to counteract sloppiness that has arisen in ongoing
communal practices.
John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, issues a very typical injunction from
his visitation of the Benedictine nunnery of Nun Cotham in 1531.
Injunctions about liturgical matters frequently appear at the beginning of
the list, as almost an obligatory gesture to the importance of liturgical life.
After a preamble, Longland writes:

ffyrste forasmoche as all religion is grounded and ordeyned principally to

honour and serve god aswell by night as by daye and namely the dyuyne
seruice in the quere to be honourably and treateably song and said, soo that
84 PERFORMING PIETY

by the hering of the same deuocon may encrease aswell in the singers and
sayers as in the herers and for that itt doth appere by the detecons in myn
ordynary visitacon that itt hath nott soo bene used with you, but doon with
grete festinacon, haste and without deuocon, contrarye to the good manner
and ordre of religion: In consideracon of all thies premysses & for the more
honour of god and encrease of vertue in religion I chardge you lady priores
and all the ladyes susters of your monastery and your succours hereafter to
come in the vertue of obedyence and the payne of contempte that from
hensforth ye doo and cause to be doon all your dyvyne seruice to be treate-
ably song undre sobre & deuoute manner with good pause and punctuation
and without eny haste or festination. And that ye kepe your due houres and
tymes of your said dyvyne seruice with all other your obseruances and your
ceremonyes as well in the cloistre chaptour house fratry and dorter as in the
quere.34
[First, inasmuch as all religion is grounded in and ordained principally to
honor and serve God both by night and day, and especially that the divine
service in the choir should be sung and said reverently and distinctly, so that
by hearing it devotion may increase in both the singers and the sayers as well
as the listeners; and since it appears from the detecta in my regular visitation
that you have not done it this way but quickly, hastily, and without devo-
tion, contrary to the good manner and order of religion, I charge you Lady
prioress, and all the sisters of your monastery and your successors, in the
virtue of obedience and the pain of contempt, that from henceforth you
make sure that the divine service is sung distinctly, in a serious and devout
manner, with good pauses and punctuation and without any undue haste or
speed; and that you keep the due hours and times of the divine services and
all your observances and ceremonies in the cloister, chapter house, refectory,
and dormitory, as well as in the choir.]

In this injunction the bishop sets forth the basic theological understanding
of the vocation of a choir nun: the singing of the service ought to enhance
the devotion for all concerned. He then goes on to indicate that he is
responding to the nuns’ comments during the visitation. From those detecta
he has learned that their performance is sloppy and that the service is rushed
and without religious intensity. Then he inserts a threat of consequences if
they do not obey his orders. Finally he tells them what they should be
doing and adds a warning that they should approach all arenas of convent
life with the same spirit of devotion. Delivered with due episcopal pom-
posity, this passage is similar to many others found in the visitation records.
Bishops always inquire after the state of the liturgical life and suggest
corrections if necessary.
The two services that receive the most critique are compline and
matins. Frequently the complaints center around drowsiness and drinking.
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 85

For example, when the bishop visits Stixwould in 1519, the detecta contain
complaints about precisely this problem. The nuns apparently take about a
half hour to arrive in the church after the bell rings. When they get there,
they are in no shape to sing. As one nun indicates:

Moniales tam diu sunt bibentes post completorium quod non possunt surgere
ad matutinas, et si surgant non cantant sed sunt dedite dormitioni. Dominus
inhibuit omnibus monialibus ne deinceps bibant post completorium sed finito
completorio ingrediantur omnes dormitorium.35
[The nuns drink for such a long time after compline that they are not able to
arise for matins and if they arise they do not sing but are given to sleep. The
bishop has forbidden all nuns to drink following compline, but after com-
pline is over they ought all to enter the dormitory.]

Imagine the nuns drowsing over their psalters, resenting the intrusion in
their sleep of the night office. We find instances of bishops being asked to
regulate such small details as when during the service the nuns should stand
and sit and what direction they should face. Nothing is too trivial, it seems,
to mention at a visitation.

Attendance Problems
As the preceding examples indicate, one major problem in liturgical per-
formance is the actual assembling of the nuns in the choir. Although
even the Benedictine Rule addresses this problem, it is still easy to imagine
that the choir nuns always drop other occupations to come immediately
to the church when the bell rings. Bishop Flemyng’s injunctions to the
Benedictine nuns at Elstow in 1421–22 indicate that things did not always
happen properly:

Item, pulsato ad diuinum seruicium ac horas canonicas et missas competenter

iuxta regulam, omnes moniales non infirme nec legitime [impedite] simul
in choro tempestiue conueniant, et officium diuinum tam diurnum quam
nocturnum horis congruis deuote decantent et simul compleant; nec aliqua
se absentet ante consummacionem absque causa racionabili vel licencia
abbatisse, priorisse vel alterius presidentis petita primitus et obtenta.36
[Also, when the bell has been competently rung, according to the rule, for
divine service and the canonical hours and for masses, that all the nuns who
are not infirm or lawfully [hindered] assemble together in quire in good
time, and devoutly chant and fulfill together the divine office, both of the
day and night, at befitting hours; and that no one leave before the end with-
out reasonable cause or without first asking and obtaining leave of the abbess,
prioress, or next president.]37
86 PERFORMING PIETY

This order reinforces the importance of a devout performance as well as

the authority of the abbess. It also emphasizes the communal nature of
worship, the importance of coming together to do these things. Compara-
ble passages appear in many volumes in French, English, and Latin.
Thomas Spofford, Bishop of Hereford in the early fifteenth century, issues
a similar admonition to the nuns at Limebrook but strengthens it by speci-
fying a punishment for those who fail to take part in the services:

Also we ordeyn and charge yow that dyvyne servyse, as mateyns at midnight,
evynsange, and oures in thair tyme be dewly observed and keped, and at
nowther the prioresse nor noon othir sustre absent thayme fro the said oures
and tymes bot in infyrmyte and othir lawfull cause specyally excepted; and
whoso offendys in this poynte wilfully that she eyte no flesh to shoo have
made a sythe saynge thre otturings of her sawtar.38
[Also we ordain and charge you that the divine service—matins at midnight,
evensong, and hours in their time—be duly observed and kept, and that nei-
ther the prioress or any other sister be absent from the said hours and times
unless specifically exempted for sickness or for another lawful cause; and
whoever offends willfully in this matter shall eat no meat until after she has
said her psalter three times.]

In this case the bishop notes that the prioress herself needs to improve her
attendance. Furthermore, those who do not respect this rule will abstain
from meat until they have atoned. Their penance, a not uncommon one in
the Middle Ages, is to completely say the psalter through thrice.39
Sometimes the visitation detecta sound suspiciously like tattling. Several
nuns complain about Margaret Kelk in the 1530 visitation of Catesby. One
nun comments that “Domina Margareta Kelk non est diligens circa diuina
officia [nam neque] cantat nec legit in choro vt deberet”40 [Lady Margaret
Kelk is not diligent about the divine office, nor does she sing and read in
the choir as she ought]. Margaret Kelk appears to be an outsider (from Nun
Cotham) so it is difficult to ascertain whether part of the problem is inhos-
pitality. The bishop finds, however, that she is at fault on several matters
and enjoins “that she should be diligent about the divine office in the
church and that she should obey the prioress” [“quod sit diligens circa
diuina in ecclesia et quod obediat priorisse”41]. Obedience to the superior
and participation in the divine office remain two of the principal duties of
a nun, reinforced continually by episcopal injunctions.
On occasion a complaint about attendance may be primarily a vehicle
for criticizing leadership. At Nun Cotham Priory “Domina Cecilia Malet
dicit quod aliquociens pauce moniales veniunt ad matutinas et completo-
rium, et iste defectus non bene punitur; ideo transgredientes non curant”42
[Dame Cecily Malet says that sometimes few nuns come to matins and
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 87

compline and this default is not well punished; therefore they that
transgress take no heed43]. In this one statement the bishop learns both that
attendance in choir is poor and that the prioress is not providing sufficient
leadership. The community functions only if each person is held account-
able for her actions. Ultimately it is the superior’s role to correct laxity.
A slightly later detecta (in the same visitation) informs us that the nuns who
do not come to compline are gathering herbs in the garden or enjoying
other idle pursuits. The bishop suggests that the prioress correct the nuns
so that they “take fere by thaire correccyone”44 [are afraid from their
correction].
Gathering herbs is not the only occupation that keeps nuns from the
service. Another popular occupation is handiwork, especially with silk. In
several cases bishops mention this in their injunctions such as this example
from Bishop Woodlock’s 1309 visitation to St. Mary’s Winchester:

Inhibemus ne aliqua monialium horis quibus diuinis officiis debet intendere

circa priuata opera in sericis aut aliis occupetur, nec priuata colloquia teneat
seu in cameris circa commessaciones et potaciones horis indebitis vigilet.45
[We forbid any nun to work on her own silk work or to be occupied in
other things during the time of divine service, nor to hold private conversa-
tions or to remain awake at undue hours in revelries and drinking in the
rooms.]

Talking, drinking, handiwork, gathering herbs in the garden all keep the
nun from her appointed service in the church. This persistent battle
between individual desire and communal norms appears throughout the
visitation records in a wide variety of forms.
Attendance problems also arise from people attending the service who
should not be there. Several injunctions seek to limit the presence of chil-
dren in the choir. For example, at a visitation to Elstow in 1442, one
detecta reads “Item quedam moniales aliquociens habent secum in choro
tempore missarum pueros quos docent, qui strepitum faciunt in choro
tempore diuini servicij”46 [Also certain nuns sometimes have with them in
the choir in time of mass the children whom they teach and these children
make a loud noise in the choir during the divine service]. We know that
children are often present in the nunnery. There is little evidence, how-
ever, to indicate the actual position of the children in the church, the rel-
ative numbers of boys and girls, and other specific information. Frequently
the references to children in the visitation records specify that children
must not stay in the nunnery after a certain age. The age varies, but boys
are often forbidden to stay past age six or eight, while the age for girls is
generally closer to twelve. The problem of their behavior during services
88 PERFORMING PIETY

arises in multiple records. In the Catesby visitation of 1530, one nun

comments that:

Non est consonum quod pueri ludent in claustro nec sedeant in choro, et
tamen ita plerumque faciunt; et sunt plures pueri in monasterio aliqui
masculi et alie femine.47
[It is not appropriate that the children should play in the cloister nor that
they should sit in the choir, and yet the majority do that; and there are many
children in the monastery, some boys and some girls.]

The passage provides good confirmation that the use of pueri refers to both
boys and girls. The bishop’s response to this complaint is very clear: “Item
quod a modo pueri non ludent in claustro nec in ecclesia neque sedeant in
choro inter moniales”48 [Likewise that from henceforth the children should
not play in the cloister, nor in the church, nor should they sit in the choir
among the nuns]. The bishop does not specify the exact positioning of the
children in church, nor do other records from the time. Susan Boynton’s
study of the role of children in the central Middle Ages suggests that they
enter separately from the adults and sit near the altar between the two sides
of the monks choir.49 The bishop’s injunction cited above indicates some-
thing similar—that the children should not be among the nuns. However,
the situation in a nunnery differs from that in male houses because there are
frequently both boys and girls present, being cared for but not necessarily
being prepared for life as a nun. Roberta Gilchrist suggests that balconies in
nunnery churches may have allowed for segregation of the different groups
within the nunnery during worship.50 There is no indication in the
Barking Ordinal, however, of any such segregation. The children partici-
pate in the liturgy so an arrangement like that suggested by Boynton seems
more likely than complete separation.51

Liturgical Observances
The final major category of comments from visitation records concerns
liturgical observances. As we note elsewhere, the liturgical year is far from
a fixed reality in the Middle Ages. It is instead, a more organic form, mul-
tiplying and expanding according to the specific environment. The addi-
tion or subtraction of feasts from the calendar holds important implications
outside the monastic and ecclesial structures of society because the larger
society observes these days. As Duffy indicates, “the seasonal observances of
the liturgical calendar affected everyone. No one could marry during the
four weeks of Advent or the six weeks of Lent. . . . There were therefore
almost seventy days in the year when adults were obliged to fast.”52
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 89

Similarly, any major feast added to the calendar means a day of lost work.
Just as monastic observances recognize various levels of feasts through litur-
gical changes, the secular world observes some feasts with a virtual com-
plete cessation of work and others with work stoppage only by women.53
Despite the complexity of the calendar, many people follow the nuances
and changes.
Within the nunnery, the choir sisters clearly disagree on occasion over
the importance of particular rites. The bishop’s visitation affords them an
opportunity to bring this issue for arbitration. When Richard Nicke,
Bishop of Norwich, visited Carrow Priory in 1532, he received the
following complaints:

Domina Johanna Botolff dicit quod festum Reliquiarum non observatur

apud eas in dominica prout observatur in aliis locis, sed simpliciter fit in cras-
tino octavarum Nativitatis Beatae Mariae.54
[Lady Johanna Botolff says that the feast of the Reliquaries is not observed
among them on Sunday as it is in other places, but simply done on the day
after the octave of the Nativity of the Blessed (Virgin) Mary.]

The bishop’s injunction specifies the exact timing of the feast:

Item quod festum Reliquiarum de cetero observetur ut in aliis locis, videlicet

dominica proxima post festum Translationis Sancti Thomae, et celebretur
duplex festum.55
[Also that the Feast of Reliquaries from now on should be observed as in
other places, namely on the Sunday following the Feast of the Translation of
St. Thomas and that it should be celebrated as a double feast.]

This feast offers each church or monastery the chance to honor its own
relics.56
In some instances the bishop acquaints the nuns with new liturgical deci-
sions and innovations. When Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, visited
the Benedictine nunnery at Polsloe in 1319, he told them of changes that
were instituted seven years earlier at the Council of Vienne (1312):

Item, qe le Servicz du Corps et du Sanke Nostre Seigneur Jhesu Christ soit

fait od graunt solempnite entre vous chescun an, le Judi prochein apres la
Trinite et par les Oytaves siwantes, si autre Feste de plus graunt solempnite
ne viegne dedenz les ditz Oytaves, si come en la constitucion del derein
Concil de Vyene est establi et ordine.57
[Also that the Service of the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ be
made with great solemnity among you each year, the Thursday after Trinity
and by the following Octave if another feast of greater solemnity does not
90 PERFORMING PIETY

come within the said Octave, as is established and ordained in the constitu-
tion of the recent Council of Vienne.]

This injunction, in addition to informing us that the nuns need to add this
new feast to their calendar, allows us a glimpse into one of the other impor-
tant aspects of a visitation. The presence of the bishop puts the nuns in dia-
logue with the greater church. They receive news of changes and
presumably are able to exchange information about other people within
the church. Nuns certainly are not entirely cut off from the world; how-
ever, the presence of a bishop who travels broadly offers them an important
chance for additional perspectives on their work.
While some injunctions relate to the changing character of feasts, other
problems arise from sins of omission. The nuns at the Cistercian house at
Legbourne are apparently failing to honor their founder, St. Bernard, as
well as St. Benedict whose rule they follow:

Domina Matilda Multone, supprioressa, dicit quod ad matutinas, missas et

vesperas et alias horas de die tenentur memorias de sancto Benedicto et de
sancto Bernardo, et iam a diu huiusmodi memorias omiserunt et omittant.58
[Lady Maud Multone, the subprioress, says that at matins, mass, vespers, and
the other day hours they are bound to hold memorials of St. Benedict and
St. Bernard, and now for a long while they have left out and continue to
leave out such memorials.]

Memorials are very short services that are added to the end of other ser-
vices. Sometimes they commemorate a minor saint, sometimes they honor
a saint whose feast day overlaps with another important day, and at other
times they remember the patron saint or the Virgin Mary. Such offices
include an antiphon, versicle, and collect.59 Perhaps Matilda is the self-
appointed arbiter of liturgy at the convent and the prioress is indifferent to
these short offices. The bishop, however, agrees with Matilda and enjoins
“The fyrste we charge yow that the memoryes of seynt Benet and seynt
Bernarde, the whilke ye are bounde dayly to say at your matynes, euensong
and other howres of the day, ye dayly say thaym fro hense forthe”60 [First
we charge you that you are bound to keep the memorials of St. Benedict
and St. Bernard, at matins, evensong and the other hours daily]. The
memorials function to remind the nuns on a daily, almost hourly, basis of
their forbearers in the faith.
These examples and many other similar ones demonstrate persuasively
that English nuns in the later medieval period continue to stay current with
liturgical trends. The program of oversight by the bishops, while imperfect,
nevertheless allows for a broader perspective and keeps the individual house
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 91

from being so bound to its local ways that it ignores the practices of the
broader church. This dual allegiance to the local establishment and the
church universal is a great strength of the monastic system. The presence of
the bishop or his deputies does much to insure that the nuns keep a balance.

Material Culture
Monastic musical practices do not exist on an isolated spiritual plane but
rather in the tangible physical reality of church space. There are few inven-
tories of nunnery possessions prior to the many records collected in the
1530’s in conjunction with the dissolution of the monasteries. The picture
that emerges from the inventories and archaeological information deepens
our understanding of musical and liturgical life. We read of vestments, reli-
quaries, church vessels, copes, hangings, books, organs, and choir stalls.
Such inventories always reflect the items that the people making the list
find important. At the time of the dissolution the visitors are especially
interested in the market worth of items. Many liturgical items are listed
only if they seem to have resale value.
One of the few extant pre-dissolution inventories, a survey of the priory
of Easebourne from the year 1450, lists items from the church, chamber,
hall, pantry, kitchen, and bakehouse. The inventory thus begins:

In primis in ecclesia, I campana parva, II missalia, II portiforia, IIII

antiphonaria, I legenda grossa, VIII psalteria, I collectane: I troparium, IIII
vestimenta, videlicet, I secta de rubeo cum alta capa, III vestes auri, II calices,
VIII mappae, I crux argenti, II candelabra de latton, I terribulum, II cruettes
argenti, I Biblia Gallicana, II ordinalia in Gall., I librum Evangelii, I
Martirologium.61
[First, in the church. 1 small bell, 2 missals, 2 small breviaries, 4 antiphoners,
1 large legends of the saints, 8 psalters, 1 book of collects, 1 tropary, 4 vest-
ments, namely 1 red suit with an expensive cope62 and three robes of gold,
2 chalices, 8 white cloths (napkins), 1 silver cross, 2 brass candlesticks, 1
thurible, 2 silver cruets, 1 French Bible, 2 French ordinals, 1 Gospel book,
and 1 Martyrology.]

At the time of this inventory there are probably only eight nuns living at
the priory.63 The number of liturgical books listed in the inventory indi-
cates the type of collection that is requisite for monastic life. Although the
house does not seem to have either a processional or hymnal, the missals,
breviaries, psalters, and antiphonals provide the basic sources since hymns
and processional chants are often included in psalters, breviaries, and
antiphonals. The number of psalters equals the number of nuns so each
choir sister could sing or read the psalms from an individual book. The
92 PERFORMING PIETY

presence of the troper is especially interesting evidence that the nuns sing
such chants. The nuns at Barking also sing tropes, as indicated in the ordi-
nal, but this volume is the only troper specifically mentioned in connection
with an English nunnery.
The community at Easebourne, believed to be Augustinian at this point
in its history, favors French as the vernacular language. Both the ordinals
and the Bible are in French. If this collection is the entire library at
Easebourne (and no other books are listed in other places in the inventory),
the nuns would at least be able to read the scripture in their own language.
Unfortunately the ordinals do not survive as they would offer insights into
the liturgical practices of a much smaller institution than Barking. We have
no way, either, of knowing whether they represent Benedictine practices
or the Augustinian ones.
The list of liturgical objects is considerably shorter than the one noted at
Wherwell Abbey in the early fourteenth century.64 Nevertheless, there are
ample materials for serving communion and setting up a simple altar with
candlesticks with one notable exception: there is no mention of either a
paten or anything to hold the host (pyx or ciborium). The vestments are
presumably for the priest who celebrates mass. This compact inventory
offers an example of the minimal possessions necessary for celebrating the
divine offices and mass regularly. Even small houses need to have several
liturgical books, vestments, candles and cross, and vessels for serving com-
munion. In some sense there is little economy of scale. Every house needs
the objects and the people, sacristan and cantrix, to maintain them.
Contrast this list with that of Kilbourn at the dissolution. That list
includes three bells, two missals—one manuscript and one printed book,
four processionals—three on parchment and one on paper, two legends, and
“two chestes wt. diverse bookes perteininge to the chirche, bookes of no
value”65 [two chests with diverse books from the church, books of no
value]. To Henry VIII’s commissioners, the church books, especially if they
are not on parchment, have no continuing value. There will be no nunner-
ies in the new regime. So from this perspective it is not important to list
each of the books as the inventory at Easebourne does. unfortunately from
our perspective a great deal of information has been lost as the books have
been dispersed and many of them lost.

Musical Instruments
Many medieval monastic churches incorporate organ music into their
liturgy although the exact extent to which this occurs is difficult to docu-
ment.66 In these monastic churches, the organist often accompanies the
sequence, performs plainsong in alternation with the choir, and adorns
 REALITY OF MUSICAL LIFE 93

festival performances of the Te Deum. The organist also often participates

in polyphonic renditions. There are, however, virtually no references in
surviving sources to instruments of any kind in nunneries. A few negative
remarks about secular music appear in visitation records67 but nothing
relating to sacred music except for the mention of organs in two invento-
ries from the time of the dissolution. At the Benedictine nunnery of
Redlingfield, Sir Edmund Bedingfield purchases “j antiphoner with a
grayle in the quyer of the use of Sarum” and “a payer of organes in the
quyer” [“one antiphonal with a gradual in the choir of the use of Sarum”
and “a pair of organs in the choir”]. At Bruisyard “a payr of lytell orgaynes,
very old” (a pair of very old little organs) lists at ten shillings.68 The organs
thus described refer most probably to a positive organ. These instruments
are larger than the portative organ which is usually associated with secular
music and can be played by a single player. The positive, by contrast,
requires two people, one to work the bellows and one to play, but can
usually be moved. The term “pair of organs” refers to a single organ and
reflects the fact that the Latin word for organ, organa, is plural.69
The presence of the organ in these two houses, one Franciscan and one
Benedictine, conjures up the possibility that nuns as well as monks incor-
porate organ music in their liturgical practices. The Barking Ordinal does
not include any references to an organ. On many festal occasions the peals
of the bells appear to serve some of the same ceremonial functions associ-
ated with the addition of the organ.70 The organ can provide useful support
for a small choir. Of course the nunnery would first need both the money
to purchase an instrument and a person trained to play it. Unfortunately we
are left with these tantalizing indications and no additional supporting
information. However, from these inventories it is possible to infer that
some medieval English nunneries own organs and use them in liturgical
services.

Architectural Evidence
Nunnery churches tend to fall into one of two primary architectural forms,
either cruciform or parallelogram. Gilchrist’s detailed study of nunnery
remains indicates that the parallelogram form is considerably more com-
mon than the cruciform and that most nunnery churches are fairly simple
in design. In the parallelograms, “the nuns’ choir and stalls would be
expected in the eastern arm of the church.”71 Where the nunnery shares a
church with a parish, the nuns usually, but not always, occupy the east end.
On occasion, such as in the church at Easebourne, the churches are divided
lengthwise with the nuns occupying the north side and the parish church
the south side.72
94 PERFORMING PIETY

In a study of Nun Appleton, Marjorie J. Harrison compares the number

of choir stalls in Yorkshire nunneries. They range from a low of sixteen
stalls to a high of thirty-six at Swine. She also looks at proportions of the
choir to chancel where this information is known.73 The nun’s choir is
often the longer part of the church. The stalls are one indication of the
planned size of the nunnery. Swine, with choir stalls for thirty-six, has
twenty nuns at the dissolution and Nun Appleton has twenty-six stalls and
nineteen nuns on the pension list.74
Buildings and books, visitation records and pension lists, inventories and
wills confirm that many nunneries engage regularly in communal worship.
They sing amidst altars and windows, jeweled chalices and finely wrought
copes. The thurifer covers the choir and altar with the unique smells of
incense. Sometimes the nuns yawn and sleep; sometimes they skip choir
altogether. But communal expectations surround them and bring them
back to this disciplined spiritual path. The very foundation of their further
growth and unique spiritual experience is the endless chanting of psalms
and antiphons.
CHAPTER 4

EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES: PSALTERS,

HOURS, AND THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD

n the previous three chapters we have explored the musical life of

I nunneries through an examination of a variety of nonmusical sources—
monastic rules, visitation records, ordinals, and other types of materials.
In the subsequent chapters we will be examining primarily volumes in
which there is musical notation. From these manuscripts we can not only
confirm the participation of nuns in the musical portions of the service, but
also learn more specifically what music they sing and how this repertoire
fits into the overall liturgical musical picture.
In the Middle Ages liturgical music appears in a wide variety of manu-
scripts, normally separated by liturgical function. By the later medieval period
such volumes include missals, graduals, antiphonals, breviaries, collectars,
psalters, processionals, hymnals, pontificals, and tropers.1 While manuscripts
are usually identified as one of these types, the actual contents of the volume
may vary widely since such works are far from standardized. The Book of
Hours, although primarily a devotional book, often incorporates miscella-
neous liturgical material as well. While we know that nunneries possessed
these books, only a limited number of them survive. Chapter 3 examined
many of the records of their existence (e.g., Easebourne’s 1440 inventory). In
this chapter we examine the extant psalters as well as some books of hours
that include musical notation for liturgical music, and consider the possibili-
ties for polyphonic performance in nunneries. In later chapters we will exam-
ine processionals, services for the consecration of nuns, and the musical
manuscripts from both Barking Abbey and Syon Abbey.
Psalters and Books of Hours offer a window into both the personal and
communal devotional life of nuns. Indeed the very mixture of material con-
tained in these volumes indicates the lack of a clear distinction between these
purposes in the medieval mind. The nuns chant the psalms regularly but
96 PERFORMING PIETY

Table 4.1 Psalters Associated with English Nunneries

House Order MS No./Library sigla Century

Amesbury B Oxford, Bodleian Library Liturg misc. 407 13th–14th

Bruisyard F London, British Library Sloane 2400 13th
Buckland Minchin J London, Society Of Antiquaries 713 13th–14th
Campsey A Cambridge University Library Additional 7220 12th–13th
Campsey A London, British Library Additional 40675 14th
Carrow B Baltimore Walters Art Gallery, 90 13th
Carrow B Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 6422 13th
B Reykjavik, National Museum and National
Carrow Library, fragments 14th
Godstow B Manchester Chetham’s Library 6717 15th
Goring A Cambridge, Trinity College B.11.5 13th
Hampole C San Marino, Huntington EL 9H. 17 14th
Harrold A London, Private Collection P. Getty Jr. 12th
Ickleton B Cambridge, St. John’s College 506 and
T.9.1 AD 1516 16th
Lacock A Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud lat. 114 13th–14th
Littlemore B Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct D.2.6 12th
London Aldgate F Wellington, New Zealand, Turnbull Library 15th
Markyate B Hildesheim 12th
Shaftesbury B London, British Library, Cotton Ner C.iv 12th
Shaftesbury B London, British Library, Lansdowne 383 12th
Shaftesbury B London, Lambeth Palace 3285 15th
Shaftesbury B Salisbury Cathedral 150 10th
Tarrant Keynston C Oxford, Bodleian Library, Lyell 23 15th
Tarrant Keynston C Stockholm, National Museum NMB 2010 13th
Wherwell B Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, McClean 45 13th–14th
Wherwell B Cambridge, St. John’s College, 68 12th
Wherwell B London, British Library, Additional 27866 14th
Wilton B London, Royal College of Physicians, 409 13th
Wilton B Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawl. G.23 13th–14th
Winchester B Romsey, Parish Church 15th

Note: A ⫽ Augustinian; B ⫽ Benedictine; C ⫽ Cistercian; F ⫽ Franciscan; J ⫽ Sisters of the Order of

St. John of Jerusalem.

they also recite them within their private devotions. There are approximately
thirty extant psalters associated with specific English nunneries (see table 4.1).
These span the tenth through sixteenth centuries and range from plain, func-
tional volumes to sumptuously illustrated manuscripts. Only a few of these
psalters include musical notation and only one, BL Add. 27866 from
Wherwell Abbey, is fully notated with antiphons for the psalms.
Psalters generally include all 150 psalms. In liturgical psalters, the psalms
are arranged in conformity to the demands of the worshipping community
either monastic or “secular.”2 For example, typically speaking, special illu-
minated letters mark the beginnings of the psalm cycle for each day of the
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 97

week.3 Psalters also designate the traditional trifold division of the psalms
through decorative illuminations of Psalms 1, 51, and 101. A typical
medieval psalter rarely contains only the psalms, often including also the
canticles, the Athanasian Creed, litanies, and other material. In the later
Middle Ages, the volumes might also contain the Office of the Virgin, the
Office of the Dead, and the Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget.4

The Psalters of Shaftesbury Abbey

Shaftesbury Abbey, in the county of Dorset, is the largest of the Benedic-
tine houses in England. There is a common saying that “if the abbot of
Glastonbury could marry the Abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold
more land than the King of England.”5 Founded by King Alfred in 888,
Shaftesbury’s history spans the entire period under discussion here. The
four extant psalters from the library of Shaftesbury Abbey offer an excellent
view of the development and use of the psalter from the tenth century
onward. The earliest of these, the so-called Salisbury Psalter (Salisbury
Cathedral MS 150), dates from the second half of the tenth century and
includes an Anglo-Saxon gloss (an interspersed translation) of the entire
psalter. Celia and Kenneth Sisam attribute the volume to Shaftesbury based
on the evidence of the calendar, the presence of a female word form
(“Famulam tuam”—“your handmaiden”) in a prayer, and indications of
continued monastic use throughout the Middle Ages.6 The original manu-
script includes a liturgical calendar, the psalms, creeds, and canticles. The
evidence of continued use into at least the thirteenth century is of particu-
lar interest. Folios 152–61 include a litany added in the twelfth century and
an Office of the Dead from the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. The gloss
itself dates from around 1100, more than a century after the original man-
uscript. The Sisams conjecture that the scribe may be a nun.7 The use of
the vernacular language at this early date, although not unusual in Anglo-
Saxon volumes, clearly connects with much later nunnery traditions.8
The strongest evidence for a liturgical use of this particular volume
comes from the presence of two series of antiphon incipits, one added in
the early twelfth century (i.e., at the same time as the gloss) and one in the
late thirteenth century. The Sisams comment:

The second hand often appears over an erasure of the first, but this does not
represent a change of use: the first hand enters the antiphon before the group
of psalms to which it belongs; the second enters the same antiphon after the
group, where it was sung. The arrangement presupposes the Benedictine
psalm-divisions; so the psalter was still in a monastery in the thirteenth
century.9
98 PERFORMING PIETY

Not only is it still in a monastery, it is clearly being used for chanting the
offices, as a liturgical book, not merely as a private devotional book. The
second scribe appreciates the value of the placing the antiphon in the man-
uscript exactly where it would be sung.
An additional indication of the liturgical use of the volume is the prayer
found on folio 138 at the end of the psalms. The text specifically refers to
the singing of the psalms—“et hoc psalterium quod in conspectu tuo can-
taui”10 [and this psalter which I have sung in your sight].
While scribes at Shaftesbury apparently brought the tenth-century
psalter up-to-date in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the abbey also
acquired additional psalters. Two twelfth-century manuscripts survive:
BL Cotton Nero C.iv, the “Winchester Psalter,” and BL Lansdowne 383,
the “Shaftesbury Psalter.” Scholars believe that the Winchester Psalter
originated for a monk at St. Swithun’s priory in Winchester and became
the property of Shaftesbury by the mid-thirteenth century.11 The volume
includes a calendar, the psalms, canticles, and creeds with an accompanying
Anglo-Norman Version, and Latin prayers, some of which also appear in
Anglo-Norman. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, most women of
the elevated social status of Shaftesbury nuns would speak French (Anglo-
Norman) as their common tongue. This psalter is further distinguished by
forty folios of miniatures that appear before the first psalm. The nuns at
Shaftesbury have ample opportunity to mediate on religious stories
through this richly illuminated manuscript.
Scholars believe that the other twelfth-century psalter may have origi-
nated at Shaftesbury. Certainly the depictions of nuns in the miniatures
indicate that the artist produced the manuscript for a nunnery. Kauffman
does not rule out the possibility that a Shaftesbury nun is the scribe, but
cannot demonstrate that with certainty either.12 This volume includes a
calendar, the psalter, canticles, creed, litanies, prayers, and an office entitled
In parasceue ad crucem adorandam13 [on Good Friday while adoring the cross].
Kauffman comments that “the Shaftesbury Psalter has the distinction of
being the earliest Western Psalter with historiated initials at the liturgical
divisions of the Psalms.”14
The final extant psalter from the abbey library is a small fifteenth-
century volume (London, Lambeth Palace, 3285) created for the Bishop of
Salisbury, Edmund Audley, and given to his niece Anne Audley.15 This
spare volume includes only the calendar, psalms, a litany, and seven prayers.
A later hand added the Athanasian Creed. This manuscript probably came
to Shaftesbury in the early sixteenth century for Anne Audley’s use in both
communal and personal devotion.
These four psalters demonstrate the importance of this basic liturgi-
cal book in monastic life over several centuries. The presence of both
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 99

Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman translations of the psalms attests to the

importance placed on comprehension. The psalters also indicate some pat-
terns for acquisition of such volumes: One was apparently commissioned
for the abbey, one is heavily annotated for use by the nuns in the service,
one is the gift of an uncle to a specific nun, and one has found its way to
the abbey by unknown means. These four volumes presumably represent
only a small portion of the actual psalters that a large nunnery like
Shaftesbury actually owns. If Easebourne with eight to twelve nuns has
eight psalters in 1440,16 Shaftesbury, home to fifty-five nuns even in 1441
after the Black Death, may well have owned over fifty psalters, of which
just these four survive.17 They attest to the power of wealth to provide
beauty to the nuns. The illuminations of the twelfth-century psalter continue
to capture the interest of scholars today. Their effect on the imaginations and
devotional life of the nuns must have been even greater.

The Wherwell Psalter

The majority of extant psalters from the medieval period contain only the
texts of the psalms, their antiphons, and some other services; however, the
psalter preserved in London, British Library, Add. 27866, is among those con-
taining complete musical notation for the antiphons used on ferial days as well
as for the chants in the Office of the Dead. This fourteenth-century psalter
is assigned to the Abbey of Benedictine nuns at Wherwell on the basis of an
inscription linking the manuscript to a particular member of that house.18
The order of the psalms in this manuscript is numerical, but an antiphon
links each psalm to a liturgical occasion as well. In the monastic liturgy, the
most concentrated psalm singing occurs at matins and vespers. The psalms
for these offices are chosen by dividing the psalter at Psalm 109 and using
the preceding psalms for the seven matins services and the following ones
for vespers, excluding the psalms that are used elsewhere (e.g., Psalm 66
appears at the beginning of lauds). The antiphon incipit is notated before
the psalm or groups of psalms and the entire antiphon is given at the end;
in addition, the differentia19 is included after the antiphon incipit.20 Therefore,
after each group of psalms there is a complete antiphon, an antiphon incipit,
and the differentia. See example 4.1.

Example 4.1 London, British Library Additional 27866, f. 35

100 PERFORMING PIETY

In the above example, taken from the end of Psalm 31, the antiphon In tua
iusticia libera me domine is sung at the end of the chanting of Psalms 30 and
31. The soloist would then intone “Rectos” and begin Psalm 32. At the
end of the psalm the melodic formula over “Amen” allows the choir to
make a smooth transition to the entire antiphon Rectos decet collaudacio.
The text and music of the antiphons in the Wherwell Psalter are given
according to the Sarum Rite.21 As a comparison of this manuscript with the
Antiphonale Sarisburiense shows, there are very few musical variations
between the two manuscripts.22 Many of the differences that do exist are
very minor melodic changes rather than differences in liturgical practices.
The most significant variations are the transpositions found in five
instances. In two chants, Sit nomen and Beatus vir, the version in the
Wherwell manuscript differs from its counterpart in the Antiphonale by a
fifth but retains the same interval structure. A similar transposition is found
in the antiphon Clamavi et exaudivit which begins on E in the Psalter as
opposed to A in the Antiphonale. More unusual, however, are the two
chants Quia mirabilis fecit dominum and Clamor meus ad te veniat deus that are
not only transposed but also show significant variation. Compare, for
example, the two versions of Quia mirabilia fecit dominum from the
Wherwell and Sarum manuscripts (example 4.2a and 4.2b). The antiphons
have a similar melodic shape and very limited range but are certainly not
identical. The Wherwell Version insists on the half-step interval between
the first and second degrees of the Phrygian mode whereas the Sarum
Version in transposed phrygian mode centers on the final and the note
below it. Other than this slight variation and a few others like it, however,
the repertoire is clearly Sarum.
Besides including the entire psalter with antiphons, this manuscript con-
tains a noted Te Deum laudamus, the canticles, litany, and the Office of the

(a)

(b)

Example 4.2 (a) London, British Library Additional 27866 f. 81v; (b)
Antiphonale Sarisburiense, p. 124
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 101

Dead. Neither the canticles nor the litany is notated. The Office of the
Dead, given with full notation, will be discussed next with the other man-
uscripts that contain this office. The unusual vocal exercises on folio 147
are discussed in chapter 2.
The Wherwell Psalter provides a clear picture of the very regularity of
monastic practices in nunneries. The antiphons and psalms are the back-
bone of the liturgy. The clear alignment of the liturgical practices at
Wherwell, a house in the Diocese of Salisbury, with the Sarum Rite is
expected. The manuscript helps confirm the full participation of nuns in
normative liturgical observances.

Chants from St. Mary’s, Winchester

The earliest noted selections found in a manuscript from an English nunnery
are the three early-eleventh-century chants found in a book of private devo-
tions traced to St. Mary’s Abbey in Winchester, also known as
Nunnaminster. The volume, BL Cotton Nero A.ii, ff. 3–13 bound with
Cotton Galba A.xiv, includes several items in Anglo-Saxon.23 Bernard
James Muir, editor of the manuscript, suggests that the volume might have
served “as an ‘exercise’ book by those being taught in the monastery.”24 The
two pieces in Cotton Nero, honoring St. Dunstan and Ethelbert, appear to
be unique to this manuscript. Descriptions of the manuscript classify both
chants as “hymns,” but their genre is not immediately evident. Both are
noted with cheironomic neumes, symbols that indicate relative pitch but
cannot be transcribed into a definite chant, like those in the Winchester
Troper. Neither chant is syllabic, the chant for St. Dunstan ending with a
lengthy melisma of over twenty notes. It seems likely that they might have
served as processional chants or antiphons.
The chant in honor of St. Dunstan emphasizes his connection to the
English people and calls upon him to protect the country:

O inclite confessor christi

O candelabra doctorque angligena gente
O bone pastor dunstane altorque totius albionis
qui es sanator diuersorum debilium tuo tumolo uisitancium
te nunc flagitamus per illa sancta merita
que te ab altithrono concesse sunt ut tuis sanctis precibus
deo flagitas ut hanc patriam ab hostibus eruat nosque a nexu
criminis soluat atque ad eternam uitam perducat.25
[O illustrious confessor of Christ, O lamp and teacher of the English people,
O Dunstan, good shepherd and sustainer of all Britain. You are the healer
of the many infirm visitors to your tomb. We now entreat you through
102 PERFORMING PIETY

the holy merits which have been granted you by the throne of the most
high to beseech God with your holy prayers that he might rescue this
country from its enemies, free us from the bond of sin, and lead us to life
everlasting.]

This chant, in a volume that Bell describes as “private devotions,”26 raises

interesting questions about the personal/communal worship of nuns. Is it
likely that nuns sang such chants as part of their private devotions? Was the
chant used for teaching purposes? Certainly the presence of chants in honor
of Ethelbert and Dunstan in an early-eleventh-century manuscript indi-
cates that the nuns at St. Mary’s Winchester keep current with liturgical
additions. A third piece with music in the Cotton Galba portion of the
manuscript is the processional hymn Ardua spes mundi written by Ratpert of
St. Gall in the late ninth century.27 These musical pieces are a tantalizing
indication of musical practices in the eleventh century.

The Aldgate Horae

In chapter 1, we considered the Middle English rule and its Appendix from
the Franciscan nunnery near London, at Aldgate.28 Another manuscript
from that same house, Reigate Parish Church, Cranston Library 2322, is
described as Horae, etc. in Ker’s catalogue and ascribed to the house on the
basis of an inscription on folio 191.29 After the opening calendar and Hours
of the BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary), this small manuscript (208 ⫻ 140 mm)
contains many items with musical notation. The chants thus noted fall into
three main categories: processional chants, responsories and antiphons
for the procession to the church and the ritual at the gravesite in the
Commendatio Anime, and chants for the profession of nuns. In fact, this vol-
ume would have been immensely useful for monastic rituals that took place
out of the choir stalls. Some of the text-only sections confirm this usage as
they include the graces for meals in the refectory and instructions to sing a
psalm in procession to the choir from the chapter house. Indeed this vol-
ume clearly serves as a processional for several occasions although it has,
to my knowledge, never been included among lists of English medieval
processionals.30
The volume serves to confirm, in the first place, that these Franciscan
nuns, unlike the Poor Clares, sing the offices. One of five Franciscan nun-
neries in medieval England, the house at Aldgate, outside of London, is
often referred to as “The Minories.” Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, founded
the house in 1293 for women brought to England by his wife Blanche,
Queen of Navarre. Twenty-four nuns and the abbess surrender at the dis-
solution of the house in 1539.31 The Rewle of the Sustres Menouresses opens
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 103

the door to this particular form of worship denied as too sensuous by

other Franciscan nuns.32 But the nuns at Aldgate clearly participate musi-
cally in not only the daily chanting of the office but also processions and
special liturgies for the feasts of the Purification, Palm Sunday, Maundy
Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, and the relatively new feast of Corpus
Christi.33
Who would have needed a book like this? While a small, portable
volume would have been useful to any nun of the order, it seems possible
that the cantrix would have had the greatest need for this particular vol-
ume. Perhaps Anne Frenell, the owner of the book, or Agnes Porter, the
donor, served as cantrix at some point. The cantrix, for example, is respon-
sible for the chanting of graces at mealtimes. In the Appendix to the rule,
the chantress begins the verse after a bell has sounded, and after the meal
leads the chanting of the psalm as the nuns return to the church.34 The
Reigate manuscript includes the texts from graces at all seasons of the year,
conforming closely with the practices laid out in the Appendix.
In any event, the volume is a fine example of the difficulty of classifying
medieval manuscripts. The presence of the Hours of the BVM on folio
7–56r has clearly been the defining feature. Yet the volume is also a pro-
cessional and the repository for such late medieval devotional material as
the Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget. In some sense this is a scholarly problem but
not a problem for the medieval nun for whom the compilation could serve
simultaneously as a volume for contemplation and a convenient storehouse
for chants sung outside of the choir stalls.

Services for the Dead

There are two forms of services for the dead that form an important part
of monastic observances.35 These rituals are often included in psalters and
books of hours. In several instances they are present with musical nota-
tion even when the rest of the volume includes no music. Nigel Morgan
describes the Commendatio Anime or Commendation of the Soul as “an
Office recited for the soul of a dying person. The text is a frequent fea-
ture of Psalters and Breviaries of monastic or conventual origin.”36 This
service is sung around the bedside of the dying person and in procession
into the church for the requiem mass and then again in procession to the
gravesite. Three extant nunnery manuscripts preserve this service with
musical notation: Cambridge, University Library Dd8.2, an “Obituary
Kalendar” of the nunnery of Kington (partial notation only), the Reigate
manuscript described above, and Cambridge Fritzwilliam Museum MS
2–1957, the Hours of the Virgin written for Elizabeth Shelford, Abbess of
Shaftesbury.
104 PERFORMING PIETY

Related to this service, but distinct from it, is the Officium Mortuorum
(Office of the Dead) that includes vespers, matins, and lauds in honor of
those who have died. Since nuns cannot celebrate mass in honor of the
dead, the Officium Mortuorum is their principal avenue for remembering the
dead and carrying out the prayer wishes of benefactors. By the later Middle
Ages this office is recited daily after the corresponding offices of the day by
monks and nuns. It appears frequently in psalters; four noted versions from
English nunneries are extant: the Shaftesbury Horae, the Wherwell Psalter,
London, Society of Antiquaries 717 from the Dominican house of Dartford,
and the Kington St. Michael’s volume. The prevalence of musical notation
for these services, even in volumes otherwise devoid of music, indicates a
communal performance of the rituals.

Commendatio Anime
In the eighth and ninth centuries, several rituals develop for the recognition
of death. Those that occur around the actual death of a person come to be
known as the Commendatio Anime or the Commendation of the Soul.
As Frederick S. Paxton suggests in his study of death rituals in the early
Middle Ages,

What was special to the deathbed rituals in late eighth-century Francia was
the emergence of the commendatio animae, consisting of prayers and a chanted
litany. Not so much a commending of the soul to God as a ritual of aid to
the dying, the commendatio at one and the same time begged God to release
the soul from the flesh; elicited the aid of the saints, martyrs, and all the
blessed in that endeavor; and shielded the dying individual from the attacks
of the demons who might hinder its passage.37

This ritual, then, bridged the dying moments, the washing of the body, and
the burial ritual.38
By the time of our sources in the late Middle Ages, the ritual is well-
established. It is, on occasion, referred to by the incipit of its opening chant
“Subvenite.”39 In the Reigate manuscript, dating from the mid-fifteenth
century, the rubrics detail the critical points in the process. The Ordo
Commendacionis [sic] Anime begins on folio 117v with a litany. The gath-
ered nuns pray and recite psalms and litanies as the person is dying. On
folio 118v the rubric instructs “in exitum anime oracio” (in the departing
of the soul, a prayer). The prayers that follow use specifically feminine
forms (e.g, Commendo te omnipotenti deo soror mea karissma—I com-
mend to you all-powerful God, my dearest sister) but otherwise follow the
Franciscan order of the service.40 The ritual calls for the nuns to wash the
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 105

body, place it on the bier, and then carry the bier into the church.
Although the rubrics in the Reigate manuscript do not specifically name
the cantrix nor indicate the procession to the grave after the mass, the
antiphons and prayers included are those that usually accompany these
activities. In Van Dijk’s edition of the Franciscan liturgy, compiled from
several sources, the cantor is specifically named as starting each of the
chants for which there is music in the Reigate manuscript, further evidence
that this volume might have belonged to the cantrix. Thus many of the
actions of this ritual occur outside of the church—in the infirmary, in pro-
cession, in the graveyard—and would appropriately be included in a small,
portable volume.
Four responsory chants accompany the carrying of the body into the
church at Aldgate. Two of these chants are part of the Office of the Dead
in the same manuscript while the other two are more specific to this ser-
vice.41 One further responsory, also part of the Office of the Dead, occurs
at the gravesite. The nuns sing eight antiphons and psalms at the burial
itself.
The material on folios 105v–132v of the Shaftesbury Horae includes
both musical notation for a series of responsories and eight antiphons to be
sung at the burial. The usual responsories (e.g., Subvenite sancti dei) are indi-
cated with text only but rubrics for the noted responsories indicate specific
occasions on which these chants should be sung, six on the anniversaries of
either kings or abbesses (f. 117r–119v) as well as two for the Die animarum
(f. 119r–121r). These responsories, with one exception, are entirely differ-
ent than those in matins of the Office of the Dead at Shaftesbury.42
The rubrics on folio 124r, as well as the prayer that follows, confirm the
medieval custom of remembering the dead person on the second, third,
seventh, and thirtieth days after their death as well as at the one-year
anniversary: secunda die. iii die. vii die. et tricesima die dicatur oracio predicta et
postea oracio [on the second day, third day, seventh day, and thirtieth day the
aforementioned prayer is said and afterward this prayer]. The rubrics also
indicate the practice of tolling the bell during the service with indications
that certain responsories are sung after the first, second, or third ringing of
the bell. For example, the rubric on folio 118v states in die animarum dicatur
in primo turba post iii l. hoc responsorium [on All Soul’s Day this responsory is
said during the first ringing of the bell after the third lesson].
Eight antiphons and psalms follow the rubric ad sepeliendum—at the
burial. These appear to follow the usual Sarum43 practices with the excep-
tion of one additional antiphon and psalm between the fifth and sixth
antiphons of the usual sequence. The antiphon has a narrow range and is
notated at a relatively high pitch in the transposed mixolydian mode. See
example 4.3.
106 PERFORMING PIETY

Example 4.3 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 2–1957, f. 126r

I have not found this antiphon listed in any other sources, but there is no
comprehensive listing of antiphons from this service.

Officium Defunctorum
The Officium Defunctorum or Office of the Dead arises in the eighth and
ninth centuries in conjunction with actual burial and memorial rituals.
Ottosen suggests that originally the primary purposes of the office were to
accompany the wake and to commemorate the third, seventh, and thirtieth
days of death, but that it later became a daily occurrence in monastic set-
tings because of the obligation to pray for all of the people associated with
the house either as leaders or as benefactors.44 Thus, whereas in the ninth
century the monks and nuns sing the service only as needed, by the time of
our sources in the High Middle Ages, they sing it daily.
The Office of the Dead contains vespers, matins, and lauds, but not the
lesser hours. It is often indicated through reference to its opening antiphon
Placebo domino in regione uiuorum [I will please the Lord in the land of the
living] or merely Placebo.45 Thus, for example, the abbess of Shaftesbury
leaves a small bequest to “a chaunteresse qui dit Placebo apres nostre mort”46
[to the chantress who says Placebo after our death]. The reference incorpo-
rates the entire office through the single word. In the Barking Ordinal, the
section for the second day of Advent, includes instructions for the perfor-
mance of the Office of the Dead:

Post uesperas dicatur [suffragium] sancte Michael et [uespere] Omnium

Sanctorum. et dicatur Placebo et Dirige cum iij. leccionibus cotidie, et semel
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 107

in ebdomada cum. ix. leccionibus, set in duplici festo et eciam in festiuitate

que cum sequencia tenetur, ad utrasque uesperas omittatur.47
[After vespers the suffrages of St. Michael and the vespers of All Saints should
be said. And the Placebo [i.e. vespers of the Dead] and the Dirige [i.e. matins
of the Dead] should be said daily with three lessons, and once a week with
nine lessons, but on double feasts and also on feasts that are celebrated with
a sequence it should be omitted at both vespers.]

A further instruction indicates that the suffrages for St. Michael and the vespers
for All Saints Day should be omitted on the day that nine lessons are read.
The antiphons for vespers, matins, and lauds are fairly constant in this
service, but the responsories exhibit an amazing range of musical and tex-
tual differences. Ottosen’s study catalogues over one hundred responsories
and close to four hundred seventy versicles used in different configurations
for the nine responsories/versicles for matins. These fall into many recog-
nizable patterns that reflect local usages and customs and can therefore be a
useful adjunct to locating an unknown manuscript.
Three of our sources, the Wherwell Psalter, the Kington St. Michaels
manuscript, and the Dartford source clearly transmit very similar traditions.
Among the six antiphons for vespers there are two variants of importance.
In the third antiphon, Dominus custodit te, the Dominican source preserves
an entirely different chant than the other two. The d-mode chant in
UL Dd. 8.2 and BL Add. 27866 is the one found in the Antiphonale
Sarisburiense48 whereas Society of Antiquaries 717 preserves a version of the
chant similar to that found in the Worcester Antiphonal.49 The second
variant of note in the vespers antiphons is a transposition up a fifth in BL
Add. 27866 of the sixth antiphon, Audivi vocem de celo.
The chants for the three nocturns of matins reveal a similar concordance
among the sources. There are very few variants in the antiphons, and the
responsories contain only several small changes. For example, in the first
and fourth responsories, the repeat of the respond is indicated in a different
place. The responsory sequence in two of these manuscripts represents the
Sarum tradition (14-72-24 32-57-28 68-82-38). As Ottosen explains:

The “Sarum” series of responsories is older than the Sarum liturgy. It is first
known in a Sacramentary from Arezzo from the beginning of the 11th cen-
tury (VAT 4772). There is nothing to indicate that it originates here—it
could equally well originate in Metz—but the spread of the series in
Benedictine monasteries in Normandy and in Brittany (and later in England)
may have some connection with the new staff-notation, invented by Guido
of Arezzo (c. 995–1050), which made it possible to decipher and learn the
liturgical melodies without the aid of a master. The series came to Salisbury
with Bishop Osmund (1078–99) and was integrated into the Sarum liturgy
before this liturgy was given its final shape by Richard Poore (1217–28).50
108 PERFORMING PIETY

As might be expected, the Dartford manuscript conveys the Dominican

tradition, which places the responsory Memento mei, deus as the eighth in
the sequence but is otherwise the same as the Sarum.51
The unanimity and regularity of these three sources, however, contrast
sharply with the version of the Officium Mortuorum found in Fitzwilliam
Museum 2-1957 from Shaftesbury Abbey. Although one would expect the
manuscript to transmit the Sarum tradition as its sister houses of Wherwell
and Kington St. Michael do, the sequence of responsories is unusual, not
appearing at all in Ottosen’s extensive catalogue.52 The specific pattern of
the responsories is 72-82-1 58-138-83 18-79-38. In fact, none of Ottosen’s
groupings even include the first three responsories together. Overall
between the Office of the Dead and the responsory chants included in the
Commendatio Anime, the Shaftesbury manuscript seems to represent an
eclectic and highly individual approach to this repertoire. This variation
may reflect the personal choice of the abbess for whom the Book of Hours
is compiled or perhaps a communal liturgical experimentation.
Through both of these rituals the nuns keep before them, literally at all
times, both the presence of death and the promise of resurrection. The
readings from Job form the core of the matins service in many versions of
the service and in all four discussed here. As Besserman indicates in his
study of Job, “we do not know precisely how the Office of the Dead
developed from earlier memorial services or how Job’s role in it grew. But
we do know that Job is the principal biblical figure in the fully developed
Office of the Dead of the High Middle Ages and after.”53 Ottosen sees in
the progression of the first through eighth lessons “a growth in faith and
confidence in God’s redemption.”54 Through these readings and the beau-
tiful accompanying responsory chants, the nun performs a particular part of
her piety each night—the understanding that the trials and tribulations of
this world as well as the threat of death are overcome through faith. The
responsory chants incorporate passages from both biblical testaments as well
as freely composed material, offering a commentary on the lessons. The
lengthy chants with their melismas embed these texts firmly in each nun’s
mind. For example, the opening responsory in the Sarum ritual is:

Credo quod Redemptor meus vivit, et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus

sum, et in carne mea videbo dominum salvatorem meum (Job. 19: 25 ⫹ 26b).
[I believe that my Redeemer lives, and that in the last day I will stand upon
the earth and in my flesh I will see my savior.]

Although this passage does not, in its original context, refer to resurrection
in the Christian sense, the context of its inclusion in a Christian burial
service certainly implies that Jesus is the redeemer. For the nun there is no
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 109

question that Jesus, the redeemer, will bring relief to those who believe
faithfully.
The nun also understands her own role in the community through these
recitations. Just as she sings these chants and offers prayers on behalf of sis-
ters who go before her, so she knows that at her own death, the voices of
her sisters will bear her to heaven as they sing of the angels. The particu-
larity of the chants sung only at the burial in the Commendatio Anime along-
side the everyday recitation of the Office of the Dead forms a spiritual unity
and familiarity with this final rite of passage.

Polyphonic Possibilities
Most medieval English polyphony is preserved as flyleaves on manuscripts
or on the final folios. Accordingly it is often difficult to determine its
provenance. There are four manuscripts that suggest that English nuns may
have participated in the relatively more advanced musical practice of
singing in parts. The most convincing of these comes from the nunnery at
Wherwell, the house from which we have already seen vocal exercises
and a thoroughly noted psalter. British Library Egerton MS 2104A is a
fourteenth-century cartulary from this house.55 The folio in question
includes two three-voiced Marian antiphons—Sancta Maria non est tibi
similis and Sancta Maria virgo intercede. In both cases the plainsong is in the
middle voice of the three-part texture.56
One of these pieces is also included in the polyphony found in
Cambridge, University Library, Kk i.6, a collection that includes “The VII
Psalmes the wheche Dame Alyanore Hull translated out of Frensche in
to Englische” (ff. 2–147), “Meditacyone upon the VII dayes of the woke”
(ff. 148–79), and poems by J. Lydgate (ff. 194–214v). Hull also translated
the mediations.57 Five three-part polyphonic pieces are notated on folios
246–47, one of which is Sancta Maria virgo intercede. The other pieces
include two settings of the Deo Gracias, and the antiphons Paradisi porta and
Et exultavit spiritus.58 In Alexandra Barratt’s edition of this manuscript, she
sketches an intriguing biography of Eleanor Hull. Hull (c. 1395–1460)
comes from the landed gentry class and spends some time at the court serv-
ing Joan of Navarre. She joins the “confraternity of the Benedictine Abbey
of St. Albans,”59 and appears to spend considerable time at the nunnery of
Sopwell which is closely related to St. Albans. Her manuscript appears to
have been produced at St. Alban’s around 1450. By 1458, when she makes
her own will, Hull seems to be living at Cannington, a Benedictine priory
in Somersetshire.60 The presence of three-part polyphony in this manu-
script could thus have been associated with any of three religious houses:
the nunneries at Sopwell or Cannington or the Abbey of St. Alban’s. Her
110 PERFORMING PIETY

biography, given in far greater detail by Barratt, is a marvelous example of

the fluidity of roles that a woman could play at this time. She is, by turns,
a lady at court, a wife, a mother, a resident at two different nunneries, a
translator, the executrix of her son’s estate, and donor of other manuscripts
to St. Alban’s.
Folios 105v–106v of Oxford, Bodleian, Rawlinson G. 18, contain two
polyphonic compositions—a two-part setting of Worldes Blis and the motet
Mellis stilla, maris stella, rosa/Domino (The latter is reproduced on Illustration 4).
The main body of the manuscript is a neatly written psalter. At the end of
the manuscript, in the section containing polyphony, there are also several
prayers. According to the RISM (Répetoire Internationale des Sources
Musicales) description, “at this time the manuscript seems to have been in
the possession of a woman, owing to the form of the prayers and an obit
for the abbess of Burnham.”61
John Stainer, in the introductory notes to his earlier collection Early
Bodleian Music, discusses the connection of Oxford, Lat. liturg. f. 11 (a cal-
endar) with Rawl G. 18. He points out that they were originally one man-
uscript and uses additional information in the calendar to suggest that
the manuscript belongs to a Benedictine establishment, and not to the
Augustinian house at Burnham. He suggests that one of the priories at
Little Marlow, Littlemore, or Studley, all near Burnham, may be the orig-
inal owner of the volume.62 Unless a definite connection with a particular
nunnery can be established, it is difficult to say with certainty that this
polyphony in Rawl. G. 18 was sung at a nunnery; nevertheless, the evi-
dence offers convincing support for the hypothesis that the nuns do indeed
occasionally ornament their observances with polyphony.
Less convincing, but still of some interest, is the evidence from the
polyphony found on folio 1r of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 548, a
collection of anonymous sermons from the twelfth century. When the
manuscript was rebound in 1602, the fourteenth-century parchment fly-
leaves from the old binding became folio 1 and folios 165–67 of the pre-
sent volume. The polyphony at the beginning of the manuscript is part of
a three-voice sequence called Mater Christi nobilis.63 On one of the flyleaves
at the back of the manuscript there is a faint and rather illegible note
described in the RISM volume as a “worn late fourteenth-century note
about the old nunnery in Coventry.”64 Since both this reference and
the polyphony are on the flyleaves, it is possible that the polyphony was at
one time connected with the nunnery.
So what can we postulate about the inclusion of polyphonic music in nun-
neries? The primary factor arguing against the performance of polyphony by
nuns is the generally poor educational background that they receive. We have
no descriptions that offer convincing proof that nuns are given the advanced
 EVERYDAY MUSICAL PRACTICES 111

musical training necessary to write and perform complex polyphony. Yet the
nuns at Wherwell appear to learn basic principles of reading musical notes and
to practice vocal exercises, exercises that may themselves be seen as patterns
of polyphonic ornamentation and the basis for simple and rudimentary forms
of polyphony (e.g., discant) that could be improvised by nuns without much
further training.
The combination of the motets in the Wherwell Cartulary with the
vocal exercises and musical treatise in other Wherwell manuscripts offers a
rare confluence of remaining musical materials from one nunnery.
Undoubtedly the Wherwell sisters work on the musical elaboration of the
liturgy through careful attention to musical literacy and polyphony. We
might describe this small, well-preserved portion of our mosaic as being
indicative of a thriving musical culture in English nunneries in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries. Like their counterparts on the continent65
some English nuns sing contrapuntal works as part of their liturgical
devotions.
CHAPTER 5

POMP AND PIETY: PROCESSIONAL

PRACTICES IN NUNNERIES

omp and piety, apparently contradictory spiritual forces, unite in the

P liturgical action of the procession. The participant is at one and the
same time part of a public parade and a spiritual journey. The creation of a
suitable exterior appearance can, moreover, serve to reinforce the desired
spiritual order not to contradict it. In traditional Christian liturgical prac-
tices, processions offer a specific sense of beginning or movement to a ser-
vice so that the mere process of lining up to begin a procession creates a
sense of anticipation of the liturgical event that is about to happen. This sense
of anticipation is true even within a modern church setting where the
community gathers only once a week for worship. Within the medieval
monastic framework there were twenty-four services each week most of
which did not include a procession. Thus the procession on Sundays or
principal feast days signified a notable departure in the regular worship
routine.
The processional practice of singing and walking simultaneously com-
plexifies the liturgical experience and embeds the music very deeply in the
body of the participant. Additionally, through the procession the partici-
pant is placed in several other relationships. First, the relationship to phys-
ical space changes during the procession—certain windows, altars, and
other objects come into view. Second, the person in procession is in rela-
tionship to her partner and the people in front of her. Within a nunnery,
where the processional order was usually fixed, the change of a partner
might well indicate that a nun had died or that elections of new officers had
been held. Thus the procession signals these changes in notable, tangible
ways.
On specific feast days, the procession often highlights an aspect of the
physical space that pertains to that feast. For example, on the feast of a saint,
114 PERFORMING PIETY

the procession often proceeds to the altar dedicated to that saint which
might have a stained-glass window or other artifact depicting the saint’s
life. These sensory perceptions are then incorporated into the individual
and corporate understanding of the environment. Indeed I would argue
that processions tend to carry the memory of all earlier celebrations of that
particular occasion so that a certain patina builds up in the psyche of each
person. The Candlemas procession thus carries not only a corporate and
individual understanding of the theological/biblical meaning of the feast
but also of the specific happenings (e.g., the year the abbess dropped the
candle!) that become part of the memory and understanding of that feast.
The movement of procession is also connected with a sense of pilgrimage,
a critical activity in the Middle Ages. The movement of the group to spe-
cific locales within the enclosure and, on occasion, outside the enclosure,
becomes a small pilgrimage. The participants’ movement to specific altars
mirrors the movement in their spiritual lives.
Scholars have recently begun to turn their attention to the study of the
dramatic and ritual aspects of medieval liturgical processions.1 In addition
to psychological factors, processions serve several important functions
within the religious community, defining a hierarchy through the order of
processions, reenacting or recreating important moments in salvation his-
tory, creating an awareness of the particularity of the liturgical occasion,
emphasizing the saints and relics that give identity to the specific commu-
nity, and, on some occasions, moving the religious community out into the
wider environs.
Liturgical processions range from the weekly Sunday procession to the
more ornate events associated with such feasts as Candlemas and Palm
Sunday. C. Clifford Flanigan suggests that:

What does mark the early history of processions among Christians is the way
that they were soon associated with archetypal events in the Christian
mythology in such a way that those events were appropriated as authorisa-
tions and founding actions, even though they have no intrinsic or historical
connection to the processions. In this way, processions came to be regarded
as reenactments of archetypal mythological events.2

The dramatic physical nature of processions allows the participants to

absorb the events of salvation history kinesthetically and emotionally as
well as intellectually. The sound of chant and bells, the smell of incense,
and the striking visual images carried in procession stimulate the aural,
olfactory, and visual senses. As Bedingfield has suggested, “The dramatic
elaborations of the liturgy were never attempts to represent historical
events at historical times, but rather to make more directly experienced
 POMP AND PIETY 115

the yearly cycle of Christian history as developed over centuries in

the liturgy.”3 Thus processions serve to unite the biblical/theological, the
emotional, and the kinesthetic within the particular liturgy.
Medieval English nuns undoubtedly participate in processions on a reg-
ular basis as part of the specified monastic ordo (order). Manuscript evidence
offers insights into both the logistics of processions and the specific musical
selections in several houses. Processional order is rarely random in the
Middle Ages. Within the nunnery, that order creates a visual image of the
power and influence of women. In many medieval processions women, if
they participated at all, would have been at the back of the procession as an
afterthought.4 In the nunnery, in contrast, women are the principal partic-
ipants in the procession, public witnesses to the spiritual power of their
gender.
A second area of interest is the extent to which processions leave the
bounds of the enclosure and venture into the surrounding public space. In
the early fourteenth century, the pope issues specific instructions to bishops
on the enclosure of nuns. These strict guidelines indicate a concern for
minimizing the public presence of nuns. The procession outside of the
church thus moves women into a liminal space—enclosed or not enclosed?
Is this a cause for concern to ecclesial authorities or does the procession
legitimize the breaking of enclosure?
Finally, the soundscape of a nunnery procession would be very different
from that of a monastic or laymen’s processional.5 The sound of women’s
voices—higher, softer than men’s—would also make a very different
impression in the community. Reinhard Strohm describes the processions
of the Beguines in Bruges and suggests the following:

The sound of the sacred chants was coloured by the many voices of women
and children, and the rhythmic pace of the procession must have influenced
the musical rhythm; at least the syllabic chants such as hymns and sequences
were most probably sung in fixed metre. Together with the sound of the city
trumpeters and of the pipers of the guilds who walked in the train, the over-
all acoustic impression must have been one of brightness and brilliance, quite
unlike the dark, amorphous sound which the Romantics used to associate
with medieval plainsong.6

Strohm persuasively argues for a particular sound in Bruges based upon the
evidence. What can we reconstruct about the actual sound of processions
in nunneries?
These questions will inform our discussion and interpretation as we
examine the extant processionals and ordinals, explore the general proce-
dures for processionals, and describe the rituals of Holy Week in detail.
116 PERFORMING PIETY

Processional Sources
Chester Processional
Among the surviving musical manuscripts from English nunneries is an
early-sixteenth-century processional from the Benedictine priory of
St. Mary’s at Chester.7 This house, established in the mid-twelfth century
in northern England, seems to have accommodated around twelve to fif-
teen nuns.8 This manuscript (San Marino, California, Huntington Library
EL 34 B.7), the only surviving volume from Chester, was edited by J.W.
Legg for the Henry Bradshaw Society.9 The processional incorporates not
only elements of the Sarum and York liturgies but also some unique chants
and rituals. It contains primarily the antiphons and responsories for proces-
sions on feast days. The brief Middle English rubrics preceding each chant
refer in places to a chantress, prioress, and ladies, clearly reflecting the fact
that this manuscript was not only used by “Dame Margery Byrkenhed of
Chestre”10 but was also written specifically for general use in a nunnery.
On the flyleaves at the beginning of the manuscript, two of the chants
from the service for the consecration of nuns have been added, giving even
further evidence of its use in a house of nuns.11
One of the more unusual features of the Chester Processional is the
very detailed representation of the ceremony of washing the altars on
“sherthursday” (Maundy Thursday). In addition to the unique chants for
this ceremony, the processional includes one responsory for St. Benedict,
Frater erat mente, which may well be unique to this manuscript as well as the
well-known Christmas lullaby Qui creavit celum and several prayers in Latin
and English. Despite the fine musical and liturgical evidence provided by
this manuscript, nothing in the manuscript itself, nor in any other source
from Chester, gives us information about the actual processional order.

The Wilton Processional

The Wilton Processional exists as a transcription of a medieval manuscript
in the library of the Abbey of Solesmes. This copy, made by Dom Jausions
in 1862, is the only extant version of the original manuscript that is now
listed as “missing.” The contents of the processional indicate that it was
written for the abbey of Benedictine nuns at Wilton (Wiltshire), sometime
in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. Wilton, one of the
houses that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, was dedicated to saints Mary,
Bartholomew, and Edith. While the abbey may have housed as many as
eighty nuns in the thirteenth century, records indicate that in the fifteenth
century the number was around thirty-five to forty.12
Georges Benoît-Castelli, O.S.B., has made a detailed study of the man-
uscript transcription in his article, “Un processional anglais du XIVéme
 POMP AND PIETY 117

siecle: Le Processional dit ‘de Rollington.’ ”13 The processional includes

chants not only for the expected major feast days, but also ceremonies for
saints Edith, Denis, and Ywius who have particular connections with the
abbey. It gives details for the performance of liturgical dramas for both
Palm Sunday and Easter. Like the Chester Processional, the Wilton manu-
script includes responsories and antiphons with musical notation for all of
the major feast days. Most of the chants can be found in other sources, but
Wilton was clearly eclectic in its compilation of the liturgy. Benoît-Castelli
points to a fairly rare antiphon, Hodie nobis beata illuxit, for the feast of
Epiphany found both here and in the Barking Ordinal.

The Barking Ordinal

The Barking Ordinal (Oxford, University College 169) has, in previous
chapters, provided us with many useful details about the musical-liturgical
life in this wealthy Benedictine nunnery located near London.14 By the
fifteenth century the number of nuns is estimated to have been around
twenty-five to thirty with the abbess and thirty nuns receiving pensions at
the time of the dissolution.15 The volume contains detailed descriptions of
how processions should be carried out as well as providing textual (and
sometimes musical) incipits for processional chants. It is of course a very
different type of manuscript from the other sources listed here since its pri-
mary purpose is not to provide the text and music for processions but to
delineate full rubrics for all ceremonies. As such, it is of immense value in
allowing us to visualize the actual events as they would have unfolded.

The Dartford Office of the Dead and Processional

The Dartford Office of the Dead (London, Society of Antiquaries 717)
includes a partial processional on folios 55–69. Dartford Priory was the only
Dominican nunnery in England in the Middle Ages. Founded by Edward III
in the mid-fourteenth century, after the years of the Black Death, this priory
housed around twenty nuns.16 The manuscript includes a noted Office of the
Dead as well as a portion of a processional beginning with Palm Sunday.

The Aldgate Horae, etc.

The manuscript from the Franciscan house at Aldgate, London, now in the
possession of the Cranston Library in Reigate includes thirty-five proces-
sional chants in addition to the chants for the Commendatio Anime discussed
in chapter 4. These chants include the Feast of the Purification, Palm
Sunday and Holy Week, Easter, and Corpus Christi. To my knowledge
this volume has never been listed among medieval English processionals
118 PERFORMING PIETY

despite the incorporation of this substantial corpus of materials. The vol-

ume seems to have been copied from a Franciscan source at least as far as
folio 134, the end of the Commendatio Anime. This section includes the
chants for the Feast of the Purification, Palm Sunday, and Maundy
Thursday.17 The chants after this point in the manuscript show far less
correspondence with the Franciscan ordo as compiled by Haymo of
Faversham.18 Thus, for example, the three chants that are listed in the man-
uscript for singing at the sepulcher on Good Friday (Estimatus sum, Sepulto
domino signatum, In pace in idipsum) are not part of the adoration of the cross
in the Franciscan liturgy. They do all appear in the Franciscan ordo as chants
for matins on Holy Saturday. As we shall see, two of these chants are part
of the Good Friday liturgy in the English tradition stemming from the
Regularis Concordia.19

Processionals from Syon Abbey

King Henry V founded Syon Abbey, the only English house of the newly
established Bridgettine order, in 1415 on the outskirts of London. The
order included both monks (12) and nuns (60) ruled over by the abbess. At
the abbey, the nuns did not follow the complex liturgical year of most
monastic houses; their office was a unique one devoted entirely to the
Virgin Mary. While their liturgy did not change on the major liturgical
feast days, they did observe these occasions by participating in a procession.
Five extant processionals as well as information about processions in both
the Breviary20 and the Additions to the Rule21 allow us to form a very clear
picture of the processional practices in Syon Abbey. The processionals
themselves transmit almost identical repertoires. The feasts for which pro-
cessional chants are provided include the principal feasts of the temporale,
the Marian feasts, the feasts of the Circumcision, St. John the Baptist,
St. Mark, Rogation Days, saints Peter and Paul, St. Anne, St. Michael,
St. Augustine, and St. Bridget.
Most of the chants found in the Syon Processionals are drawn from
other monastic sources and are not unique to the Bridgettine liturgy; not
surprisingly, however, several of the chants for St. Bridget and her daugh-
ter, St. Catherine of Sweden, are found only in Bridgettine sources. There
are three feasts of St. Bridget for which a procession was held: Translation
of St. Bridget (only if it fell on a Sunday), Nativity of St. Bridget, and
Canonization of St. Bridget. St. Bridget’s daughter, St. Catherine, was can-
onized in 1489, well after the establishment of Syon Abbey. Her feast day,
therefore, is not mentioned in such works as the Myroure of our Ladye or the
Additions to the Rule. Chants for the procession in her honor were, how-
ever, added at the end of the processionals, indicating that the nuns of Syon
did observe her day with a procession. St. Anne, the mother of Mary, was
 POMP AND PIETY 119

accorded greater importance at Syon than in much of the church. The

three chants sung at the procession on the Feast of St. Anne are all unique
to the Syon liturgy.22

Basic Processional Practices

As noted above, the form and order of the processional carries a great deal
of symbolic weight. Who goes first? Who goes last? How is the procession
configured? What objects are carried? These are among the many questions
that can be raised about processions. The Barking Ordinal gives very
explicit directions for processions. For example, the instructions given for
Christmas Day set forth normal procedures:

Inter terciam premoniat precentrix sacerdotes et clericos ut preparent se ad

processionem, ad quam omnes moniales eant palliate. Cum autem abbatissa
inceperit Ant. Hodie natus est omnes sacerdotes et clerici procedant deferentes
candelabra, turrib[ula], cruces23 [et] textum. Quos subsequatur conuentus
hoc modo. Primo exeant due senes sorores et postea infantes cum magistris
bine et bine, deinde minores et postea seniores. Ultimo autem incedat
abbatissa cum preposita. Sicque eat processio circa claustrum. Finita proces-
sione incipiat abbatissa uel precentrix R. Uerbum caro deinde Ant. Hodie chris-
tus natus est. Quam diu uadant ad processionem pulsentur tres magne
campane. Cum autem redeuntes ecclesiam intrauerint sonentur omnia signa
maiora et minora. Quibus finitis assint ille sex que cecinerunt responsorium
ad uesperas et incipiant magnam missam in medio choro.24
[During terce the presentrix should warn the priests and clerics that they
should prepare for the procession to which all the nuns should come clad
in their palliums. When, however, the abbess will begin the antiphon
Hodie natus est all the priests and clerics should proceed carrying the cande-
labra, censer, crosses and book. The convent should follow them in this
manner: first two older sisters go out and then the children with their mis-
tresses two by two, then the younger nuns and after that the older ones.
Finally, the abbess should go with the prioress. And thus the procession
should go around the cloister. The procession having finished, the abbess or
precentrix begins the responsory Verbum caro then the antiphon Hodie christus
natus est. While they go in the procession, the three large bells are rung.
When, however, returning they reenter the church all the large and small
bells are rung. When all this has been finished, the six who started the
responsory at vespers and began the great mass in the middle of the choir
should be present.]

We can see from this description that at Barking Abbey the procession was
led by the priests and clerics carrying candles, the censer, the cross, and the
(gospel) book. Figure 2.2 shows a depiction of a procession from the
French manuscript of La Sainte Abbaye. Note the similarity of the order to
120 PERFORMING PIETY

that described at Barking except that in the picture nuns carry the candles.
Also in the picture, the nuns in the procession carry books, presumably
processionals, with musical notation. All of the nuns are clothed in a “pal-
lium.” Tolhurst suggests that this may be the monastic cowl or possibly a
cloak of some sort that is unique to Barking.25 After the priests, the nuns
enter the procession led by two senior nuns and then processing from
youngest to oldest. At the very end of this procession comes the abbess
with the prioress (“preposita”). The ordering, and especially the presence
of the abbess and prioress at the end of the procession, is a clear indication
of the chain of command within the abbey. As Roberta Gilchrist has noted,
“the nun exchanged her former family relationships for the hierarchy of the
monastic community. Authority within the house was articulated through
spatial delineation in living spaces, seating patterns and liturgical proces-
sions. An abbess’s personal power was reflected in the crozier which
accompanied her burial.”26 The complete separation of men and women in
the procession also reflects the ideal relationship that is supposed to exist
between the men, who serve as priests and chaplains, and the nuns.
The description also gives a small hint as to the geography of the pro-
cession—“sicque eat processio circa claustrum.” Although the layout of
Barking Abbey is not precisely known, the mention of specific places at
various points in the ordinal gives some clues as to the layout. Additionally
some archeological work has indicated the broad outlines of the church.
On this basis and from other descriptions of specific processions in the ordi-
nal, it is clear that many processions at Barking involved leaving the choir
area, processing into and around the cloister, and then back through the
nave into the choir. Others, as we shall see, moved to various places in the
church itself or outdoors.
The instructions also say that as long as the procession continues, “three
large bells are rung.” There were quite a variety of bells at Barking and
the campane were the largest bells. As we imagine the aural experience of the
procession, we can hear both the nuns singing chant and the sound of
the bells ringing from the bell tower. Then, as the procession returns to the
church, all of the bells, large and small, are rung. Only after the sound of
the bells dies away does the select group of six (abbess, prioress, presentrix,
succentrix, and two older nuns) begin the introit for the Christmas Mass.
The instructions for a procession on the occasion of a royal visit provide
an interesting contrast to the description above. In the “Processio pro rege”
the abbess with her crozier comes immediately after the priests, and the
king with his attendant priests comes at the end of the procession. This
arrangement only reinforces the importance of the end of the procession
as the most significant place.27 This same description clarifies the phrase
that is used a number of places throughout the ordinal—“ecclesiastico
apparatu.”
 POMP AND PIETY 121

In primis pulsentur omnes campane in classico et conueniant omnes

sacerdotes in uestiarium et ibi induantur ecclesiastico apparatu, uidelicet, in
capis sericis excepto illo qui crucem ante processionem deferet, et ibidem
cum cruce primo procedet cum duobus pueris duos cereos differentibus.
post illum omnes sacerdotes. duo diaconi cum turribulis deinde sequatur
domina Abbatissa cum baculo pastorali, eamque sequatur conuentus ordina-
tim et cum rex portam cimiterii intrauerit: quatuor sacerdotes in capis defer-
ent palleum super quatuor hastas super regem in processione.28
[During prime all the bells should be run “in classico” and the priests all
should gather in the vesting area and there they will put on the ecclesiastical
trappings, namely, silk copes except the one who will carry the cross before
the procession; and the same one with the cross goes first with two children
carrying two candles. After him come all the priests and two deacons with
censers, the Lady Abbess should follow with her crozier, and then the con-
vent should go in their usual order and when the King enters the gate of the
cemetery: four priests in copes will carry the canopy on four poles above the
king in procession.]

The instructions that the abbess carry the crozier, which as Gilchrist noted
is the symbol usually buried with her at her death, indicate that a visit from
royalty is an occasion for the abbess to demonstrate her own ecclesiastical
authority. It is a clear indication of the status of Barking Abbey that they
expect the king to visit.
The Additions to the Rules of Syon Abbey give even more detailed
instructions about the exact nature of the processional order in Chapter 29
“Of Processiones”:

As for processions, whan the sustres haue any, they schall kepe thys forme.
The response or antem, or Salve feste dies bygonne, the crosse schal go be
fore, or els holy water, as in the rogacion dayes, as it schewith in the four-
tyethe chapter. And in al hyghe and principal festes the sextayn, or another
suster at here assygnement, schal bere an ymage of our lady after the crosse,
and two torches schal be borne on euery syde a lytle before the ymage. After
them schal folowe the sustres that synge not, and after them the hole quyer,
the {ongest before, and the abbes comynge behynde in the ende of the
procession, al beyng in ther hole reguler habite. And they muste take hede
that ther pace be not to faste, neyther to softe, and that two and two go euer
togyder asmoche as they may, none scholdryng other, and that ther be euer
two or thre fete space betwene them that go before and hem that folowe
after, that eche may here other and beware of discorde. And as they passe
oute by the abbes, thei schal enclyne to her, and whan they come in a{ene,
they schal enclyne before the deske, and a{ene whan they take ther stalles.29
[As for processions, when the sisters have one they shall keep this form.
When the response or antiphon or Salve festa dies has begun, the cross shall
go first or else holy water, as in the rogation days, as it tells in the fortieth
chapter. And in all high and principal feasts the sexton or another sister
122 PERFORMING PIETY

assigned by her, shall bear an image of Mary after the cross and two candles
shall be carried on each side a little bit in front of the image. After them shall
follow the sisters who do not sing and then the whole choir, the youngest
before and the abbess coming behind at the end of the procession, everyone
in their full regular habit. And they must be careful that their pace is not too
fast or too slow, and that each pair goes together as much as they can, not
bumping into each other and that there be two or three feet between the
ones in front of them and the ones behind, that they can each hear each
other and beware of discord. And as they leave by the abbess, they should
bow to her, and when they return again they shall bow before the lecturn
and again when they enter their choir stalls.]

Since the brothers have a separate procession at Syon, the nuns’ procession
does not include priests. Instead nuns carry the cross, candles, and image.
Whereas the nuns at Barking are clad “in palliate” for some feasts, the Syon
nuns are instructed to wear their full habit for all processions. Again the
abbess comes at the end of the procession. What is particularly notable
about this description is the care it takes to describe the physical aspects of
walking in procession—the pace, the spacing, and the importance of lis-
tening. These instructions are full-body instructions. Getting the pace just
right is an important processional duty. If the pace is too fast, the people at
the end of the line will need to run to keep up; if it is too slow, it will lose
some of its festive character. Similarly, the pairs of nuns need to be far
enough apart that they do not bunch up but close enough together that
they can hear each other and “beware of discorde.”
The Breviary from Syon Abbey gives slightly different instructions for
the processions, not so much contradicting as adding to our understanding
of the order.

In the which procession a sustir which most be formest shal bere the stop
with holi water and next hir on shal folow bering the crosse and of eythir
side of the crosse a sistir with a ligh taper and after the crosse berer. a suster
bering an ymage of our lady and than aftir shall the couent folow. ij. to gid-
der and .too. to gidder and so forth of all in ther ordir of profession except
the abbes and the prioresse which if thay were yongest of profession yett they
shall goo sitt and stond oboue othir . . . Soo in thes processions the
chauntresse and the soth chauntresse or .ij. that occupieth their place go in
the middis of the procession be thay yong or wold.30
[In this procession, a sister shall go first carrying the container with holy water
and then one carrying the cross and on either side of her a sister with a lighted
candle, and after the cross bearer a sister bearing an image of Mary and then the
convent follows them, two by two, all in the order of their profession except
the abbess and the prioress who, even if they were they youngest of profession,
yet they would still sit and stand above the others. . . .So in these processions
 POMP AND PIETY 123

the chantress and sub-chantress or two that are filling their roles go in the mid-
dle of the procession whether they are young or old.]

As this passage indicates, each procession will include a sister with holy
water, then the crossbearer with sisters on either side carrying candles, fol-
lowed by one carrying the image of Mary. The passage clearly defines the
criteria of “age” as being related to the time of profession, that is, ones age
in the abbey, rather than their chronological age.31 In keeping with the
practical nature of these instructions, the musical leadership is strategically
placed in the middle of the procession where they can be heard more effec-
tively by all of the nuns and thus help to keep the chant together.
Other extant evidence corroborates the instructions to walk in pairs.
Figure 2.2 depicting a nunnery procession shows the nuns walking in pairs,
sharing a book. This same sharing is indicated by the presence of two
names in Cambridge UL Add. 8885, one of the processionals from Syon.
The inscription reads “Anne Dyngue, O mater Dei, memento mei. Anne
Amarson, O mater Dei, [non] obliuiscere me” (Anne Dyngue, o mother of
God, remember me. Anne Amarson, o mother of God, [do not] forget
me). Christopher de Hamel suggests that the two names may well be
inscribed because these nuns walked together in procession and thus shared
the book. Two names also appear in Oxford, St. John’s College 167,
another of the Syon Processionals.32
A fifteenth-century sermon for the Rogation Days discusses the impor-
tance of processions at great length. The author suggests that the procession
scares away the evil spirits:

Also in these processions baners and crossis be borne and bellis rong th[a]t
the spyritis that flye above in the eyer as thyke as motis in the sonne scholde
flee a wey frome us, when they see baners and crossis on lofte, and heryng
the bellis ryng.33
[Also in these processions, banners and crosses are carried and bells rung so
that the spirits that fly above in the ether as thick as motes on the sun should
flee away from us when they see banners and crosses on high, and hear the
bells ring.]

The sermon goes on to compare the procession fighting the devil the way
a king’s army would confront an earthly foe. These comparisons indicate
the very real sense of connection between earthly and heavenly principali-
ties. Kings often request the holding of processions as a way of praying for
victory. For medieval nuns, the procession hallows the space through
which they walk, for certainly the devil could not inhabit that same space.
These general descriptions of processions give us a picture of normative
procedures. From them we see that the procession carries a visual picture of
124 PERFORMING PIETY

the hierarchical arrangements of the nunnery. The processions are led by

priests (at Barking) or by the sexton (at Syon), older nuns leading the convent
with the rest following from youngest to oldest (often determined by order of
profession of vows, not by age), and the abbess and prioress coming at the end
of the procession. The procession also provides a visible, tangible reminder of
the importance of the cross and, at Syon Abbey, the Marian devotion that is
central to their liturgy. The importance of community and the central reli-
gious purpose of the community are clearly portrayed in procession.

Rituals for Holy Week

Processionals not only express the general communal purpose of religious
life, but they also exemplify the particular occasion on which they are held.
Thus as we read the Barking Ordinal, for example, each procession has its
own rubric with instructions. Not surprisingly, the rituals associated with
Holy Week are among the most concentrated and powerful of the liturgi-
cal year and play an important role in the extant sources. In this section
we will examine the rituals of Holy Week as celebrated by the nuns of
Barking, Chester, Wilton, Dartford, Reigate, and Syon abbeys.

Palm Sunday
A Palm Sunday procession naturally embodies Christ’s triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, the central act of the day. Therefore it is not surprising that we
find a fully developed processional liturgy for this occasion. The themes
that mark this ritual throughout the church are the blessing and carrying of
the palms, the sense of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the incorporation of
children as participants.
The tenth-century Anglo-Saxon liturgy, as prescribed in the Regularis
Concordia, begins at “the church where the palms are”34 with a short ser-
vice, includes the singing of an antiphon, the return to the door of the
home church where the group is greeted by children singing Gloria laus.
The “pueri” begin this and sing the verses while the choir joins at each
chorus. When this is finished, the responsory Ingrediate Domino is begun as
the procession reenters the church.35
Bedingfield suggests that in tenth-century England there is no evidence
of any impersonation of Christ in the procession but rather that the palm
branches carry the weight of the ritual. He writes:

Rather, possibly in part due to the close relationship between the rituals for
Candlemas and for Palm Sunday, the palms themselves seem to gather the
aura of salvation and victory over death surrounding Christ at the entry, hav-
ing absorbed much of the divinity warranted the Christ-representing candles
 POMP AND PIETY 125

in the Candlemas procession. While this emphasis might detract from the
ritual’s verisimilitude with the original event, it brings in a range of associations
that help the participants directly and powerfully enter Christian history.36

The palms themselves, then, become a critical part of the participatory

understanding of Palm Sunday. By the time of the later Middle Ages, many
of the ritual observances are considerably more complex than the one
described in the Regularis Concordia. They generally retain the movement to
another church and then back to the home church, the singing by children
of Gloria laus,37 and the blessing and distribution of palms.
The liturgical texts for Palm Sunday include numerous references to
children; thus their participation in the ritual exemplifies the very texts that
are sung. For example, in addition to the refrain of Gloria laus, two differ-
ent chants begin with “pueri hebreorum” (the children of the Hebrews),
and most of the chants refer to the children as representatives of the citizens
of Jerusalem. Bedingfield explores the strongly eschatological understand-
ing of the ritual. As he writes, “More than just participation in the events
of Easter week, the celebrants look forward to the ultimate significance of
those events, the opening of heaven to them, and many of the forms for the
day end with this sort of eschatological focus.”38 In this understanding, the
children represent the citizens of the heavenly kingdom and the other
participants process to join them.
An Old English Palm Sunday homily of the twelfth century deals with
the procession as the central liturgical act on Palm Sunday. The homilist
begins, “The crowds which went before and followed after our Lord, cried
out saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord. It is customary for each church-congregation to go this
day in procession; and this custom hath its rise in the holy procession which
our Saviour made toward the place where he would suffer death.”39 After
setting the scene at the opening of the homily, the preacher works his way
through the gospel passage. In the middle of the homily, he stresses the role
of the children: “And the children who were in front did as the gospel
saith, Pueri Hebraeorum viam pro, etc.—The children bridged the way before
our Lord, some with their clothes and some with boughs which they broke
off the trees; and so brought him into the holy temple as unto his earthly
throne. Thus made our Saviour his holy procession from Bethphage to
Jerusalem; and each Christian man maketh this day his procession from
church to church and back again, and it betokeneth the holy procession
which our Lord made this day.”40 Finally, at the end of the sermon, the
homilist makes the case for the importance of this earthly procession to our
salvation: “May our Lord Jesus Christ, who to-day made his holy proces-
sion into Jerusalem (which each church to-day keeps in remembrance),
teach and aid us so to follow his holy earthly procession, that we may be in
126 PERFORMING PIETY

the holy procession which he will make with his chosen on Doomsday
from the judgment into heaven.”41 Thus the Palm Sunday procession is not
only remembrance but also foreshadowing and by implication hallows all
of the processions that are made during the year.
The Palm Sunday procession, although nearly universally observed,
shows a great deal of local variation. Craig Wright, in his article “The Palm
Sunday Procession in Medieval Chartres,” notes that such variation is found
throughout northern France and that “no two northern cathedral churches
sang the same chants in the same order.”42 Certainly none of the nunneries
represented in our processional volumes sing the same thing in the same
order either. The sources do offer a fascinating glimpse into the ability of
each local house to customize the dramatic nature of the day to its own ter-
rain and personnel. Because the Dartford, Aldgate, and Syon manuscripts
lack extensive rubrics, it is difficult to trace the route or use of the chants in
much detail. Chester, Wilton, and Barking, however, all offer a wealth of
details about this occasion. At each house, the chants themselves seem to
suggest the ritual actions. The services at these three nunneries share many
features including twelve chants, but the ordering and rubrics are quite
divergent. Among the variable features are the nature and route of the pro-
cession, the presence or absence of the “feretrum” (bier), the dialogue
between priests and nuns, and specific additional chants in each source. Palm
Sunday processions often begin at a different church and move their way
back to the “home church.” All of these sources, however, seem to begin
the procession at the home church proceeding to another destination.
The version preserved in the Chester Processional is in many ways
similar to that recorded in the Sarum Processional.43 Virtually every chant
is included in the Sarum Processional in much the same order. The rubrics,
however, suggest differences in the ritual actions. There are no children
who participate musically in the Chester ritual; instead small groups of
three or four nuns alternate with the larger group. Most notably, however,
the nuns are instructed to proceed “fro the churche doore to ierusalem”44
and sing Cum appropinquaret dominus. This chant itself tells of Jesus
approaching Jerusalem and sending two disciples ahead. In the Chester
ritual the prioress, two other nuns, and the priest go into the “city of
Jerusalem” while the rest of the nuns stay without. Dramatically this move-
ment reinforces the movement to Jerusalem by the disciples. The nuns
who kneel outside alternate singing chants with the “in-group.” The man-
uscript does not make clear exactly where Jerusalem was located or of what
it consisted. Legg suggests that it “was perhaps some place higher than the
rest from which the anthems were sung.”45 It would appear to be out of
doors (since the instructions call on them to proceed from the church door)
and would seem to have some sort of structure, however temporary, for
 POMP AND PIETY 127

the nuns to enter.46 (A similar dialogue takes place at Wilton in the tent to
which they carry the bier except that there the chant is sung alternately by
four priests and six nuns.)
In the Chester ritual, the nuns move from “Jerusalem” to the “hye crosse
in the churcheyarde” and then to the “crosse on the northe halff” where a
deacon reads the gospel. From there they move to the church door where
the two chantresses with two other nuns go into the church and begin
singing Gloria laus; the rest of the nuns who wait outside respond.47 Usually
children (pueri) would have gone ahead to the church to play this role.
There the ritual at Chester lacks the dialogue between nuns and priests or
nuns and children that characterize both the Barking and Wilton versions.
The description of the ritual action at Barking Abbey is more detailed
than that at either Chester or Wilton due to the nature of the sources. Of
course, the music itself is not notated in the ordinal; nevertheless, the thor-
ough rubrics of the ordinal allow us to visualize the ritual in greater detail.
The procession itself begins after the choir all genuflect at the text “omne
genu flectatur” in the responsory “In nomine domini iesu omne genu flec-
tatur”48 [At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow]. The procession
includes priests carrying holy water, candlesticks with candles, the cross,
the censer, the (gospel) book, and the bier, followed by the entire convent
carrying palms. The instructions allow for the procession to go either to a
pavilion (representing Jerusalem presumably) or to another church. The
reference to another church is the one indication that they might leave the
premises. The rubrics include specific instructions of exactly how to place
all of the items carried in procession when they reach their destination.
This attention to detail is a clear indication of the dramatic nature of the
procession. The bier, of course, represents Christ’s death, and the focus on
the ritual around the bier foreshadows the events of Holy Week.
The emphasis on Jerusalem at Barking Abbey is further solidified by the
presence of the “hospitario ierosolomitano” (member of the Knights
Hospitaller) who comes annually to collect alms.49 After the sermon and an
antiphon, the next dramatic signal is the sound of the small group of chil-
dren beginning Gloria laus sung antiphonally with the nuns. The sacristan
spreads cloaks on the route back into the church. The choir returns with
more chanting and finally, with a great peal of bells, the great mass begins.50
Even this lengthy sketch omits many of the details given in the ordinal.
The basic outline includes full participation by a staff of clerics, priests and
deacons, the nuns, and children. The sounds heard include men’s voices
singly and together; solo small group and large choir of women’s voices;
and the six children singing, as well as the ringing of different bells. These
combined forces sing more than twenty chants, listen to a sermon, and
travel on pilgrimage together with palm branches, incense, candles, cross,
128 PERFORMING PIETY

and bier. During those chants they sing “Osanna filio david benedictus qui
venit in nomine domini” at least twelve or thirteen times, increasing their
sense of identification with those who lined the streets of Jerusalem and
shouted those words to Jesus. Simultaneously, they look forward with
anticipation to the heavenly Jerusalem.
The ritual represented in the transcription of the Wilton Processional is
very similar to those at Barking and Chester. The processional itself gives
few rubrical directions but does indicate that the procession should move
to four stations (as in the Sarum ritual) and that a bier was carried.51 The rit-
ual includes even more chants than either Barking or Chester and incorpo-
rates dialogue between priests and nuns as indicated above as well as
children in their usual role singing alternatim with the cantrix alone. One
interesting peculiarity of this manuscript is the indication that one of the
four priests is to impersonate Caiphas:

iiii clerici: “Unus autem ex eis cayfas nomine cum esset pontifex anni illius
prophetavit dicens.”
Statim accedat quidam specie cayfe et dicat versum. “Expedit vobis ut
unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereant.”
Hoc dicto statim recedat sine mora. Item dicant clerici: “Ab illo ergo die
cogitaverunt interficere eum dicentes. [Et venient Romani, et tollent nos-
trum locum et gentem]”52
[4 priests: “One of them, however, named Caiphas, who was the high priest
that year prophesied saying.”
Immediately the one portraying Caiphas should come forth and say this verse: “It is
better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole
nation destroyed.”
This being said, he should immediately withdraw. Then the priests should say: “So
from that day on they planned to put him to death saying ‘The Romans will
come and destroy both our place and this nation.’ ”]

This passage makes use of the ancient responsory chant Collegerunt pontifices
to stage a short musical drama with the priests singing the narrative and one
of them, costumed, portraying Caiphas. Similarly a later chant (Venite filii
eve) is portrayed as a dialogue between the priests and four nuns. Thus each
nunnery seems to have adapted the basic Palm Sunday processional activi-
ties for its own situation and needs, but all of them have expressed the dra-
matic nature of the events in Jerusalem. The theatrical impulse that is
demonstrated at Palm Sunday is only further expanded during the rest of
Holy Week culminating in the Easter rituals at both Barking and Wilton
Abbeys with the Easter drama at the tomb.
Musically the sources for the Palm Sunday ritual also display a great deal
of variety. Example 5.1 compares the renditions of the refrain of Gloria laus
et honor in the Aldgate, Chester, and Dartford manuscripts. The Chester
 POMP AND PIETY 129

and Dartford versions are close to each other and to the Sarum and Parisian
versions.53 The manuscript from Aldgate preserves an entirely different ver-
sion, notable for its slightly higher range and its ending on “A” instead of
“D.” This version of the melody corresponds to the manuscript of
Franciscan Clarisses in Belgium and seems to transmit a Franciscan tradi-
tion.54 Thus not only do the different houses sing different texts, they also
sing different melodies to some of the same texts.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Example 5.1 Gloria laus et honor—Three versions (a) Reigate, Cranston

Library 2322, f. 86r; (b) Huntington Library, EL 34 B7, f. 30r; (c) London Society
of Antiquaries, 717, f. 62r
130 PERFORMING PIETY

Maundy Thursday
There are two major rituals that occur on Maundy Thursday in addition to
the normal round of the opus dei: the washing of the altars and the washing
of the feet by the nuns both of the poor and of each other.55 From the
materials available to us, it is clear that nuns participated fully in both of
these activities and that each house had its own unique way of engaging
them. The ritual observance of foot washing is, of course, a direct result of
Jesus’ example and his specific instructions to his disciples (John 13).
Benedictine houses observed this commandment weekly but with special
solemnity on the Thursday of Holy Week. The practice of washing altars
on this day seems also to have derived from the same biblical injunction.
Isidore of Seville suggests that “Eo etiam die saluator surgens a cena pedes
discipulorum . . . Hinc est quod eodem die altaria templique parietes et
pauimenta lauantur uasaque purificantur quae sunt domino consecrata”56
[Since on this day the Savior washed the feet of the disciples. . . . Therefore
on that same day the altars, walls and pavement of churches are washed and
the vessels consecrated to the Lord are purified]. It is clear that these two
rituals were part of monastic practice during the Anglo-Saxon period. The
Regularis Concordia, written for both monks and nuns, gives instructions for
the washing of the pavement (inside the church) and the altars, a maundy
of the poor and a conventual maundy.57 The connection of the use of
water on this day with the waters of baptism especially associated with
Eastertide links together the themes of life crossing to death and then to life
again during the triduum (three-day period from Maundy Thursday to
Easter).
At Barking Abbey, the nuns seemed to participate only in the washing
of the high altar.58 After the high mass, the priest, preceded by clerics with
censer and candles, carries the consecrated host to the Altar of St. Mary.
The nuns, singing together, process after the priest and are followed by
their scholars. They sing “Hoc corpus quod pro nobis tradetur: hic calix
novi testamenti est in meo sanguine, dicit Dominus: hoc faciete, quoties-
cumque sumitis, in meam commemorationem”59 [This body which will be
given for us: this chalice is the new testament in my blood, says the Lord.
Do this, as often as you do it, in remembrance of me]. This chant is not
found as part of the Thursday ritual in most other sources but the text, as
part of the text for consecrating the elements, is obviously most appropri-
ate for carrying the host as reserve sacrament to the lady altar. Then as the
priests wash the high altar, the nuns sing Circumdederunt me viri mendaces,
the responsory sung on Palm Sunday, and in the Sarum ritual on Passion
Sunday as well. The instructions in both the Sarum Processional and the
Barking Ordinal indicate that wine and water are mixed for washing the
altars.
 POMP AND PIETY 131

By contrast, the priory of Chester holds a very elaborate ceremony for the
washing of the altars. While the Barking Ordinal gives instructions only for
the washing of the high altar, the Chester manuscript includes the prayers and
antiphons for washing thirteen different altars on “sherthursday.”60 After
beginning, perhaps by the high altar, with two responsories and an antiphon,
the rubrics direct that the nuns should “Goo to seynt mary auter with thys
antym of the assumpcion”61 [go to St. Mary’s altar with this antiphon of the
Assumption]. The rubrics then provide an antiphon and a prayer for each of
the altars of St. John the Evangelist, St. James, St. Nicholas, St. Edmund,
St. Benedict, St. Margaret, St. Thomas, St. Katherine, St. Anne, St. Mary
Magdalene, St. John the Baptist, and All Saints.62 No information is given on
exactly how the altars should be washed nor whether they are washed by
priests or nuns. The music is provided for all of the antiphons and includes
the following four chants that are, so far as I can determine, unique to this
manuscript. See examples 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5.

Example 5.2 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, EL 34 B. 7, f. 35v

Example 5.3 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, EL 34 B. 7, f. 37v

132 PERFORMING PIETY

Example 5.4 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, EL 34 B. 7, f. 38r

Example 5.5 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, EL 34 B. 7, f. 38v

Each antiphon is a short reminder of the saint to whom the altar is

dedicated and is followed by a short line of text (e.g., “Ora pro nobis sancte
iohanne”) which was probably intoned. Many of the more familiar chants
are from the liturgy for the saint’s day. In effect this ritual is an expanded,
stational litany with the nuns moving from altar to altar, invoking the
power of each saint at the appropriate place and asking the saint to pray for
them. This movement around the church is a clear example of the impor-
tance of procession in making physically tangible that for which one is
praying. By the end of the ritual, the altars are stripped and ritually clean.
The nuns then turn to the mandatum (foot washing) in which they, them-
selves, are made ritually clean.
“Mandatum novum da vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos dicit
dominus” [A new commandment I give to you that you love each other
just as I have loved you says the Lord]. With this chant, the nuns begin the
ritual maundy. While Chester has the most elaborate ritual for washing
altars, both Wilton and Barking hold more extensive foot-washing cere-
monies. Two factors may have contributed to this: First, Chester was a
 POMP AND PIETY 133

much smaller house and fewer chants would have been required to accompany
the ritual. Second, Barking, and possibly Wilton, did the double maundy—
first washing the feet and hands of paupers and then washing the feet and
hands of the members of the convent. The Barking Ordinal gives detailed
instructions on the mechanics of washing:

Cumque uenerit abbatissa contra ostium capituli seruitrices lintheis precin-

gantur. et incipiat abbatissa Ant. Mandatum nouum, ps. Beati immaculati,
et Ant. Rogabat. Tunc uadat abbatissa in capellam suam et priorissa intret
capitulum ad lauandum pedes pauperum, et ministrentur ab illis quas ad
hoc ipsemet elegerint: reliquas antiphonas et responsoria cantrix incipiat,
Ant. Rogabat ihesum, Ant. Recumbente ihesu, Ant. Cum discubuisset, Ant. Emit
maria, Ant. Sinite mulierem, Ant. Mittens hec mulier, R. Accepit maria. Ant.
Maria ergo. R. Felix maria. R. O mirum et magnum. Ant. Symon autem, Ant.
Dixit autem. Interea lauantur pedes pauperum hoc modo. Omnes per
ordinem sicut sunt priores coram pauperibus prosternantur humi breuem
facientes oracionem. deinde surgentes lauant pedes illarum quatuor
sororibus, in capitulo premonitis, aquam et tersoria sibi deferentibus.
Postquam autem pedes abluerint: lintheis detergant et tunc deosculentur.
Lotis omnium pedibus, det unaqueque aquam pauperum manibus: et min-
istre teneant manutergia. Post manuum detercionem: tribuant pauperibus
nummos a cameraria sibi commendatas manus earum deosculando. Si autem
alique infirme in lecto decubuerint: introducantur pauperes ad illas et ibi ab
eis abluentur.63
[Whenever the abbess will have come opposite the door of the chapter
house, the servants should gird themselves with linen cloths and the abbess
should begin Ant. Mandatum novum. Ps. Beati immaculati and Ant. Rogabat.
Then the abbess should go into her chapel and the prioress into the chapter
house to wash the feet of the paupers and they should be served by the nuns
whom they themselves [i.e., the prioress and abbess] chose for this. Let the
cantrix begin the rest of the antiphons and responsories. Ant. Rogabat ihesum,
Ant. Recumbente ihesu, Ant. Cum discubuisset, Ant. Emit maria, Ant. Sinite
mulierem, Ant. Mittens hec mulier, R. Accepit maria. Ant. Maria ergo. R. Felix maria.
R.O mirum et magnum. Ant. Symon autem, Ant. Dixit autem. Meanwhile, the
feet of the paupers are washed in this way. Everyone in order lies prostrate
on the ground, as they were previously, before the poor and makes a brief
prayer. Then getting up, they wash their feet as four of the sisters, having
been so advised in the chapter, carry with them water and towels. Then,
after they wash the feet, they dry them off with linen towels and then kiss the
feet affectionately. Having washed all their feet, each nun should put water
on the hands of the poor and the ministers should hold hand towels. After
having cleansed their hands, the nuns should give money from the treasury
to the poor by kissing the hands thus entrusted to them. If, however, any of
the infirm nuns are in bed, the paupers are led to them and there they will
be washed by the infirm.]
134 PERFORMING PIETY

In the Wilton Processional, the rubrics are few and far between. Midway
through the chants for the maundy, however, is the rubric “Post prandium
in capitulo ad mandatum” [After dinner, in the chapter house, at the
maundy]. Several chants are repeated after this. It would seem reasonable to
assume that the material preceding this rubric accompanied the paupers’
maundy, and that the chants after the rubric were sung for the conventual
maundy, although the rubrics do not make that explicit.
Of the twelve chants for this part of the Barking maundy, ten originate in
the liturgy for the Feast of Mary Magdalene (July 22).64 Only two appear in
any of the monastic processionals indexed by Floyd in his article: Emit maria
appears on Palm Sunday in the processional from Bury St. Edmonds and
Maria ergo appears in five manuscripts, all for the maundy. The emphasis on
the role of Mary Magdalene, anointing Jesus’ feet with nard, rather than on
chants that depict the disciples, seems especially appropriate for a community
of women and perhaps somewhat idiosyncratic to Barking. Wilton also
incorporates three chants from the Feast of Mary Magdalene into its maundy
service. The theological resonances of using these chants in the maundy of
the poor seem strong—Jesus’s comment that “the poor you will have always
with you” and also the teaching that “inasmuch as you did it unto the least
of these” both seem to imbue the act of these brides of Christ washing the
feet of the poor with a particularly strong biblical tinge. Additionally, the
incorporation of Mary Magdalene might well signify the tensions of
body/spirit that are so clear in the Maundy service. Theresa Coletti in her
recent book Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints asserts that “as a gendered
symbol, Mary Magdalene in her late medieval incarnations occupies the bor-
ders between flesh and spirit, body and word, abjection and privilege, pro-
fane and sacred.”65 It is precisely these dualities that would resonate through
the chapter house in the chants from the liturgy Mary Magdalene.
In another act of tailoring the service for women, the nuns at Wilton
sing “Ubi sorores in unum glorificant deum ibi dedit dominus benedic-
tionem”66 [where sisters glorify God with one voice, there God has given
a blessing] rather than the usual “Ubi fratres in unum glorificant deum ibi
dabit dominus benedctionem” [Where brothers glorify God with one
voice, there God has given a blessing]. There are two changes in this
chant—the first is the obvious substitution of sisters for brothers. This
exchange seems both perfectly understandable and rather unusual for the
period. The nuns at Barking apparently sing “Ubi fratres” with no
change.67 The second is the change in verb tense. Whereas the Wilton
Version uses the past tense (dedit), the usual version says the God will give
a blessing. This could possibly be a scribal error (either originally or when
the monk of Solesmes copied the manuscript) or it could signify a slight
shift in meaning.
 POMP AND PIETY 135

[ ]

Example 5.6 San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, EL 34 B. 7, f. 43r

Among the musical selections sung during the maundy ritual at all three
convents is the hymn Tellus ac ethera (figure 5.1). See example 5.6. The
music for this hymn is one of the tunes for the hymn Nunc sancte nobis sung
at terce.68 Barking gives instructions for many verses but not the actual text.
Both the Chester and Wilton manuscripts include eight verses, each of
which is followed in the Wilton version by the second half of the chorus
with a final repetition of the full chorus at the end.69 Inge Milfull, in her
work on Anglo-Saxon hymnals, comments:

While two of the hymnals, V and D, include what is clearly a processional

hymn for Maundy Thursday (Hy 69) [Tellus ac aether iubilant], processional
hymns are not in general included here, and in fact it is not easy to decide if
a text might have been used for processions.70

This hymn does not appear, however, in either the York or Sarum proces-
sionals. It does appear in four of the twelve English monastic processionals
catalogued by Floyd as well as in a fourteenth-century hymnal from
St. Augustine’s, Canterbury.71 The hymn, based on John XIII, clearly por-
trays a theological understanding of the last meal of Jesus with his disciples.
All three of the nunneries use this in connection with the maundy although
the circumstances vary slightly. At Chester, the convent sings the hymn
while the subprioress and two older sisters wash the feet of the prioress. At
Barking, the ordinal lists Tellus ac ethera as an antiphon and prescribes it
while the abbess and prioress wash the feet of the infirm and the officers.72
Finally, at Wilton, the hymn, sung in the chapter house, accompanies a
small procession of the cantrix and three other nuns into the church:

Cantrix vadit in ecclesia cum tribus sororibus due que portent candelabra.
tercia turribulum cantrix textum superiectum pectori suo sub ipso textu
136 PERFORMING PIETY

Figure 5.1 Folio from the Chester Processional with instructions for washing the
feet of the prioress
Source: Huntington Library, EL 34 B.7, f.43r (by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California)

mantili honorifico et cum introierint capitulum surgant omnes contra

textum stantes donec competenter collocetur in lectico. Vj sorores semper
cantent ymnus.73
[The cantrix goes into the church with three sisters, of whom two should
carry the candles, the third the censer, the cantrix a cloth over her breast
 POMP AND PIETY 137

under the cloth itself an honorable mantle; and when they will have entered
the chapter house, let all rise facing the cloth, standing until it is suitably
arranged on the pall. Let six sisters always sing the hymn.]

This little ritual occurs during the middle of the singing of Tellus ac ethera,
which itself happens during the washing of the feet of the convent. The
singing of this chant forms part of the Maundy Thursday ritual in each of
the three convents, but the context varies in each case. The subtle varia-
tions in liturgies demonstrate the ways in which each house adapts the
practices of the church universal into its specific circumstances.
The Franciscan manuscript from Aldgate incorporates fifteen chants for
the maundy with no particular rubrics beyond the opening “in mandato
domini” (at the maundy of the Lord).74 All of these are found in the
Franciscan liturgy.75
The ritual at Syon Abbey is, as we have noted previously, very simpli-
fied compared to the conventional Benedictine ritual.76 Nevertheless there
are some instructive comments in the Additions to the Rules. First of all there
is a general instruction to the nuns that “from the begynnyng of euensonge
on schyrthursday in to euensonge on ester eue, the sustres schal synge ther
seruyse more lower and more deuoutly in reuerence of our Lordes passion,
withe a maner of mornyng, not to lowe, nor to stylle, but in a mene as it is
most accordyng”77 [from the beginning of vespers on Maundy Thursday
until vespers on Easter eve, the sisters shall sing their service more softly and
more devoutly in honor of our Lord’s passion, in a manner of mourning,
not too softly or quietly but in a manner that is most fitting]. The same
attention to musical performance that we saw in the instructions for pro-
cessions in general is also evident here. Low could mean a lower pitch, but
it is more likely in this context to mean soft. Since the liturgy itself is vir-
tually unchanged during the triduum, the performance needs to reflect the
solemnity and mood of the season.
The Additions also gives very detailed instructions for the “mawnday.”
Most of the instructions deal with exactly how and why the sisters’ maundy
is to be celebrated. Very few specific chants are mentioned although music
is clearly a concern. After mentioning the “antem” (antiphon) Dominus
Jhesus, the instructions read “Whiche antem, withe alle other thynges
folowynge, is to be songe of suche a mesure that nothynge be ouerskypped,
and that they cese not of syngyng tyl the priores be come in a{ene after the
waschyng of the abbes fete”78 [Which antiphon, with all the others follow-
ing, is to be sung in such a tempo that nothing be hurried over, and that
they do not stop singing until the prioress reenters after the washing of the
abbess’s feet]. There does not appear to be a paupers’ maundy. However,
at the very end of the instructions the author writes: “And al thynge ended,
138 PERFORMING PIETY

they schal enclyne and go ther weys, and than the ebdomadary schal make
the fyrst sygne to the potacion of charite. Atte the whiche al owe to be, bothe
seke and hole yf they may, for the sollempnyte of the holy maundy of our
lord Jhesu Criste”79 [And all things being ended, they should bow and go
their way and then the weekly official should make the first sign to the
charity meal. Everyone, both sick and well, should be at this meal for
the solemnity of the holy maundy of our Lord Jesus Christ]. Perhaps at
Syon the sharing of a meal with the poor takes the place of the actual foot
washing.
What does this especially elaborate version of the weekly foot-washing
ceremony accomplish within the framework of Holy Week? First of all, it
grounds the ritual as a historical reenactment of the biblical narrative, just
as the eucharistic celebration is particularly grounded on Holy Thursday.
Indeed, the instructions from Syon Abbey especially indicate that the
abbess is acting in Christ’s place.

Forthermore, for our lord Jhesu Criste, souereyne mayster of al mekenes, of

hys inestymable and profounde mekenesse, fyrste and principally began and
taught un to hys dere and welbyloued disciplys in tyme of that moste wor-
thy feste and laste supper on Schirthursday, the moste excellente and singuler
obseruaunce of hys mawnday to be kepte; therfor the abbes, pretendyng
by office after her degre hys astate, owethe to folowe the steppes of hym in
all that sche may, in kepyng and fulfyllynge of the seyd obseruaunce,
waschynge and wypynge the fote of al her gostly doughtres and disciplesses,
lyke as it is kepte for a perpetual memory and ensample in other places of
religion.80
[Furthermore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign master of all meekness,
out of his own inestimable and deep humility, first taught his well beloved
disciples during the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, that this singular
observance was to be kept. Therefore, the abbess, pretending to his estate by
virtue of her office, should follow his steps in all that she may, in keeping and
fulfilling this observance, washing and wiping the feet of all her spiritual
daughters and disciples, just as it is kept as a perpetual memory and example
in other places of religion.]

Thus in addition to the historical grounding, the ritual reinforces both the
status and the servanthood of the abbess as being Christ-like. Just as every
Sunday is a little Easter in the Christian liturgical understanding, so every
week’s mandatum becomes symbolically richer by association with the
maundy on Holy Thursday.
The extension of the ritual to the poor (and the stranger?) further
reminds the nuns that each of them is called upon to serve others. As we
have seen in the description in the Barking Ordinal, the infirm nuns
 POMP AND PIETY 139

participated in the pauper’s maundy, even if it meant bringing the poor to

the bedside of the sick.81 This richly sacramental ritual clearly played an
important role in monastic life, reinforcing the message of Jesus to his dis-
ciples that he left them a new commandment, to love one another.

Adoratio and Depositio

In the liturgies for the triduum, the cross serves the central role as the symbol
of Christ crucified and resurrected. In medieval monastic liturgy, two major
ritual events took place on Good Friday: the adoration of the cross, the
Adoratio, and the burial of the cross in the “sepulcher,” the Depositio.82 The
Adoratio was fairly universally enacted while the Depositio was less so.
At Syon Abbey the instructions for the adoration of the cross are very
explicit but include no mention of music.

And forthewithe thei schal go in procession withe the seuen psalmes, bare-
fote al the couente excepte the seke and suche as be licensed by the abbes.
The letany is to be red of the abbes in the myddes of the quyer, al the couent
lyeng prostrat aboute her. Also it is to be take hede, that ther prostracions in
worchyppynge of the crosse be religiously and ordynatly done, two and two
togyder, as thei be in order, echone barfote. Saue the abbes schal be alone,
and after her the priores withe an elder suster. The sexteyn, also, moste take
hede that the crosse be redy with tapettes and cuschens, and withe a taper
brennyng up on a candelstyk on the syde of the crosse. And sche schal sytte
and kepe it, and {eue it to the worchippers thereof, that they may kysse it.
Saue whilst sche worchippethe it another suster schal holde it, and {eue it to
her, and whan sche hathe done, sche schal kepe it a{ene as sche dyd firste.83
[And right away they should go in procession with the seven psalms84, the
whole convent barefoot except those that are sick and those licensed by the
abbess. The litany is to be read by the abbess in the middle of the choir,
the whole convent lying prostrate around her. Also, they should take care
that their prostrations in worshipping the cross be done religiously and
appropriately, two by two, in their order, each one barefoot with the excep-
tion that the abbess shall be alone and after her the prioress with an older sis-
ter. The sexton, also, must take heed that the cross be ready with the tapestry
and cushions, and with a candle burning on a candlestick on the side of the
cross. And she shall sit and hold it [the cross] and give it to those who wor-
ship it, that they may kiss it. Except that while she herself worships it another
sister shall hold it, and give it to her, and when she has finished, she shall
keep it as she did originally.]

The implications of the description would seem to be that the cross is

smaller, to be handed by the sexton to each nun in turn after she has
venerated it. The veneration of the cross is a solemn, intensely personal
140 PERFORMING PIETY

activity. At Syon the soundscape is appropriately muted, nothing more

than the penitential psalms and a spoken litany accompanying the actions.
The nuns themselves lie prostrate on the floor of the choir area, the place
of their regular worship. The Adoratio marks the community’s grief at the
death of their Savior.
At Barking Abbey, the abbess, in an unusual and individual ceremony,
venerates the crosses in the church, chapter house, dormitory, and private
chapels, setting five candles at each place, before going to matins on Good
Friday. The communal adoration of the cross takes place after the mass.
The convent gathers and each nun prostrates herself on the floor of the
choir before the cross, stretching her own arms out in the shape of a cross
and kissing the cross. One half of the choir sings chants while the other
venerates the cross and then they switch roles. For each individual nun, the
period of mourning the death of Christ is thus divided between singing
appropriate texts and the act of adoration itself.85
The cross itself is “cum filateriis” which Tolhurst explains as a vessel of
gold, silver, or crystal with ashes or relics enclosed and then tied to the
cross.86 Quite possibly the filateria enclosed the reserved sacrament—the
body of Christ. The choir sings the hymn Crux fidelis (Pange lingua) during
the veneration. When all have venerated the cross the priests, in red vest-
ments, carry it to the main altar where the image is removed from the cross
and washed with wine and water: “. . . diferant crucem ad magnum altare.
ibique in specie ioseph et nichodemi de ligno deponentes ymaginem uul-
nera crucifixi uino abluant et aqua”87 [They should carry the cross to the
high altar and there the ones playing the roles of Joseph and Nicodemus
remove the image of the crucified from the cross and wash it with wine and
water]. From there it is carried, with suitable antiphons, to the “sepulcher”
where it is symbolically buried. This last portion of the liturgy is the
Depositio. In Pamela Sheingorn’s monograph, The Easter Sepulchre in
England, she traces the development of the idea of either a temporary or
permanent sepulcher within the church itself precisely for the dramatic
events of the triduum. The Barking manuscript takes for granted that we
know where the sepulcher is and does not give any definitive information
on its nature or location. It would have been common in the late Middle
Ages for the sepulcher to be in the north part of the church either as a per-
manent chapel or as a temporary structure.88
By the early fifteenth century, the dramatic portrayal of the burial of
Christ had been part of English liturgy for several centuries as these instruc-
tions for the Depositio from the Regularis Concordia demonstrate:

Nam, quia ea die depositionem corporis Saluatoris nostri celebramus, usum

quorundam religiosorum, imitabilem ad fidem indocti uulgi ac neophytorum
 POMP AND PIETY 141

corroborandam, aequiperando sequi si ita cui uisum fuerit uel sibi taliter
placuerit, hoc modo decreuimus: sit autem in una parte altaris, qua uacuum
fuerit, quaedam assimilatio sepulcri uelamenque quoddam in gyro tensum
quo, dum sancta crux adorata fuerit, deponatur hoc ordine. Veniant diaconi
qui prius portauerunt eam et inuoluant eam sindone in loco ubi adorata est;
tunc reportent eam canentes antiphonas In pace in idipsum, alia: Habitabit;
item: Caro mea requiescet in spe, donec ueniant ad locum monumenti; deposi-
taque cruce, ac si Domini Nostri Ihesu Christi corpore sepulto, dicant
antiphonam Sepulto Domino, signatum est monumentum ponentes milites qui cus-
todirent eum. In eodem loco sancta crux cum omni reuerentia custodiatur
usque dominicam noctem Resurrectionis. Nocte uero ordinentur duo fratres
aut tres aut plures, si tanta fuerit congregatio, qui ibidem psalmos decantando
excubias fideles exerceant.89
[Now since on that day we solemnize the burial of the Body of our Saviour,
if anyone should care or think fit to follow in a becoming manner certain
religious men in a practice worthy to be imitated for the strengthening of the
faith of unlearned common persons and neophytes, we have decreed this
only: on that part of the altar where there is space for it there shall be a rep-
resentation as it were of a sepulchre, hung about with a curtain, in which the
holy Cross, when it has been venerated, shall be placed in the following
manner: the deacons who carried the Cross before shall come forward and,
having wrapped the Cross in a napkin there where it was venerated, they
shall bear it thence, singing the antiphons In pace in idipsum, Habitabit and
Caro mea requiescet in spe, to the place of the sepulchre. When they have laid
the cross therein, in imitation as it were of the burial of the Body of our Lord
Jesus Christ, they shall sing the antiphon Sepulto Domino, signatum est monu-
mentum, ponentes milites qui custodirent eum. In that same place the holy Cross
shall be guarded with all reverence until the night of the Lord’s
Resurrection. And during the night let brethren be chosen by twos and
threes, if the community be large enough, who shall keep faithful watch,
chanting psalms.]90

In the tenth century, this is a new ritual and required explanation from the
author of the Regularis Concordia. The community of faith teaches and
transmits its history through dramatic portrayals. Christians must under-
stand the death of Christ if they are to partake of the joy of resurrection.
Each member of the monastic community takes a turn guarding the tomb.

The Barking Depositio

This liturgy, the Depositio, develops differently in different houses and
varies from location to location. The fifteenth-century version that appears
in the Barking Ordinal retains the basic outline of the service from the
Regularis, embellished by several other chants. In order to give a full sense
142 PERFORMING PIETY

of the meaning of this event, I have translated the full Latin texts of the
chants even though the ordinal gives only the incipits.

Cum autem sancta crux fuerit adorata: sacerdotes de loco predicto crucem
eleuantes, incipiant antiphonam. Super omnia ligna [cedrorum tu sola excelsior in
qua vita mundi pependit in qua Christus triumphavit et mors moretm superavit
alleluia]91, et choro illo subsequente totam concinant. cantrice incipiente
diferant crucem ad magnum altare. ibique in specie ioseph et nichodemi de
ligno deponentes ymaginem uulnera crucifixi uino abluant et aqua. Dum
autem hec fiunt: concinat conuentus R. Ecce quomodo moritur iustus [et nemo
percipit corde et viri iusti tolluntur et nemo considerat a facie iniquitatis ablatus est ius-
tus et erit in pace memoria eius. V. In pace factus est locus eius et in Sion habitatio
eius.] sacerdote incipiente et cantrice respondente et conuentu succinente.
Post uulnerum ablucionem, cum candelabris et turribulo deferant illam ad
sepulcrum, hac canentes antiphonas In pace in idipsum [dormiam et recquiescam],
Ant. Habitabit [in tabernaculo tuo requiescat in monte sanctu tuo], Ant. Caro mea
[requiescet in spe]. Cumque in predictum locum tapetum pallio auriculari
quoque et lintheis nitidissimis decenter ornatum, illam cum reuerencia
locauerint, claudat sacerdos sepulcrum et incipiat R. Sepulto domino [signatum
est monumentum volventes lapidem ad ostium monumenti ponentes milites qui
custirent illud92]. et tunc abbatissa offerat cereum qui iugiter ardeat ante sepul-
crum, nec extinguatur donec ymago in nocte pasche post matutinas de
sepulcro cum cereis et thure et processione resumpta: suo reponatur in loco.
Hiis itaque gestis: redeat conuentus in chorum et sacerdos in uestiarium.93
[When, however, the holy cross has been adored, the priests bearing the
cross from the aforementioned place should begin this antiphon. “Above all
wood, [you of the cedars alone are higher, on which the life of the world
hung, on which Christ triumphed and death overcame death forever.]” and
sing together with the choir following them the entire antiphon. With the
cantrix beginning, they carry the cross to the high altar and there, the ones
playing the roles of Joseph and Nicodemus remove the image of the cruci-
fied from the cross and wash it with wine and water. While they do these
things, the convent sings together the Responsorium. “Behold in this way
the just one dies [and nobody takes it to heart; the just men are destroyed and
no one reflects on it; from the face of evil, the righteous one is raised up and
his memory shall be in peace.]” the priest starts, the cantrix responds, and the
convent follows thereafter. After the washing of the wounds, they should
carry the image to the sepulcher, with candles and the censer, singing these
antiphons: “I will both lie down and sleep in peace.” Antiphon. “He will
abide [in your tabernacle, he will rest on your holy hill.]” Antiphon: “My
flesh rests in hope.” As soon as they have reverently laid the image in the
aforementioned place which is covered with a gold mantle and fittingly
decorated with brilliant linen, the priest shuts the sepulcher and begins
the responsory: “At the tomb of the Lord, [the monument is sealed, rolling
the stone to the door of the monument. placing the soldiers who will
guard the grave.]” And then the abbess offers a candle which should burn
 POMP AND PIETY 143

continually before the sepulcher and not be extinguished until, on the night
of Easter after matins, the image is taken from the tomb with candles and
incense and put back in its place and the procession is resumed. These things
having been done, the convent returns to the choir and the priest to the
vesting room.]

The complete translation allows us to see how thoroughly the images from
the chants complement the four major actions of the ritual. First, as the
priests carry the cross to the altar, the antiphon text praises the wood of the
cross as being better than any other wood. The very wood itself becomes
an object of veneration because of its association with the death of Christ.
Cedar has an especially fragrant odor as well as numerous biblical connota-
tions. These associations all coalesce in the worship of the wood of the
cross. Second, as the priests remove the body of Jesus from the cross, the
convent sings of the death of the righteous. The careful, loving physical
care that the priests offer to the image of Christ is reflected in the prayerful
chanting contrasting the presence of evil to the peaceful end of the right-
eous. Third, as the cross, symbolizing Christ’s body, is placed in the sepul-
cher, the antiphon texts describe resting in the Lord, the peace of the
righteous in the last text, exemplified in these three antiphons. The actual
burial of the cross is done to mimic funeral practices so that Christ’s death
is experienced anew. Finally, as the priest shuts the sepulcher, he and the
nuns sing a responsory about the sealing of the tomb. The choir thus com-
ments on each of the four principal actions of the priests in this dramatic
liturgy. Through this experience of the death of Christ the faithful can then
also live in Christ.
The nuns at Wilton also observe the Adoratio, although the processional
does not include detailed rubrics for the actual adoration. They sing
numerous verses of the chant Ecce lignum crucis and then ten verses of Crux
fidelis (Pange lingua). This is followed in the manuscript by Cum rex glorie, a
chant which is sung in the Elevatio ritual at Barking. Like the dramatic ren-
dition of the Palm Sunday ritual with Caiphas, the rubrics call for a perfor-
mance of the chant Dum fabricator mundi mortis with various ritual actions
taking place during the chant:

Ant. Dum fabricator mundi mortis supplicium pateretur in cruce clamans

voce magna tradidit spiritum
Dum inchoatur, sacerdos abluens manus et dicens confessionem cum sibi ministrantibus,
stola resumpta cum duobus subdiaconibus candelabra ferentibus et cum duobus levitis
quorum unus turribulum alter ferat offertorium se precedentibus cum dicitur:
Et ecce velum templi scissum est.
Ingrediatur ad locum ubi servatur corpus dominicum qum dicitur.
Monumenta aperta sunt.
Aperiatur archam sive armarium cum dicitur.
144 PERFORMING PIETY

Terre motus enim factus fuit magnus quia mortem filii dei clamabat mundus
se sustinere non posse.
Adorantes in terram prosternantur cum dicitur.
Aperto ergo permilitis lancea latere crucifixi domini.
Calice discooperitur cum dicitur
Exivit sanguis et aqua
Tunc a diacono vinum et aqua mittatur in calice
In redemptione salutis nostre.94
Assumatur corpus domini a sacerdote et a diacono calix et precedentibus turribulo et
candelabris cum dicitur:
O admirabile pretium cuius pondere captivitas redempta est mundi tartarea
infracta sunt claustra inferni et aperta est nobis ianua regni.95
[When the creator of the world endured suffering of death on the cross, he
handed over his spirit crying out with a loud voice. When that is begun, the
priest washing his hands and saying a confession with his ministers, his stole having
been put on, with two subdeacons carrying candelabra and with two deacons one of
whom is carrying a censer, the other the offering, proceeding him, while it is said, And
behold the veil of the temple is rent. He should advance to the place where the
body of the Lord is kept while it is said The tombs are open. He should open the
ark or the closet while it is said The whole earth shook greatly and exclaimed
that due to the death of the son of God it could not sustain itself. Adoring they
prostrate themselves on the ground while it is said, A spear of the soldier pierced
open the side of the crucified Lord. The chalice is uncovered as it is said the
blood and water flowed out. Then wine and water are placed in the chalice by the
deacon in the deliverance of our salvation The body of Christ should be taken by
the priest and the chalice by the deacon with the censer and the candles going before as
it is said O wonderful price by the authority of which the infernal captivity
of the world has been redeemed, the enclosure of hell broken, and the door
to heaven opened to us.]

Since the rubrics direct the cantrix to begin the chant, and the passive form
is used each time (cum dicitur), it appears that the chant is sung through in
its entirety by the nuns and simultaneously acted out by the priests.
Whereas the Barking Depositio has a different chant to accompany each
major action, the Wilton Adoratio depicts each part of this chant as it hap-
pens. So as the nuns sing “the tombs are open,” the priest opens the tomb.
As the chant describes the Lord’s side being pierced, the priests are to
mix the water and wine in the chalice, the symbolic way that this action is
reenacted every time the eucharist is celebrated. The emphasis in the
Wilton Version is on the ritual connections to the death of Christ through
the mass rather than on the burial itself. The nuns, and any other partici-
pants in the service, would long carry the association of this Good Friday
event with the mixing of wine and water in the chalice at each eucharist.
Clearly these rubrics indicate that the same teaching and dramatic functions
described in the Regularis Concordia are occurring here in this ritual.
 POMP AND PIETY 145

Descensus and Elevatio

One of the best known passages of the Barking Ordinal appears following
matins on Easter. In this lengthy passage the author of the ordinal sets forth
the rationale for the dramatic liturgies and gives detailed instructions for the
Descensus or “The Harrowing of Hell,” the Elevatio, and the Visitatio
Sepulchri. Scholars from Karl Young up to the present time have studied
this passage because of their interest in the development of liturgical drama.
The Descensus depicts the story, especially popular in medieval English
folklore, of Christ entering hell and bringing salvation to those imprisoned
there. The Elevatio, a brief ritual, celebrates the resurrection through the
retrieval of the cross from the sepulcher. The Visitatio Sepulchri, based on
gospel accounts of the resurrection, tells of the three Marys arriving at the
tomb and finding it empty.
The Barking Ordinal prefaces these dramatic liturgies with a paragraph
describing Abbess Katherine of Sutton’s intentional revision of the Easter cer-
emonies.96 She moved their time from before matins to after matins. She did
this especially to help improve the mood of the nuns and others who seemed
to be suffering from depression—“deuocione frigessere et torpor humanus
maxime accrescens”97 [increasing frigid devotion and great human sloth]. As
Karl Young comments, “Of this much, however, we may be sure: the Lady
Abbess of Barking succeeded in her desire to arrange a dramatic observance
such as should ‘dispel completely the sluggish indifference of the faithful.’ ”98
What exactly happened in this first dramatic observance? Ann Faulkner
has written an article describing not only the manuscript evidence for
medieval praxis but also a modern staging of the Descensus.99 At the outset,
the abbess leads the nuns and some priests in procession to the chapel of
St. Mary Magdalene. There they lock themselves in and await Christ who
appears with an appropriate liturgical entourage and sings three times the
antiphon Tollite portas (Lift up your heads, o ye gates and be ye lift up, ye
everlasting doors. Alleluia). Each time the priest representing Christ sings the
short antiphon, it is echoed by the other priests with him. He is instructed to
sing it in an “altiori voce”—a term which could mean louder or higher and
perhaps, in this case, both. Finally on the third try the gates open.
The nuns then have their opportunity to reply singing A porta inferi
begun by a priest who is with the nuns, and then joined by the cantrix and
the full choir:

A porta inferi erue Domine animam meam.

From the gates of hell deliver my soul, O Lord.

Then all the nuns and priests leave the chapel, described as “de limbo
patrum” or “the Limbo of the Fathers” where the patriarchs and prophets
146 PERFORMING PIETY

were,100 and process through the choir to the sepulcher where they
previously buried the cross on Good Friday. The abbess and nuns are
clearly intended to represent the patriarchs and prophets (“subsequentibus
domina abbatissa. priorissa et toto conuentu sicut sunt priores”101). As in
many of the other rituals, the chant used for this procession integrates the
experience through the congruency of the text and the action:

When Christ the king of glory victoriously entered the netherworld, the
angelic chorus commanded the princes to lift up their gates before his face.
The people of saints who had been held captive by death cried out in woe-
ful voice: You have come, the desired one, for whom we have waited in the
darkness, that you might this night lead the fettered ones out of prison. We
called to you with our sighs. We sought you with abundant laments. You are
made the hope of the desolate, the great consolation in torment. Alleluia.102

As they arrive at the tomb, the priest enters and begins the hymn Consurgit
Christus tumulo. (Christ rises from the tomb. He returns from Hell a victor.)
As Young notes, these are the last three verses of the hymn Ad coenam agni,
a hymn sung at Vespers during Easter week at Barking. Finally the instruc-
tions are given for the Elevatio, the retrieval of the cross and host from the
sepulcher, and a full procession to the altar of the Holy Trinity. The rubrics
of this portion end with the instruction “et hec processio figuratur hoc
quomodo Christus procedit post Resurrexionem in Galilean, sequentibus
discipulis.”103 [And this procession is shaped by the manner in which Christ
proceeded, after the resurrection, into Galilee, followed by his disciples.]
This procession with the host in a monstrance is intended to represent, for
viewers and participants alike, the travels of Jesus into Galilee, with his dis-
ciples following. The nuns, then, symbolically become the disciples.
Although the Elevatio is only a brief ceremony, it impressively identifies the
nuns as disciples of Christ. In these ceremonies the nuns have been the
patriarchs and prophets, the disciples of Christ, and the followers weeping
at the foot of the Christ. In the following ritual they become the women
who went to the tomb and found it empty. All of these images add to the
central monastic image of the nun as the bride of Christ, giving the nuns a
wealth of visions for their self-identity.

Visitatio Sepulchri
Considered by most scholars as the prototype of liturgical dramas, the
Easter Visitatio is the best studied of all the Holy Week liturgies. The two
extant versions of this ritual from medieval English nunneries build upon
very different traditions to create unique ceremonies for each house. The
 POMP AND PIETY 147

version presented in the Wilton Processional (ff. 59r–64v) incorporates

much of the material present in the Origny-Ste-Benoit Version, also from
a Benedictine nunnery, adding a major section that is unique to the reper-
tory whereas the Barking Visitatio is more closely linked to manuscripts
from Rouen and Tours.104 From these sources we learn much about the
performance aspects of liturgical ritual as well as the opportunity that such
dramas provide for creativity in each monastic establishment. Indeed each
house tailored the play for itself through the rubrics as well as through the
specific compositional choices made.105
The core of the Visitatio drama is a three-line chant, a trope, which
could be sung either after matins or prior to mass on Easter Day. Yet even
in the earliest documented sources this three-line trope is mixed together
with antiphons, responsories, and other chants to create a more extensive
ritual. As David Bjork has commented:

Even if it [the Quem quaeritis trope] was almost as generally known as Gregorian
chant, it had none of the fixity associated with that repertory. Both its form and
its context show manifold variation . . . . What one sees in them is a set of three
lines that were everywhere nearly the same, then several sets of items (mostly
antiphons and tropes, with the exact makeup of the set dependent upon litur-
gical position) that could be optionally drawn upon to fill out the setting.106

It is this amazing variety of forms that makes it difficult to categorize or find

a chronological ordering that indicates any sort of regular development.
Bjork convincingly posits a geographical basis for the distribution of sources.
Certainly the earliest source of the Visitatio Sepulchri (as distinct from the
trope) is acknowledged to be the Regularis Concordia, an English Benedictine
source which contains the basis for the later Benedictine sources from nun-
neries. In the Regularis the instructions direct four monks to play the parts of
the angel and the three Marys.107 The four distinct musical portions in the
Regularis are (1) the Quem quaeritis dialogue, (2) the chant Alleluia. Resurrexit
Dominus, (3) the antiphon Venite et videte locum, and (4) the ending antiphon
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro. The rubrics call for the three brethren who are
playing the roles of the Marys to be “vested in copes and holding thuribles in
their hands.”108 While these directions provide an interesting example of
“cross-dressing,” they also contrast with instructions for nunneries that have
a mixed cast—nuns playing the role of the Marys and men playing angels.

Performance Directions
The rubrics for these ceremonies provide unique insight into the particular
manifestation of the drama. They depend upon the available cast members
148 PERFORMING PIETY

and the specific liturgical space in which the ritual unfolded. The opening
rubric for the Visitatio in the Barking Ordinal gives explicit instructions for
the three nuns who are to play the roles of the three Marys:

Quibus peractis procedant tres sorores a Domina Abbatissa preelecte, et

nigris vestibus in capella Beate Marie Magdalene exute, nitidissimis super-
pelliciis induantur, niueis velis a Domina Abbatissa capitibus earum super-
positis. Sic igitur preparate et in manibus ampullas tenentes argenteas dicant
Confiteor ad abbatissam; et ab ea absolute, in loco statuto cum candelabris
consistant. Tunc illa que speciem pretendit Marie Magdalene canat hunc
versum.109
[These things having been completed, three sisters, pre-chosen by the
Lady Abbess, should proceed and in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene
remove their black vestments, and put on the most shining fur garments, the
Lady Abbess placing over their heads a snowy white veil. Prepared thus and
carrying in their hands silver flasks they say the confiteor to the abbess and
being absolved of their sins by her, they stand in the prescribed place with
their candelabras. Then the one playing the part of Mary Magdalene sings
this verse.]

The rubrics make it clear that the three nuns who play these roles are step-
ping outside their vocational roles as religious women—they change their
clothing into the costume of a wealthy woman, pick up their flasks for
ointment, confess their sins to the abbess and receive a blessing before
beginning. (Figure 5.2 shows an abbess blessing a nun in a marginal illus-
tration from Queen Mary’s Psalter.) The candles probably call to mind that
they came to the tomb very early in the morning when they still needed a
light of some sort. Not only is this clearly dramatic, it also clearly repre-
sents an acknowledged change in status. Similarly the nuns at Wilton wash
their hands, an act of purification, and put on their costumes “in similitu-
dine mulierum”—in the likeness of secular women. Both scripts give the
sense that the women are moving into a liminal space, one that requires an
act of purification before proceeding. Dunbar Ogden points out that
although two other convent manuscripts also call for a similar ritual,
“Such a ritual of cleansing does not occur in a single one of the approxi-
mately 680 churches where men played the roles of the Marys, in either
secular or monastic churches.”110 Neither script indicates that the priests
who play the role of the angel at the tomb need any cleansing before this
ritual act although both indicate that the priest should be wearing a white
alb. Play acting was probably not a common activity for any women in
society at this time but especially not for nuns; thus the importance of
reinforcing their cleanliness before they stepped into the role of these
biblical women.
 POMP AND PIETY 149

Figure 5.2 Marginal Illustration from the Queen Mary Psalter showing nun
confessing to an abbess
Source: British Library, Royal 2 B.vii, f. 219 (by permission of the British Library)

The dramatic nature of the script is further enhanced by rubrics, which

call for the women to be weeping and wailing as they proceed to the
tomb.111 The Visitatio is not a mere singing of the chant by different per-
sonnel as we have seen in other rituals, but it is a clear impersonation. The
Barking manuscript suggests that the “Heu! nobis” chant be sung “flebili
voce”—in a weeping voice. The Wilton source describes the three Marys
“querentes and lamentantes” (seeking and weeping) as they begin the
“Heu nobis!” Later when Mary Magdalene has recognized Jesus, the
150 PERFORMING PIETY

Barking Ordinal instructs “Maria gaudium suum consociabus communicet

voce letabunda hos concinendo versus Gratulari et letari”112 [“Mary
should communicate her delight to her companions in a voice full of joy
chanting together these verses: Gratulari et letari”]. Other rubrics call for
the singers to be “plangendo” (bewailing) and “suspirando” (sighing).
These descriptions indicate performance options that are not usually given
with chant. How exactly did Mary sing the song joyfully or weeping,
bewailing or sighing? From other commentaries that refer to pitch, vol-
ume, and tempo (see, e.g., the Syon instruction for the triduum cited
above) we can surmise that “joyful” might be higher, faster, and louder.
Could weeping also imply a particular form of lamentation? Would non-
musical sighs accompany singing? Would appropriate facial gestures
accompany these renditions? We cannot answer these questions, but the
rubrics do indicate that the dramatic elements of the music were to be
highlighted and expressed in the music, not ignored. Since the chants are
written in a notation that does not indicate tempo, volume, or precise
pitch, these additional performance indications are not only pertinent to
the production of the Visitatio but also to our understanding of musical
aesthetics in the nunnery.

The Barking Visitatio

In many respects the Barking Visitatio remains a frustrating topic of study
because so many of the musical incipits refer to compositions that either
have multiple, possible musical settings or none at all. Nevertheless, the
rubrics in the ordinal do give sufficient information to allow some remarks
on this work. Rankin, in her study of Mary Magdalene scenes, demon-
strates the close relationship between this manuscript and the Norman tra-
ditions represented in the Rouen manuscripts. While Barking clearly relied
on this French tradition for the basis of its version, much of the play is also
written specifically for the Barking community. For example, the three
chants sung individually by the three Marys at the very beginning of the
drama are unique to this manuscript. The other unique incipits are found
in a scene where Jesus, played by one of the priests, appears on both sides
of the altar. This scene, resembling one found in a source from Rouen,
incorporates portions that are not found in any other source.113 The section
opens with Mary Magdalene, sighing, singing Te suspiro, (I sigh for you)
one of the unknown portions of the drama. After her encounter with and
recognition of Jesus, she sings Gratulari et letari (Giving thanks and rejoic-
ing). It is after this chant that Jesus appears on the other side of the altar to
all three women and sings Avete nolite timere (Hail! Do not fear) which is
found in the Rouen source. Having Jesus appear on both sides of the altar
 POMP AND PIETY 151

is a way to differentiate the two scenes within the staging limitations of the
church. The scene finishes:

Tunc ille humi prostrate teneant pedes eius et deosculentur. Quo facto, alternis
modulacionibus hos versus decantent, maria magdalene incipiente: Ihesus ille
Nazarenus et cetera. Finitis hiis uersibus, tunc marie stantes super gradus ante
altare uertentes se ad populum canant hoc R.: Alleluya, surrexit Dominus de
sepulcro choro eis respondente. Finitis hiis, sacerdotes et clerici in figuram dis-
cipulorum christi procedant dicentes: O gens dira.114
[Then they, lying prostrate on the ground, should take his feet and kiss them
affectionately. Which being done, they sing these verses alternately in rhyth-
mic measure, Mary Magdalene beginning, Jesus, the Nazarene et cetera.
These verses being finished, then the Marys, standing on the step before the
altar, turn towards the people and sing this responsory: Alleluia the Lord is
risen from the tomb, the chorus responds to them. This being done, the priests
and clerics taking the part of the disciples of Christ should appear singing: O
cruel people.]

Both Ihesus ille Nazarenus and O gens dira are also unique to the Barking
manuscript. The implication of a rhythmic performance of Iheus ille
Nazarenus is especially tantalizing. One can guess that this might be almost
dance-like in nature.
This exchange, with its dual appearance of Jesus, places extended and
dramatic emphasis on the direct experience of the Marys. The beginning of
this scene clearly incorporates the dialogue in John 20:11–20 where Mary
speaks first to the two angels and then to Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew
28:1–10, the account includes the taking hold of Jesus’ feet. All four gospels
include an angel or angels in white in their descriptions. Clearly, like so
many other Christian rituals, the Visitatio draws on all the gospels and con-
flates them in the dramatic retelling of the faith story. The play in the
Barking Ordinal has several moments of epiphany: the declaration in
the Quem quaeritis trope itself, the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene,
the appearance of Jesus to all three Marys, and Mary’s final testimony. These
are in the nature of an extended scene in which the realization of the res-
urrection, contrasted with the mourning of the three Marys, is given suc-
cessively stronger utterance until the whole cast—angels, Marys, disciples,
and choir of nuns all sing the final verses “We know that Christ is truly
risen from the dead; you, victorious king, have mercy on us” [Scimus
Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere; tu nobis, victor rex, miserere]. Then Mary
Magdalene immediately leads them into Christo resurgens. The Barking
Version gives each of the Marys an opportunity to sing individually—to
personify these three women as three distinct personalities and not as the
undifferentiated Marys of the other versions.
152 PERFORMING PIETY

The presence of an audience beyond the nuns themselves is indicated by

the instruction to Mary to turn toward the people. The “populum” appear
infrequently in the ordinal but the use of the term seems to imply the
townspeople, people outside of the members of the nunnery. Among the
other occasions on which the term appears are Palm Sunday and Good
Friday when they are present at the liturgy; Rogation Days, and the Feast
of St. Mark when the ordinal states that they should be called by the
tolling of the bell; Ascension Day, and the Feast of St. Ethleburga where
their appearance earns an indulgence.115 A mid-fifteenth-century Middle
English sermon for Easter Day further underscores the importance of this
liturgy. The homilist begins immediately with a discussion of the three
Marys, almost as if the sermon followed right after the drama. He empha-
sizes that they sought him with sweet ointments and then suggests that we
should seek him with the ointment of prayer and faith. Throughout the
homily, the women are held up as models of those who loved and were
loved by Christ. After a paragraph detailing women’s role throughout sal-
vation history, the author concludes “for no man shuld haue vomman in
dispite, for it is no wisdam to dispise Qat God loueth”116 [for no man should
hold women in contempt, for it is no wisdom to despise what God loves].
Although there is no specific connection of this sermon to Barking Abbey,
there are many references in the ordinal to the nuns listening to sermons—
generally in the nave of the church or occasionally in the chapter house. A
sermon such as this could only have further reinforced the message that the
nuns received from the performance of the Visitatio.
Clifford Flanigan’s work, applying some of Mircea Eliades’s understand-
ing of ritual to medieval liturgy, suggests that a drama, such as the Visitatio,
actually incorporates the participants (and viewers) into the original event:

To claim in this way that in the performance of a ritual the participants are
put in touch with the action’s archetypal model is to say that ritual is a reac-
tualization or a rendering present of the moment when the archetype was
revealed for the first time . . . . Viewed thus, liturgy seems inherently
mimetic, but it does not seek to imitate a past action, but to reactualize the
past so that the members of the cultic community, although separated from
the past event by time and space, can enter into it and apply its soteriologi-
cal benefits to themselves.117

For the nuns at Barking, the incorporation of this ritual act in which
women are the ones who first receive the message of Christ’s resurrection
is especially poignant. They can see themselves as the Marys, they can
experience again the weeping and mourning of the early dawn, they can
envisage themselves as recipients of the angel’s message, of the encounter
 POMP AND PIETY 153

with Jesus. Given the paucity of female biblical characters portrayed in

Christian liturgical drama, it is not surprising that this critical faith story
with women at its core receives an elaborate treatment. It does not matter
that scriptural stories have been conflated nor that over a thousand years
have passed—here by the sepulcher where they have laid Jesus to rest on
Good Friday, they themselves become agents in salvation history.

The Wilton Visitatio

The Wilton Processional version of the Visitatio is a mature work that
draws upon an entirely different strand of development and contributes
substantially to it. The entire drama is transcribed in appendix D. Rankin
identifies the sources for many of the portions of this work. In her summary
of the influences she writes:

There appear to be two almost distinct main traditions among these large
ceremonies. One includes the Origny and Wilton ceremonies, and the stage
I ceremonies from Poitiers and Troyes. Although this tradition shows heavy
German influence, it is an indigenous French tradition associated with a
group of important Benedictine convents. Each one of the four ceremonies
has the same kernel (QQ dialogue metricized), and the Heu nobis strophes.
Overall, however, each is an individual composition, using local material
also, such as Ubi est christus in Poitiers (known also in Limoges), and the
unique Mary Magdalene scene in the Wilton ceremony. These four cere-
monies survive in sources of the late 13th and early 14th centuries; such a
close consensus of dates suggests that the new material included in each may
have been composed towards the close of the 13th century. A notable omis-
sion from the group is the ceremony from St. Mary’s, Barking, also an
important Benedictine house for women.118

Thus we see that the two English versions stem from different French tra-
ditions of the play. The opening of the Wilton play includes six strophes,
set to a German melody, describing the approach to the tomb and the pur-
chase of ointment. Interpolated after these verses is a unique dialogue
between the angel and the Marys. These chants move to the phrygian
mode, setting the stage for the metricized version of the Quem queritis dia-
logue. Although the dialogue chants are not unique to Wilton, the propen-
sity for metricized chants is evident in other portions of the Wilton
repertoire.
As Rankin notes concerning liturgical drama generally, “Stylistic changes
only gradually accomplished include the transfer from prose to metrical texts
and, in the music, the movement away from chant modes and formulae to
tonal systems based on the fifth and the octave—a movement obviously
154 PERFORMING PIETY

influenced by changes outside the repertory of liturgical drama.”119 Thus

although the most notable and stable part of the Visitatio tradition is the
Quem queritis trope, a small group of Benedictine houses transform that
ninth-century trope into a metrical form with a new musical setting.120
The next group of chants in the Wilton manuscript include two of the
basic elements from the Regularis Concordia: Venite et videte (angel) and
Alleluya resurrexit (Marys). Interspersed between them is an additional chant
for the angel, Vultem tristem, another metricized text found in only a few
other sources. Interestingly, this chant is not found in the same group as the
dialogue portion but shares text and music with the Tours and Maastricht
versions. Whoever arranged the Wilton Version clearly had access to mate-
rials from more than one source.
The eleven chants that form the unique version of the Mary Magdalene
scene in the Wilton manuscripts are clearly scripted as a musically complete
entity. The first and last pairs of chants share the same melody, all of the
chants are based on G and several share a cadence that drops from C to G.
As Rankin has noted, one character often repeats a musical line and then
adds a new one that is subsequently picked up by the next person to sing.121
The style of all eleven of these chants is very syllabic. The musical connec-
tions suggest that someone composed these chants as an artistic unit.
The text of the scene really implies a very close encounter with Jesus
although the rubrics never specifically identify the angel as Jesus. The
women strip the binding from Jesus’ feet and kiss them. The latter portion
of the scene specifically singles out Mary Magdalene. Rankin has noted the
close correspondence between the rise in the eleventh century of new
devotion to Mary Magdalene and the subsequent inclusion of scenes
depicting her encounter with Jesus in the Visitatio ceremonies.122 Nuns
would surely have an even stronger impetus for such inclusion than monks
because of their relationship to Jesus as their spouse. Indeed the final chant
in this extended scene is an outright declaration by Jesus of his love for
Mary Magdalene—“Tu es maria quam ego amo meos omnium tibi primo
cupio” [You are Mary whom I love; I favor you first among all]. The lan-
guage of love and desire is part of the spiritual heritage of the nunnery. One
can certainly imagine that on occasion this drama also expressed the subli-
mated desire of the priest and nun who played the roles of Jesus and Mary
Magdalene. The mixed cast of the Visitatio in a nunnery offers a contrast-
ing embodiment of the drama to those that occurred with an all-male cast.
The scene ends with a particularly striking dramatic action: Jesus strikes
Mary on the head with a weapon. “Et percutiat capud eius spiculo interim
simatque sudarium cum ea.” [And he should strike her head with a weapon
meanwhile and she should take the sudarium with her.] The spiculum
could be an arrow or the sharp point of a weapon. It is perhaps as if he is
 POMP AND PIETY 155

dubbing her a disciple. As the three Marys turn toward the audience, five
nuns stand to interrogate them using a portion of the Easter sequence
Victimae paschali laudes beginning with “dic nobis maria” as is customary in
many versions of the play. Gradually joined by the other nuns, the whole
convent then sings the final verse as at Barking. The last rubric before the
instruction for the priest to begin the Te deum indicates that “everyone
rejoices together in the triumph of our King because he is risen from the
dead.” [Omnes congaudent per triumpho regis nostre quod de morte sur-
rexit.123] The communal nature of the final rejoicing only underscores the
point that this drama allows for a vicarious but real participation of all
assembled in Christ’s victory over death. The Easter Procession, singing
Salve Festa Dies, is a joyful expression of the elation they have experienced.
These two versions of the Visitatio only begin to indicate the opportu-
nity nuns had for creative engagement of preexisting materials. While some
portions of the monastic liturgy remain fairly constant from the tenth to the
sixteenth centuries, such dramatic liturgies as the Visitatio constantly grew
and changed as individual communities adapted, composed, and reworked
material to tailor the ritual for the specific time and place. These two extant
examples of the Visitatio demonstrate that nuns were active participants in
this work and, indeed, that they incorporated the elements most suited to
their own communities—an extended role for the three Marys and espe-
cially Mary Magdalene. They ignored the traditions that added a scene for
Peter, for example. The cantrices at Barking and Wilton chose instead to
emphasize the primary role of women in the resurrection narratives.124
The primary dramatic liturgies of Holy Week, as they appear in extant
sources from medieval nunneries, give us an appreciation of exactly how
the nuns enter into the Christian story. They have walked in procession
with palms, envisioning themselves as the Children of Israel. They have
stripped and washed their altars, even as they have washed the feet of
strangers and each other. They have wept before the cross and placed it,
with the host, in the sepulcher. They have impersonated the souls trapped
in hell and have been freed by Christ. And in the early, early hours before
dawn they have greeted Easter with a dramatic liturgy in which three of
their own number are the central characters in the resurrection story. The
power of these images in an age with no videos, no radio, no noise, few
books, and no electricity, can hardly be overestimated. These events hap-
pened once a year. They marked off that particular Christian understand-
ing of time that governed their routine. Their ritual participation assured
them of a place in the Christian hierarchy, a critical function in a society
where women’s leadership roles were often very restricted. They did in
fact perform their own piety and in doing so lived into the image of
Christ.
156 PERFORMING PIETY

Rogation Days
While the pageantry and pathos of the processions of Holy Week are
undoubtedly the most intense concentration of ritual in the liturgical year,
the procession for St. Mark’s Day (April 25) and the Rogation Days are the
most far-reaching geographically. The Rogation Days, held on the
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day focus on prayers
for an end to war, pestilence, and/or famine, and for good crops and
weather. For monks as well as nuns, the procession on this day was the one
procession that virtually always left the premises.125 Bedingfield suggests
that the central element in the Rogation processions is to mark off the ter-
ritory as God’s. “This latter idea is part of the nature of all liturgical pro-
cession, to bring the benevolent presence of God into the processed space,
and by that to drive out the powers of the devil.”126 In the Middle Ages,
church people believed strongly in the power of processions and prayers to
ameliorate their daily situations. Participating in such a procession could
also earn indulgences for the participants. For example, the register of the
Bishop of Salisbury, John Waltham, includes an entry in July 1389 urging
“religious, exempt and non-exempt, and the clergy and people of archdea-
conry to go in procession round their churches and churchyards on
Wednesdays and Fridays in expiation for their offences and for good estate
of the Universal and English church, and of the king and kingdom, and for
seasonable weather.”127 An indulgence of forty days was granted to those
who took part in these processions. While the bishop could urge his sub-
jects to take part in extra processions like this, the Rogation Days and
St. Mark’s Day were the occasions that were built into the liturgical year
for such prayers.
In the Barking Ordinal the instructions for St. Mark’s Day, referred to
also in the Rogation Days, indicate that:

Nota quod quando conuentus non potest exire ecclesiam processionaliter

propter turbulentam temporiem, tunc circueant claustrum et ecclesiam,
deinde intrent nauem ecclesie, et ibi sedeant donec precantauerint totum
pertinens ad processionem et in eodem loco dicatur magna missa.128
[Note that when the convent cannot leave the church in procession due to
the stormy weather, then they should circle the cloister and church, and then
they should enter the nave of the church and there they should sit while they
sing all that pertains to the procession and the great mass should be said in
that same location.]

However, in all but really bad weather the processions on these four days
did leave the church and go some distance. At Barking they go to the
Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Barking on Monday, to Little Ilford and
 POMP AND PIETY 157

Great Ilford (a few miles distant) on Tuesday, and to the “papilionem” (the
pavilion where they also went on Palm Sunday) on Wednesday. At the
churches they visit, the nuns sing chants in honor of the patron saint(s) of
each church. The most distinguishing musical feature of the Rogation
Days, however, are the lengthy litanies sung in procession. On each day, a
different litany is sung, returning from the “away” church to the abbey. On
reaching the abbey the scolares (novices) sing a short litany. The litany, of
course, is a petitionary form of prayer and especially appropriate for the
Rogation Days as the petitions can be tailored to the special needs of the
time and place.
At Syon Abbey, it appears that neither the nuns or monks leave the
precincts for the Rogation Days, but they do observe separate processions.
In the Additions to the Rules the instructions indicate the role of the abbess
and chantress in the choosing of appropriate chants:

The thryd antem schal be what the abbes, or chauntres in her abcense, wylle,
or els a response for pece, or for the weder, or for the cesyng of pestilence,
or of any other skorges of God, or incommodytees, as nede requyrethe. . . .
And when the seyd antems or responses be ended, two sustres schal synge
one of the letanyes, stondyng in ther processionalles, in order, as they be
assygned. And the chauntres muste take hede that they turne home a{ene be
tymes, that they haue none nede to adde to mo seyntes than be expressed in
ther bokes.129
[The third antiphon shall be what the abbess or chantress in her absence
chooses or else a responsory for peace or for the weather or for the ceasing
of pestilence or of any other of the scourges of God, or incommodities as is
needed. And when the said antiphons or responsories are over, two sisters
shall sing one of the litanies standing in their processional order as they are
assigned. And the chantress must take heed that they turn home again in
time so that they do not have to add more saints than are listed in their
books.]

It is not exactly clear where they have gone so that they must turn “home”
in time, but there are no specific instructions for leaving the precincts. In
the Syon Processionals, the Rogation Days are well represented with
appropriate antiphons and responsories. There are three antiphons for rain
if necessary, two for dry weather, an antiphon for time of battle and pesti-
lence, and one for the holy land, the place of pilgrimage. Additionally,
there are litanies for each of the rogation days followed by an antiphon
upon the entrance to the choir. These pieces are chosen from the Sarum
repertoire and are all included in Bailey’s study of Rogation antiphons.
Although there is nothing particularly unusual in the Barking rituals for
these days, it is precisely that ordinariness that is important. The nuns did
158 PERFORMING PIETY

leave the precincts of the abbey each of these days to process publicly to
other churches. The presence of outsiders on these occasions is indicated
only by the instruction that the priest should preach to the people
[“Interim sacerdos ebdomadarius prouideat predicatorem qui populo faciat
sermonem”130]. However, it is likely that townspeople would have
observed and even joined in these processions.
These occasions would have provided a real change for the cloistered
nuns. They would also have made very visible and tangible the presence of
nuns in the community, the importance of the abbess, and the power of
petitionary prayer. Imagine the sound of women’s voices filling the streets,
singing litanies in a call and response fashion. This sound would have been
very different from the male sounds that were normally heard—higher and
gentler, the public voice of women.
CHAPTER 6

THE CONSECRATION OF NUNS

eligious initiation rituals often serve to demarcate those who cross

R the threshold from outsider to insider, to express the deepest values
of the community, and to offer a spiritual map to those who enter the ter-
rain. By the late Middle Ages, young women entering the nunnery pass
through several different ritual experiences in the process of becoming
part of a religious community. For example, they are, as infants, baptized
as Christians, they are welcomed as novices into a specific community,
and they profess their vows. Chief among the rituals, however, is the Ordo
Consecratio Virginum or the Order for the Consecration of Virgins. In late
medieval England, this elaborate and unique ceremony, performed by the
bishop, simultaneously forms the identity of new nuns and reminds older
nuns of their vows. The prayers and chants express the imagery of the nun
as “bride of Christ” as the bishop and convent enact a complex marriage
ceremony.
The consecration service takes place within a conventual mass often
with family members and other outsiders present. The music for this ser-
vice is remarkably rich and includes chants sung by the bishop, priests,
choir of nuns, and the newly professed nuns themselves. The musical por-
tions of the service, many drawn from the proper chants for St. Agnes, St.
Agatha, and other virgin saints, link this service to feast days throughout the
liturgical year, an audible rota (roll call) of images of the heroines of monas-
tic life, those women who are canonized by the church.
This dramatic and complex ceremony requires the active performance
of the new nuns as dramatis personae both individually and as a group in the
enactment of this special wedding as the bride of Christ. The nun’s habit,
veil, girdle, ring, and candle each has important spiritual significance. Thus
the ritual itself becomes a powerful pedagogical tool in the instruction of
the monastic community and such outsiders as attend.
160 PERFORMING PIETY

Through our examination of the historical development of this ritual as

well as the descriptions contained in many fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-
century documents pertaining to the service, we will see that the nun sings
her understanding of her complex new role as the “sponsa Christi,” a call-
ing that simultaneously limits her sphere of influence to the cloister even as
it calls her to freedom from the restrictive roles of wife and mother in
secular society.
Unlike most other convent liturgies, the service for the consecration of
nuns has no real counterpart for monks. The monk’s profession of vows is
marked by the blessing of his monastic garments. The primary imagery is
that of “putting on the new man in Christ.” Barbara Newman suggests that
this different imagery highlights the active role of the monk in spiritual
growth versus a more passive understanding of the nun as virgin:

Nevertheless, the newly professed nun, unlike the monk, had the dubious
advantage of beginning in the same state where she would ideally
end. . . . Hers is a static perfection rather than a quest: the knight errant must
seek the Grail through perilous adventures, whereas the damsel has only to
remain in the castle where it abides.1

The Ordo Consecratio Virginum clearly celebrates this state of virginity and
the opportunity to become the bride of Christ. While Newman is correct
in seeing this exaltation of the nun as correspondingly denying her a tem-
plate for further growth, it is an oversimplification to imply that the nun
has only to remain as she is. Certainly, as in any marriage, the relationship
between bride and groom does not remain the same over the years.
Reaching and maintaining the level of spirituality to which the nun aspires
is a lifelong task, circumscribed by the constraints of the convent to be sure.
In Pamela Sheingorn’s fascinating study of Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo
Virtutum, she suggests that this unique medieval drama would have been
performed on the day of the consecration service prior to the actual ritual
itself.2 If Sheingorn is correct, older nuns took the parts of the virtues in the
Ordo Virtutum, representing for the newly professed nun the ways in which
she could develop and grow in her journey toward perfection. As
Hildegard makes explicit in the drama, the newly professed nun takes her
place in a hierarchy of older nuns who, at their best, represent women in
different stages of their spiritual journeys.
The marriage imagery of the service raises several issues in our under-
standing of the identity of medieval nuns. As Nancy Bradley Warren indi-
cates, the service carries some of the weight of property transfer that marks
actual wedding ceremonies of the time. The “bride” promises herself to the
bishop—in other words she and her body become the property of the
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 161

church. She is usually expected, despite official policies to the contrary, to

contribute a dowry to the nunnery. If she, at any point in the future, does
have sex she commits adultery.3 This marriage exchange is complex and
bears the marks of the heavily patriarchal society of the time. Warren dis-
tinguishes the Benedictine tradition from the Franciscan and Bridgettine
insisting that the former places a more patriarchal spin on the transaction.
However the Benedictine service exists in many sources and the abbess’s
participation varies. Generally speaking the nun makes her vow to the
bishop and the abbess. In several sources the instructions explicitly indicate
that the abbess is to collect the written professions. For example, in the
Pontifical of de Martivall, Bishop of Salisbury from 1315–29, the instruc-
tions read: “Deinde signum crucis faciat in fine professionis, et ponat super
altare. His expletis, abbatissa ipsam professionem accipiat ab altari, et ser-
vandam tradat”4 [Then let her make the sign of the cross at the end of the
profession and place it on the altar. This done, the abbess should take the
profession itself from the altar and deliver it to safekeeping]. In another
source the bishop verbally hands the nuns into the keeping of the abbess
saying “Dowghter abbes, ladye and mother of this monasterye, here I
bequeth these ladyes now consecrate unto yow . . .”5 [Daughter abbess,
lady and mother of this monastery, I give these consecrated women to your
keeping]. Thus although the bishop stands in the role of Christ, the abbess
is also seen as having authority in the lives of the nuns.
The development of the service for the Consecration of Virgins paral-
lels in many respects the growth of liturgical drama and processional prac-
tices in the period from the tenth century on. The focus on bridal imagery,
the musical connection between this occasion and the feasts of St. Agnes,
St. Agatha, and the Common of Virgins6, the elaborately dramatic rubrics,
and the length and complexity of the service combine to make this ritual a
memorable and formative experience in the life of the nun. The liturgy
demands that each woman who experiences this service participate fully
and bodily, through processing, chanting individually and in chorus with
the other nuns, prostrating herself before the altar, offering bread and wine
for communion to the priest, and through the acceptance of the outward
and visible signs of her vocation—the veil, mantle, and ring.

Development and Sources

What gives the liturgy for the consecration of virgins such a unique place in
the development of monastic ritual? Why does the service of nuns evolve
into a more elaborate form than its male counterpart, the service for receiv-
ing monks? To answer these questions, it is necessary to look briefly at the
role of virginity in early Christian culture. Female asceticism emerges by the
162 PERFORMING PIETY

mid- to late fourth century as an important issue for the church. By the end
of the fourth century a definite liturgy of consecration develops as a way of
marking and controlling the practices of female ascetics. While on the one
hand the public recognition and consecration confers spiritual status on the
virgin, the actual effect of church regulations and recognition is to colonize
the women as “brides,” to tame their influence. As Nathalie Henry writes:

The liturgy of the consecration of virgins also contributed to shape a new

image of female virgins through the use of bridal imagery, and the language
of love and desire. While earlier ascetic works tended to praise female virgins
for their lack of femininity and their masculine qualities, in the fourth cen-
tury virgins are referred to as the “brides of Christ.” Their beauty and femi-
ninity is celebrated through the words of the Song of Songs. The virgin is the
bride par excellence, she is no longer the androgynous creature praised in the
Apochryphal Acts or the wise and articulate philosopher, as presented by
Methodius in his Symposium.7

This key shift in identity establishes the basic paradigm for cloistered women
throughout the Middle Ages. It is precisely the difference in basic metaphors
of the monk “putting on the new man in Christ” and the nun becoming
the “bride of Christ” that necessitates a distinct liturgical response for monks
and nuns.
This difference in perspective from the fourth century onward not only
arises from the images and metaphors of the Song of Songs and the Parable
of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, but also from the growing corpus of mar-
tyrdom stories. St. Agnes’s tale forms the opening chapter of Ambrose’s trea-
tise on virginity. Agnes, martyred at age twelve or thirteen, for declaring
Jesus as her spouse, stands as an important image for nuns. Ambrose is largely
responsible for the creation of her myth and its retelling. As Virginia Burrus
notes in her comparison of Prudentius’s and Ambrose’s versions of the story:

Ambrose explicitly defends the church’s right to remove the sexual bodies of
elite Roman daughters from one sphere of social interchange by inscribing
virginity, with the seductively heroic drama of martyrdom, on the one hand,
and the reassuringly patriarchal vow of marriage on the other.8

The dual nature of this transaction—the blessing and lifting up of the spir-
itual strength and value of the ascetic virgin alongside the formal transfer of
the woman from her father to the church—remains a core feature of the
liturgical celebration into the late medieval period.
From its inception in the fourth and fifth centuries, the ceremony con-
tains two essential elements: the collect and prayer of consecration; and the
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 163

blessing of the veil and any other clothes the virgin wears to set herself apart.
Nathalie Henry suggests that much of the imagery in the basic prayer of con-
secration comes from the Song of Songs and that the nuns may well have
sung antiphons derived from that scriptural source as well.9 The two ele-
ments of consecrating the person and blessing the clothing remain the central
acts of the service despite the additions of many other components during the
later Middle Ages.10 The act of consecration, as opposed to blessing, only
happens once. It is considered a permanent, irrevocable action.

Nature of the Sources

Since the consecration service is almost always performed by a bishop, most
of the primary source material for tracing the development of this cere-
mony is found in the bishops’ pontificals.11 Many of these manuscripts,
often large and beautifully illuminated volumes, remain extant. The more
than thirty English pontificals form the most immediate background for
our study.12 Many of these contain the services relevant to nunneries (i.e.,
blessing of the abbess, blessing of a widow, and the consecration of a vir-
gin.) Table 6.1 lists the manuscripts that are most useful to our study. They
span the period from the eleventh to the sixteenth century.
From the tenth through the sixteenth centuries, there are two major
expansions and codifications of the service as represented in the Roman
pontifical. The first occurs in the tenth century in the Pontifical Romano-
Germanique. This source is the first to draw heavily on the service for
St. Agnes in expanding the ceremony.13 By the time of the earliest English
pontificals with musical notation (eleventh century), these changes have,

Table 6.1 Selected English Pontificals

Location Library MS Number Diocese Century

Cambridge Corpus Christi 163 Winchester 11th

Cambridge University Library Ee 2.3 Winton 12th
Cambridge Trinity College 249 unknown 12th
Cambridge University Library Ff 6.9 Coventry 13th
Oxford Bodleian Library Rawl. C. 400 Salisbury 14th
London British Library Harl 561 Winchester 14th
London British Library Lansdowne 451 London 14th
Oxford Bodleian Library Rawl. C. 425 Westminster 14th
Cambridge Corpus Christi 79 London 15th
Exeter Cathedral 3513 Exeter 15th
Oxford Bodleian Library Tanner 5 unknown 15th
Cambridge University Library Mm 3.21 Lincoln 15th
Cambridge University Library Ff 6.1 York 16th
164 PERFORMING PIETY

for the most part, been incorporated. A second major group of changes
appear in the pontifical of Guillaume Durand, 1292–95. Although these
changes do not appear in the official Roman pontifical until 1485, they
achieve widespread acceptance prior to that time and the English versions
of the service incorporate several of these changes.14
These additions to the rite move the service of consecration from the
realm of a simple episcopal blessing to an elaborate musical drama. Like
many of the changes in the processional practices and liturgical drama,
these additions foster a more complete theological understanding of the
liturgical occasion. Sermons preached on these occasions presumably also
expanded that knowledge. As we examine the individual musical portions
of the chant, we see how their texts and contexts strengthen the image of
the nun as the bride of Christ.

The Service in the Tenth Century

The earliest extant English pontifical resides in the Bibliothèque Nationale
in Paris. Scholars believe that this manuscript is an early-tenth-century
copy of the pontifical belonging to Egbert, Archbishop of York (c.
735–66).15 The volume includes several prayers for the blessing and conse-
cration of nuns and their clothing. Many of these prayers continue to be
the backbone of the consecration service through the early sixteenth cen-
tury, including the extended prayer of consecration chanted by the bishop.
The prayers invoke many spiritual gifts upon the women. For example, in
the following prayer, the bishop first calls upon God to provide a blessing
so that the nun may remain chaste, but then continues to invoke prophetic
blessings upon the virgins as well:

Benedicat te Deus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus, omni benedictione

spiritali, ut maneas incorrupta, inviolata et inmaculata sub vestimento
Sanctae Mariae matris Domini nostri Jesu Christi: requiescat super te Spiritus
septiformis Dei, Spiritus sapientiae et intellectus, Spiritus consilii et fortitudi-
nis, Spiritus scientiae et pietatis, repleat te Spiritus timoris Domini.16
[May God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bless you with every spiritual
blessing so that you may remain under the garment of the chaste, inviolate,
and spotless Holy Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the sevenfold
spirit of God rest upon you—the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and goodness—and
may the spirit of the fear of the Lord fill you.]

These are the words from Isaiah 11, the words that describe the “the shoot
from the stump of Jesse,” the Messiah. And so the Bishop invokes these
important spiritual gifts upon the nuns. The prayer continues at great
length encouraging not only chastity but also a multitude of other spiritual
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 165

gifts. In later versions of the service the prayer is sometimes divided into
several petitions, each one punctuated with an Amen.17 This prayer clearly
conveys to the nuns that church does value a wide variety of spiritual gifts.
There is, however, in this early pontifical, no indication of the role that
the nuns themselves play in the ritual. The rubrics are minimal and there
are no apparent exchanges between the nun and the bishop. Thus there is
no specific indication that the nuns sing antiphons in this service.

The Expansion of the Service

In the tenth-century Roman order, as preserved in the Pontifical Romano-
Germanique, the consecration service moves in a more dramatic fashion.
Four chants from the liturgy for St. Agnes enrich the basic liturgy.
Cambridge Corpus Christi College 163 (CCC 163), an eleventh-century
English pontifical, offers insight into both the transmission of the changes
and their content. Brückman notes that the manuscript was “copied prob-
ably at Winchester from a Continental pontifical possibly of Cologne.”18
Thus the church in England copied this volume from a Romano-
Germanic model, an indication that these practices had crossed the water
by the eleventh century.
In CCC 163, the extensive rubrics and the presence of early musical
notation provide a wealth of information for our study. The service opens
with a rubric that indicates the liturgical occasions on which the consecra-
tion may occur: Epiphany, the Monday of Easter week, or any of the feast
days of the apostles (“Consecratio sacrae virginis que in epiphania vel in
secunda feria pasche aut in apostolorum natalicus celebratur”19). It is clear
that by the eleventh century the nun participates fully—presenting herself
to the bishop, accepting the ring and veil. The imagery of several added
portions serves to intensify the central metaphor of the nun as the bride of
Christ. These additions are not, however, from the Song of Songs but from
the mouth of St. Agnes who understood her own refusal of earthly mar-
riage as a necessary corollary of her acceptance of Christ as bridegroom.
Her presence in this service holds up the value of martyrdom to the nuns.
Agnes does not “marry” Christ because of a lack of earthly suitors but
rather because she has such passion for God. The texts of the newly added
chants incorporate these ideals:

Ipsi sum desponsata cui angeli serviunt cuius pulchritudinem sol et luna
mirantur.
[I am promised to him to whom the angels are servants, to whose beauty the
sun and moon give honor.]
Anulo suo subarravit me dominus meus iesus christus et tam quam sponsam
decoravit me corona.
166 PERFORMING PIETY

[By his ring my Lord Jesus Christ has wed me and like a wife he has adorned
me with a crown.]
Posuit signum in faciem meam ut nullum praeter eum amatorem admittam.
[He has placed a sign on my face so that I should have no other lover beside
him.]
Induit me dominus cyclade auro texta et immensis monilibus ornavit me.
[God has clothed me in a cloak woven with gold, and has adorned me with
innumerable jewels.]

These statements by Agnes derive from versions of her story that circulated
widely in the Middle Ages. Drawing upon the language of the (pseudo-)
Ambrosian Passio, they present Agnes in her strength, in a positive formula-
tion of the benefits to Christ. From this marriage she receives a ring, a veil,
a robe, and necklaces. In the context of her Passio they come primarily from
her dialogue with the young man who wishes to marry her.20 Although the
texts find their way into the consecration service from the Passio, both
Aelfric’s Lives of the Saints and the popular Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend)
include versions of these texts, ample indication that the Passio formed the
basis of medieval English hagiographical accounts as well.
The incorporation of these chants into the consecration liturgy neces-
sarily ties the consecration service together with the liturgy for the Feast of
St. Agnes (January 21). The nuns remember the entire history of Agnes
when they sing the chants in their consecration service; likewise they may
be reminded of their vows each time they sing these chants on the Feast of
St. Agnes. This aural memory forms an important spiritual tie.
The four chants thus incorporated have remarkably similar musical
profiles, further insuring that a characteristic “sound” connects the Conse-
cration service with the Office of St. Agnes. All four chants are in the
authentic mixolydian mode. Each opens with a basic movement of D-B-
D-E-D, although these pitches are repeated varying numbers of times (see
example 6.1). The second half of each of these short antiphons begins on C
moving down toward A. Each chant ends with a downward B-A-G. Since
the nuns sing at least some of these chants singly, as solos, their narrow
range (sixth) and similarity make the task easier, even for a musically chal-
lenged nun.21

Example 6.1 Cambridge, University Library Mm3.13, f. 10v

 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 167

A late medieval sermon preached and published by John Alcock, Bishop

of Ely, in 1486 demonstrates how thoroughly these images from Agnes
permeate the church’s understanding of the ritual. He cites the Latin texts
of three of the four chants within his sermon, further reinforcing and
amplifying their message for didactic purposes. For example he says:

This veyle and mantell remembred ryght well the virgyn Saynt Agnes whan
she sayd “Posuit signum in faciem meam et nullum amatorem preter eum
admittam” That is to saye, he hath couerd my soule inwarde and myn heed
with a veyle that and yf I wyll loue ony man better than hym I shall goo to
the colour of my veyle and that is euerlastynge deth.22
[The virgin St. Agnes remembered the veil and mantle well when she said
“Posuit signum in faciem meam et nullum amatorem preter eum admittam”
which is to say, he has covered my soul inwardly and my head with a veil so
that if I love any man better than I love him, I will go to the color of my veil
and that is everlasting death.]

This “translation,” like so many of the translations of the rule, is not merely
a translation. Despite the connecting “that is to saye,” the words that fol-
low are not an exact rendering of the Latin into Middle English. Rather the
preacher moves from an understanding that the veil should keep the nun
from admitting other lovers, to assert a connection between the black color
of the veil and the certainty of everlasting damnation if the nun breaks the
vow of chastity. The remarks by the bishop assume that his reference to
Agnes will call her story to mind for the nuns.23
The scribe of CCC 163 includes musical notation for three of the four
chants as well as the incipit for Ipsi sum desponsata. The cheironomic
neumes indicate a raising (|) or a lowering (.) of the pitch and combina-
tions of the two.24 Although one cannot compare specific pitches, the
cheironomic neumes seem to be moving in the same direction.25
CCC 163 also provides fairly extensive rubrics for the service. The
reentrance of the virgin after the initial blessing of clothing is carefully
scripted:

Ipsa autem virgo vadat in sacrarium et induat se ipsis vestimentis benedictis. accipien-
sque duos cereos in manu sua ardentes. veniat ante altari canendo
Et nunc sequimur te in toto corde, et timemus te, et querimus faciem tuam
Domine; non confundas nos, sed fac nobis iuxta mansuetudinem tuam et
secundum multitudinem misericordiae tuae.
Et respondeat chorus.
Quia non est confusio confidentibus in te domine.
Et iterum virgo cantet
Et ecce venio ad te quem amavi quem quesivi quem semper obtavi.
Et tunc imponat chorus introitum ad missam26
168 PERFORMING PIETY

[The virgin herself should go to the sacristy and put on the blessed clothes; taking two
lighted candles in her hand, she should come before the altar singing:
And now we follow with a complete heart and we fear you and we seek
your face O Lord; do not confound us but treat us in accordance with your
gentleness and the greatness of your mercy.
And the choir should respond
Those who trust in you, O Lord, are not confused.
And again let the virgin sing:
And behold I come to you whom I have loved, whom I have desired, whom
I have always wanted.
And then let the choir set the introit for the mass.]

This exchange between the choir and the professed nun(s) introduces the
element of procession into the service. The ritual re-entry expands even fur-
ther in later sources where the bishop summons the nuns. The text of the
chant highlights the relationship of trust that the nun cultivates in order to
make such a leap of faith. The choir, which is the community that she is join-
ing, confirms that trust in their response. The nun’s final response is extracted
from the end of the chant Beata Agnes used as an antiphon at vespers. Thus in
this exchange the liturgy highlights the nun’s journey of trust, the welcom-
ing of her community of sisters, and the further connection to St. Agnes.
One further rubrical direction indicates that the singing of two
antiphons should be done while standing in a circle: Tunc cantetur a circum-
stantibus ad singulas antiphona27 [Then let the antiphon be sung individually
by those standing in a circle]. This unusual rubric indicates yet another way
to symbolize and build community—standing in a circle, a way to focus
attention more on each other than the bishop.28
Thus in the expansion of the service in the tenth and eleventh centuries,
the dramatic nature of the ritual is strengthened by the inclusion of several
chants sung by the virgins and by the development of explicit rubrics that
clearly give stage directions for the performance of the ritual. This era is
also the period of the initial expansion and development of liturgical
drama. The enacting of these various rituals serves to develop the faith of
those who participate and those who observe. It teaches and forms belief.

The Twelfth-Century Expansion

A careful examination of the extant twelfth-century sources reveals a
noticeable further expansion of the opening of the ceremony. The conse-
cration takes place during the celebration of mass on a feast day or on a
Sunday.29 Before the epistle is read, the virgins bring their vestments to the
altar and the bishop blesses them. Then either during the epistle or before it,
the virgins go to the sacristy and put on their vestments. In twelfth-century
sources we find for the first time that they sing the ornate responsory from
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 169

the service of St. Agnes, Amo Christum, upon their return. This chant intro-
duces a level of musical elaborateness that has not been present previously.
The text itself, after the opening phrase, uses portions of Agnes’s story as told
in the hymn of Ambrose.30

R. Amo Christum in cuius thalamum introivi, cuius mater virgo est, cuius
pater feminam nescit, cuius mihi organa modulatis vocibus cantant. Quem
cum amavero casta sum, cum tetigero munda sum, cum accepero virgo sum.
V. Mel et lac ex eius ore suscepi, et sanguis eius ornavit genas meas.
[R. I love Christ into whose chambers I have entered, whose mother is a vir-
gin; whose father did not know a woman; whose musical instruments sing to
me with measured voices; whom when I will have loved, I am chaste; when I
will have touched I am clean; when I will have let in I am a virgin. V. I have
taken honey and milk from his mouth and his blood has adorned my cheeks.]

These images are supported by a rhapsodic chant containing several lengthy

melismas.31 Of the ten sources that preserve the musical notation, seven
include the elaborate responsorial version while three present the respond
text with a different musical setting, as an antiphon.32 The notation of the
responsorial version of this chant is somewhat unusual. The music has a
range of a ninth and is usually begun on D. The normal procedure for
notating a chant of this range would be to begin on the d a seventh below
the C-clef; however, in four instances this chant begins on the D above the
C-clef and makes extensive use of the G-clef that is usually introduced at
the words “organa modulatis vocibus cantant” (musical instruments sing
with measured voices) where the music moves into a higher range.33 Since
medieval chant notation generally indicates relative pitch, this might be just
a vagary of notation. However, it seems unlikely that musicians would be
totally indifferent to the conceptual difference between the two starting
notes. Perhaps the scribe wished to indicate a performance practice of
singing this chant in a relatively high range so that the music for “organa
modulatis vocibus cantant” reaches an appropriately high tessitura.34
A second twelfth-century addition to the early portion of the service
is the antiphon Venite, venite, venite filie audite me. This chant is sung by
the bishop after the gospel and creed to summon the virgins to the altar.
The chant is taken from the mass for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost as
is the nuns’ response Et nunc sequimur. The opportunity for the bishop to
chant Venite, venite, venite (Come, come, come) increases the dramatic tenor
of the service even further. Indeed, while in the twelfth century the bishop
sings this just once, by the fifteenth and sixteenth century there is a three-
fold repetition of the whole dialogue between the bishop and the nuns
with the nuns processing slightly further on each repetition.35
Et nunc sequimur appears in extant English sources with three different
musical settings. Although the chant can form the verse of the offertory Sicut
170 PERFORMING PIETY

in holocausto it only infrequently appears as such. Cambridge, Trinity College

249, the only twelfth-century source for the chant, contains a version similar
to that preserved in the eleventh-twelfth century gradual of Benevento36
(example 6.2a). This version of the chant contrasts sharply with the recita-
tion-tone setting found in several later manuscripts (example 6.2b). Finally,
the Chester Processional contains a third version of this chant (example 6.2c).
The sources are evenly divided between those containing version A (5) and
those with version B (5); the Chester version is unique. In Trinity College
249, the rubric preceding the chant reads Sequens incipiat hunc versum cantando
(Afterwards let this verse be begun, singing), indicating its origin as an offer-
tory verse, but later sources frequently refer to it as an antiphon, and it seems
to have assumed an identity as a separate processional chant.

Example 6.2a Cambridge, Trinity College 249, f. 46

 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 171

Example 6.2b Cambridge, University Library Mm3.13, f. 7v

Example 6.2c San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, EL 34 B. 7, f. 1

One further addition to the service in the twelfth century is the vow of
obedience. The pontifical from Winchester (Cambridge UL Ee.ii.3)
includes the basic vow that appears in most of the subsequent pontificals:

Ego soror N promitto stabilitatem meam et conversionem morum meorum

et obedientiam coram deo omnibusque sanctis eius secundum regulam sancti
172 PERFORMING PIETY

benedicti in loco iste qui est consecrationis in honore sancti N et in presen-

tia domini episcopi N atque abbatisse N.37
[I, sister N, promise my stability and the conversion of my life and obedience
in the presence of God and of all the saints according to the Rule of St.
Benedict in this place which is consecrated to the honor of Saint N. and in
the presence of the Right Reverend N together with the Abbess N.]

This is the basic monastic vow promising to live in community and to fol-
low both the written rules of the order and any other directives from the
bishop or the abbess.
The rubrics in this manuscript are also unusual in allowing a choice of
chant when the bishop presents the veil to the nun immediately before the
vow. The rubrics suggest “Tunc virgo incipiat hanc antiphonam Induit me
vel quamlibet antiphonam que conveniat de ystoria sancte agnetis vel
sancte agathe. Hic episcopus faciet bannum ne quis presumat illud sanctum
propositum violare” [Then the virgin begins the antiphon Induit me or any
other antiphon that draws upon the history of Saint Agnes or Saint Agatha.
The bishop will pronounce the banns lest anyone presume to violate this
holy way of life38]. Clearly Agnes and Agatha are seen as the two saints
most closely connected with the vocation of virginity. The importance of
the chant lies not only in its specific textual appropriateness to this portion
of the service but also in its re-creation of the story of the saint in the lives
of the performers of the ritual. While this specific manuscript does not
include a chant from the liturgy for St. Agatha, another twelfth-century
manuscript, Cambridge University Library Ll.ii.10 does incorporate two
such chants—Ancilla Christi sum and Summa ingenuitas—that become a reg-
ular feature in the following centuries.

Further development in the fourteenth century

Four fourteenth-century pontificals provide clear documentation of the fur-
ther expansion of the service through additional musical material from the
services of St. Agnes and St. Agatha: Bodleian Rawlinson C. 400, the pon-
tifical of de Martivall, Bishop of Salisbury 1315–29; British Library Harleian
561, assigned to Winchester on the basis of the service for nuns; British
Library Lansdowne 451, written for a bishop of London; and Bodleian
Library Rawlinson C. 425, a pontifical for the Abbot of Westminster at the
end of the fourteenth century and the only extant abbatial pontifical.39 In
fact, the four sources among them contain all of the chants, except one, that
appear in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century versions of the ceremony.
The opening segment of the ritual remains substantially the same as in the
twelfth-century sources already considered. The Westminster Pontifical,
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 173

however, introduces the responsory chant, Audivi vocem de celo, to accompany

the virgins’ initial entrance into the church for the blessing of the vestments.
This responsory, found in four other sources, is taken from the Common of
Virgins. The nuns would presumably associate this text and music with ser-
vices sung throughout the liturgical year for virgin saints who did not have
their own specific liturgy.

Audivi vocem de celo dicentem Venite omnes virgines sapientissime. Oleum

recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit. V. Media nocte clamor fac-
tus est ecce sponsus venit.40
[I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Come all most wise virgins. Put away
the oil in your vessels until the bridegroom comes.” V. In the middle of the
night a shout goes up—behold the bridegroom comes.]

The virgins would immediately connect this processional chant with the
story of the wise and foolish virgins. This story is read innumerable times
throughout the year as the gospel reading for virgin saints.41 Musically the
chant is responsorial in nature with the repeat indicated at “Oleum,” the
second part of the respond. The chant is moderately melismatic with
five- and six-note melismas over several words. It is an authentic dorian
mode chant with a strong centering on D and A. It opens the service of
consecration by commenting on the nun’s call to her vocation—“I heard
a voice.” It identifies the virgins about to be consecrated with the wise
virgins of the biblical parable and it announces that the bridegroom (i.e.,
the bishop) has indeed arrived, that this is the moment for the marriage
feast.
The imagery is taken even further in the two sixteenth-century manu-
script sources from nunneries in the diocese of Winchester, Cambridge
University Library Mm.iii.3 and Oxford, Bodleian, Barlow 11.42 In a logi-
cal, backward extension, the opening of the service in these manuscripts
begins with the following rubric:

And when the collecte is sayd, and the bisshop sette byfore the myddys of the
hygh aulter, then suche a person as the bisshop shall appoynt, standyng at the
est dore of the quoyre, and lokyng towarde the place where the virgyns that
then shall professe doo array theymself, shall syng unto theym: Prudentes vir-
gines aptate vestras lampades, ecce sponsus venit, exite obviam ei.43
[And when the collect has been said and the bishop is in front of the middle
of the high altar, then someone whom the bishop shall appoint, standing
at the east door of the choir and looking at the place where the virgins
who are about to be consecrated are arraying themselves, shall sing to them:
Wise virgins prepare your lamps; behold your spouse comes, go forth to
meet him.]
174 PERFORMING PIETY

With the performance of this chant from the Common of Virgins, the nuns
would truly be able to say that they had “heard” the voice from heaven
calling them not only to the wedding ceremony but also to the eternal feast
of the parable.44
A further elaboration of the early part of the service occurs through the
setting of the chants Venite, venite, venite and Nunc sequimur. The bishop’s
call to the virgins and their response expand into a truly theatrical version
in the Westminster Pontifical and four later versions of the service. The
bishop calls to the nuns, the choir continues the chant and the nuns
respond, moving partway toward the bishop. This whole procedure is
repeated three times as the nuns get closer and closer to the bishop.45
After the nuns read and sign their professions, they say or sing the verse
Suscipe me Domine three times. This verse, taken from the corresponding
service for monks, is provided with a recitation tone in only a few manu-
scripts. Only in the manuscripts from the diocese of Winchester are there
specific directions that the verse should be sung. By the early sixteenth cen-
tury, even this simple part of the service is performed in a more elaborate
manner. In the version created by Bishop Fox for the nuns of his diocese
the choir also participates in the renewal of the basic vow:

. . . the virgyns standyng there all at the sayde aulter grece, shal synge
together: Suscipe me, Domine, secudum eloquium tuum, et vivam, et non
confundas me ab expectatione mea. Whych the quoyre must repete. And
whyles the quoyre answereth, the virgyns shall stand erected: and after that
agayne inclynyng their bodyes, the virgyns shall syng the secounde tyme, in
a lytell hygher voyce: Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum, et
vivam, et non confundas me ab expectatione mea. And soo the quoyre it
repete. And thredly the virgyns shall yet in an hygher voyce syng:
Suscipe . . . mea. And the quoyre it repete.46
[. . . the virgins standing at the said altar stairs should sing together: Receive
me, Lord, according to that which you have spoken, and may I live, and may
you not confound my hope. Which the choir must repeat. And while the
choir answers, the virgins shall stand up; and after that, bowing again, the vir-
gins shall sing a second time in a little higher voice: Receive me Lord . . . my
hope. And then the choir repeats it. And thirdly, the virgins should sing in an
even higher voice: Receive me Lord . . . my hope. And the choir repeats it.]

From a simple, chanted, prayer this action has now expanded into a dramatic
dialogue between the new nuns and the older nuns. The word “hygh” could
refer to either pitch or volume or perhaps both. Thus the nuns are essentially
told to make each repetition more intense by raising the pitch or the vol-
ume, just as they move closer to the bishop on each repetition of the Venite.
The manuscript specifies the exact gestural motions as well as the musical
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 175

and textual elements of the service. Kneeling, bowing, and processing, the
nuns are constantly participating bodily in the service.
The two chants from the liturgy of St. Agatha found in one twelfth-
century source appear in all of the fourteenth-century sources in connec-
tion with the veiling of the nuns. One is sung by the nuns as they approach
the bishop to receive their veils; the other is sung by the bishop himself.
Both emphasize the humility and meekness of the nun:

Ancilla Christi sum ideo me ostendo servilem personam.

[I am the handmaiden of Christ; therefore I show myself as a servile person.]
Summa ingenuitas ista est in qua servitus Christi comprobatur.
[The highest righteousness is that in which the servitude of Christ is estab-
lished.]

Many of the texts taken from the service for St. Agnes emphasize the joy of
marriage to Christ, the jewelry, the advantages of having a heavenly bride-
groom. With the interpolation of these chants, however, the church seems
to be reinforcing the humble nature of the nun. These sources correspond
in time with the papal bull to emphasize the need for enclosure of religious
women. It is a long way from the rather wild and rebellious nature of St.
Agatha to the humility expressed in these chants. The nuns, however,
would have connected the chants also to the full, dramatic story of Agatha,
whose breasts were cut off for her refusal to submit to the desires of
Quintianus. Although the stories of Agatha would indeed have her replying
something like “ancilla Christi sum ideo me ostendo servilem personam,”
that remark is made as she courageously speaks up to the powerful man who
wants to defile her. As the following translation of the Anglo-Saxon in
Aelfric’s Lives of Saints indicates, English nuns would have understood this
passage in a larger context:

Then Quintianus became angry and bade fetch her quickly, and questioned
her first concerning her parentage. Agatha thereupon answered; “I am of
noble race, even as all my kindred can bear me witness.” Then said the
judge, “why destroyest thou thyself by mean usages, as if thou wert a bond-
maid?” Agatha answered, “I am God’s handmaid, and great nobility is it to
be Christ’s servant.” Quintianus said to the virgin of Christ, “What then?
have we no nobility, merely because we despise thy Christ’s servitude?”
Agatha answered the impious man, and said; “Your nobility turneth to such
shameful bondage, that ye are the servants of sin and of stones.”47

The impression given in this story is surely much less servile and humble
than the short chant taken out of context. I would argue that the nuns
176 PERFORMING PIETY

almost certainly would have understood both meanings of the passage—the

strength of Agatha’s reply and the emphasis of the church on their quies-
cence. This later addition is just another part of the double message that the
consecration service carries for them.
In the diocese of Winchester an additional chant from the Liturgy for St.
Agnes appears in the sources for the consecration service beginning in the
fourteenth century. This chant, a simple antiphon, is sung by the virgins
after they have received communion.

And then they shall receyve wyne, of a prestys hande standyng at the sayde
grece as the maner is. And after that, yet standyng in the same place, they
shall there syng together: Ecce, quod concupivi jam video, quod speravi jam
teneo, illi sum juncta in coelis quem in terris posita tota devotione dilexi.48
[And then they shall receive wine from the priest’s hand, standing at the altar
step as is the custom. And after that, standing still in the same place, they shall
sing together: Behold that which I have desired I now see, that for which I
have hoped I now hold; I am united in heaven to him whom I, placed on
earth, have esteemed by total devotion.]

The chant emphasizes that the service is nearly complete, that the nuns are
now truly wed to Christ. But even more importantly, it links this union to
the act of receiving communion, of receiving the body and blood of Jesus.
In this sacramental act the marriage is consummated.
Finally, the ceremony ends with the singing of the chant Regnum mundi
as the nuns leave. This chant, from the service for female saints who were
not virgins, appears in almost all of the later sources either with music or
just as a text incipit. The text emphasizes giving up the world for the love
of Christ, a strong final reminder to the nuns that they have pledged them-
selves to a life of enclosure for the love of Christ.

Conclusions
The many extant versions of the service for the Consecration of Virgins
offer us an amazing look at the development of this complex and beautiful
event. Like a bride on her wedding day, the nun undoubtedly understands
only a small part of the ramifications of the vows that she takes. How
indeed can she envision what it will really mean to take Christ as her hus-
band, to promise for the rest of her life that she will remain in the convent,
that she will not look at real men? The liturgy constructs a particular
understanding of that reality—one that she will encounter on many future
occasions. She will sing some of the chants that she sings that day annually
on the feasts of St. Agnes and St. Agatha, some of them several times a year
 CONSECRATION OF NUNS 177

on the feasts of other virgins, and some of them only occasionally when
the service itself recurs. Just as she pledges herself both individually through
the singing of certain antiphons by herself and communally through her
participation with others, she will continue to learn what it means to live
communally with other women who have similarly pledged themselves.
Does the language of desire throughout the consecration service and espe-
cially in the chant Amo christum allow the nun to channel her sexual desires
toward Christ or does it merely encourage their expression within the nun-
nery?49 Or both? Surely one of the great strengths of the consecration ser-
vice is that the images it lifts up for the nun are sufficiently multivalent that
she can continue to grow and change her self-identity as she ages. The
moment of the consecration service does not end the personal growth of
the woman but instead marks a path for future development. That devel-
opment undoubtedly includes many experiences of pain and boredom as
well as of love and spiritual fulfillment.
The beauty of the consecration service is that it holds together the many
tensions inherent in the nun’s experience. It celebrates her as holding the
highest possible status as the bride of Christ even as it encourages her in
humility. It lifts up her individual pledge to Christ even as it confirms her
in her communal setting. It reminds her of the strong women of the past
even as it attempts to regularize and tame the strong women of the present.
It honors the role of the abbess even as it emphasizes the power of the
bishop. This is perhaps one of the strongest functions of the liturgy—to
hold in tension the great paradox of Christian belief that the power of love
is stronger than the power of death.
CHAPTER 7

A CASE STUDY IN BENEDICTINE

PRACTICES: BARKING ABBEY

itual observance carries a dual purpose as the transmitter of the tra-

R dition of the church universal and of the traditions and practices of
a specific locale. The church always enacts its general practices in specif-
ically local ways. This mixture of local and universal rituals is one of the
true strengths of the monastic tradition. A nun indeed joins all other
professed nuns as the bride of Christ, but she does so in a particular
abbey or priory. Her identity is both as Benedictine and as a Barking
nun for example. Each identity contributes important parts to her devel-
opment. From the Benedictines she inherits a regular regimen of wor-
ship, study and work, specific liturgical hours and patterns of prayer, and
the great body of plainchant. From Barking she inherits tangible specific
rituals that bind that particular community together, chants for the local
saints, a sense of community history, and the sights and smells of that
particular building. So while some consider that the “devil is in the
details,” we can expect that perhaps the nuns discovered the divine in
the details as well.
As one of the oldest and most prestigious nunneries in England, Barking
Abbey provides us with a particularly rich and interesting site for an in-
depth study of the musical practices in an English Benedictine house.
Information from Barking Abbey has been woven into earlier discussions
of leadership roles in the nunnery, observances of the Offices of the Dead,
processionals, and liturgical drama. Nevertheless, there remains a wealth of
additional information that we have not yet considered.
Anglo-Saxon sources and lives of the saints provide information about the
formation of the abbey itself originally in the seventh century (c. 666) and its
re-formation in the tenth century (c. 965). Bede describes the foundation
180 PERFORMING PIETY

and details some of the miracles at Barking Abbey in his history:

sorori autem in Orientalium Saxonum prouincia in loco qui nuncupatur

Inberecingum, in quo ipsa Deo deuotarum mater ac nutrix posset existere
feminarum. Quae suscepto monasterii regimine condignam se in omnibus
episcopo fratre et ipsa recte uiuendo et subiectis regulariter ac pie consulendo
praebuit, ut etiam caelestia indicio fuere miracula.1
[His [Erkenwald’s] sister’s monastery he established at a place called Barking in
the kingdom of the East Saxons where she was to live as mother and nurse of
a company of women devoted to God. When she had undertaken the rule of
this monastery, she proved herself worthy in all things of her brother the
bishop, both by her own holy life and by her sound and devoted care for those
who were under her rule; and of this heavenly miracles were the witness.2]

Several chapters follow that tell of miracles at Barking Abbey both during
the time of Ethelburga and of her successor Hildelith. These miracles form
an important part of the self-identity of the abbey as a special, blessed place
with an early foundation.
As one of the Benedictine houses in existence when the Council of
Winchester (c. 970) formulated the Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis
Monachorum Sanctimonialiumque (The Monastic Agreement of the Monks and
Nuns of the English Nation), Barking’s liturgical principles in the tenth cen-
tury are presumably accurately described by that document.3 Anglo-
Norman influences are evident in such later sources as the Visitatio Sepulchri
performed at Barking that reflects liturgical practice of French houses espe-
cially that of Rouen.4 The translation into Anglo-Norman of the Life of St.
Katherine by Clemence of Barking is further evidence that French itself
would have been the primary language of the nuns at Barking in the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries.5
Many Barking nuns are daughters of wealthy families and even after their
profession of vows continued to have access to books and ideas that were
current in the more educated classes in England. While approximately fifteen
manuscripts survive from Barking Abbey, the library undoubtedly held con-
siderably more than fifteen volumes. A list from the sixteenth century speci-
fies close to thirty items from the abbey.6 As described in chapter 3, the
Barking Ordinal indicates very clearly that in the fifteenth century Barking
practiced the Benedictine custom of giving each nun a book yearly at the
beginning of Lent for her personal meditation. Additionally, the ordinal fre-
quently refers to the antiphonal, the processional, and the capitular, clear evi-
dence that these liturgical books were part of the abbey’s library.
In addition to the many areas of musical-liturgical practices that infor-
mation from the Barking sources has already illuminated, there are several
other topics that we have not yet examined. How are young nuns
 BARKING ABBEY 181

trained to perform the divine office? How do nuns and priests share the
performance of the mass? What musical repertoire do they draw on for the
mass ordinary? How extensive is the repertoire of sequences sung at
Barking? What hymns and hymn-tunes do the nuns sing? How is devotion
to local saints woven into the liturgical day? What role does music play in
the abbey outside of the liturgical services? The answers to these questions
will lead us to a fuller, but by no means exhaustive, understanding of the
rich and varied texture of the musical practices at Barking Abbey in the
early fifteenth century and their effect on the spirituality of the nuns.

Training the Young

Convents do not include only consecrated nuns; the community also
includes servants, priests, lay sisters, widows, and the young. For example, the
account of the Abbey of St. Mary, Winchester, in 1536 indicates that there
are 102 persons living there “namely twenty-six religious, five priests,
thirteen lay sisters, nine women servants, twenty officials and waiting
servants, three corrodiers7, and twenty-six children.”8 The names of the
children are given and all of them are girls, but it is not at all clear how
many are oblates. While this is an especially detailed list, it is probably fairly
representative of the proportions that one might find. The extent to which
nuns offer schooling to young children is difficult to ascertain. Certainly
the numerous references in bishops’ registers to the presence of young chil-
dren as well as payments by parents to the nunneries for such education are
clear evidence that the nuns did do some teaching. Eileen Power includes
a compendium of such references in her volume Medieval English Nunneries;
she concludes that many nunneries do accept children from the upper and
wealthy middle classes as students as an economic necessity, but that the
education is probably not very rigorous. Further it is clear that boys are
only allowed up until age nine or ten and that girls are similarly disallowed
after around age twelve unless they are novices training to become nuns.9
Novices always receive their training at the nunnery.10
In the Barking Ordinal there are three classifications of children and
young women who are distinguished in the instructions for various occa-
sions: infantes, juvencule, and scolares. While there is no precise definition of
these categories, the usage in the manuscript implies that the infantes are
very young children, the juvencule are school-aged girls, and the scolares
are novices preparing to make their profession of vows. In her notes on
the Barking Ordinal, Dame Laurentia McLachlan comments that:

At Barking the term [scolares] seems to designate a novice, because in the

directions for the profession of a nun (p. 350 infra) the Magistra scolarium
182 PERFORMING PIETY

instructs the newly professed in her duties. . . . The juvencule were most
probably girls receiving their education in the Abbey, and the infantes must
certainly have been children. There was a strong presumption that most of
these would eventually become religious, and custom in mediaeval monas-
teries required their presence in church for the greater part of the choir
office, special parts of which were allotted to them.11

Several injunctions from the diocese of York in the fourteenth century

suggest that twelve is the age after which children should not be allowed to
board in the nunnery.12 The nominal age at which young women could
profess their vows is sixteen although there is wide latitude on this matter.
While there is no record of this specific age at Barking, it is likely that
only those who intended to become nuns were welcome for the training
afforded to the scolares.
As one reads through the ordinal, it becomes clear that the scolares
learned to become nuns by observing and participating in the rituals and by
fulfilling specific roles reserved only to them as well as through the instruc-
tions of the magistra scolarium (novice mistress). These opportunities to lead
worship or short rituals in the chapter house prepared the young women to
move into larger liturgical roles after they professed their vows.
The most notable example of the incorporation of the scolares into the
liturgy is the Feast of the Holy Innocents falling on December 28.13 This
feast day, celebrated in the church since the sixth century, commemorates
the children who were martyred by Herod. In many places the day was
marked by role reversals with children taking the leadership roles (e.g., a
boy-bishop was often elected in cathedrals). At Barking the instructions are
very clear on the performance of the ritual by the young:

Tunc una de scolaribus, in stacione abbatisse posita, hanc incipiat Ant.

Splendet bethleemiticus. Qua decantata, alia scolaris uicem optinens precentri-
cis, incipiat ps. Magnificat.14
[Then one of the novices, placed in the role of the abbess, begins this
antiphon Splendet bethleemiticus. When this has been sung another of the
novices occupying the role of the precentrix, should begin the Magnificat.]

The changeover takes place at vespers and the young abbess immediately
takes on a position of musical-liturgical leadership as does the young pre-
centrix. At the end of vespers the “infantes dicant Benedicamus” (the young
children should say the Benedicamus), an indication that even the youngest
children participated. The instructions that follow at matins give a very
clear picture of the hierarchy among the young women and girls:

Iuuenis abbatissa et eius priorissa, dueque alie ex suis coetaneis, incipiant

Inuit. Adoremus dominum, Ymp. Hostis herodes, antiphone autem per ordinem
 BARKING ABBEY 183

dentur scolaribus. Si uero scolarium fuerit paucior numerus quam antiphone,

tunc incipiantur a iuuenculis, Psalmi et uersiculi plurimorum martirum.15
[The young abbess and her prioress and two others of their group should begin
the invitatory Adoremus dominum. Hymn. Hostis Herodes. The antiphons, how-
ever, should be given in succession by the novices. If, however, the number of
novices is less than the number of antiphons then the psalms and versicles of
many martyrs should be begun by the girls.]

In these instructions we see that each novice would have had the chance to
begin an antiphon and that once they all had a chance the juvenculae would
be next in order. This feast provides a marvelous opportunity for these
young women to actually try out the roles for which they are preparing.
Even a short antiphon intonation requires a certain stage presence; having
successfully completed this assignment, the novice would gain confidence.
She would also understand, through experience, what her future role
would be.
The Feast of the Holy Innocents could, on occasion, degenerate into a
liturgical spoof. John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, is clearly con-
cerned that this is the case at Barking during his visitation of 1279:

Festi etiam Innocentum celebritas quam agi a parvulis non approbamus, sed
cum displicentia sustinemus, nullatenus ab eisdem parvulis inchoetur, nec
aliqualiter se immisceant, usque post Beati Johannis Evangelistae vesperas
consummatas. Consequenter autem moniales ipsi officio se non subtrahant,
sed exclusis a choro tunc temporis omnibus masculis et mulieribus, etiam
quae ad crementi terminum pervenerunt, ipsae defectus suppleant parvu-
larum, ne, quod nefas est, vertatur in ludibrium laus divina.16
[(While)we disapprove of the celebration of the Feast of Innocents being
done by children, we nonetheless uphold it reluctantly. This celebration
should by no means be begun by these children, nor should they take part in
it in any way until after the completion of the vespers of John the Evangelist.
However, the nuns should not withdraw from this office but rather, with all
of the men and women having been excluded from the choir at that time—
even those women who are about to give birth—they themselves should
make up for the errors of the young, lest divine praise become a mockery
(which is abominable.)]

The bishop is concerned apparently that the children have been beginning
the feast too early and that the proceedings have had a carnival-like atmos-
phere with crowds of townspeople attending and the professed nuns them-
selves absent. While medieval celebrations often stress the humorous nature
of the role reversals, the feast itself remembers all of the children that Herod
slaughtered. The bishop apparently thought that things had gone too far in
the direction of buffoonery. The ordinal, coming 125 years after this
184 PERFORMING PIETY

injunction, is very careful to signify at vespers on both the twenty-seventh

and the twenty-eighth the exact moment of changeover from the normal
state of things to the leadership by the novices. On the Feast of the Holy
Innocents at second vespers, the rubrics call for the “old” abbess to begin
the festivities for St. Thomas whose feast day follows on the twenty-ninth:
“Solitis commemoracionibus peractis: incipiat senex abbatissa antiphona de
beato thoma”17 [When the usual commemorations are over, the old abbess
should begin the antiphon for St. Thomas]. These precise directions in the
ordinal may well result from Peckham’s injunctions years earlier.
While the Feast of the Holy Innocents has a specific humorous cast to
it, the youth are also involved in a number of other ways throughout the
liturgical year. Indeed, while we have no record of the specific lessons that
the magistra led and few musical instructional materials,18 it is clear that in
many ways they learned through participation. For example, on the
Rogation Days and St. Mark’s Day, the scolares have special responsibility
for singing the short litany as the nuns finally return to the conventual
church after processing far afield: “Statim post nonam. parua letania a
duabus canatur scolaribus. et cum illa propriam adeant ecclesiam”19
[Immediately after none, the short litany is sung by two novices and so
doing they should enter their own church]. This small litany gives the
young women a chance to offer leadership on this important feast day
shortly after hearing their older sisters lead the great litany. We can assume
that the older nun in charge of the novices (magistra scolaris) taught them
their role so that they would be well prepared.
While Western cultures have moved in the direction of teaching music
through classes and rehearsals, most oral traditions are passed down to the
next generation through participation. Since the learning of chant is pre-
dominately an oral process, the young novices probably learn most of
what they need through listening and participation rather than through
didactic instruction. The Benedictine Rule is very clear that children
should be beaten when they make mistakes in choir or as it says in the
Northern Prose version of the rule: “Qe barnis sal man chasty wid wande
for suik mis-dede”20 [One shall chastise the children with a rod for such
errors]. Medieval pedagogy seems to focus on correction through force for
children even though adults who err need only to prostrate themselves.
This chastisement is seen as appropriate to their developmental level.
Various references in the Barking ordinal point to the incorporation of
the novices as readers and singers throughout the year. During the week-
days of Advent, for example, the scolares (or the juvencule if the scolares are
not available) are supposed to begin the antiphons except for the very first
one, which is begun by the ebdomadaria. So after an experienced leader
has gotten the service off to a good start, the young people have an
opportunity to “practice” their skills.21
 BARKING ABBEY 185

On major feast days the young people are often assigned parallel rituals.
For example, they venerate the cross before the older nuns on Good Friday
and then leave during the lengthier service.

Post capitulum omnes uadant ad pheretrum sancte ethelburge et dicant

quindecim psalmos. et statim post sacerdos eat ad altare sancti laurencii et ibi
legat passionem, et seruicium illius diei scolaribus audientibus cum magistris
earum. et statim postea scolares iuxta illud altare ibidem crucem adorant.22
[After the chapter, they all go to the tomb of St. Ethelburga and recite fifteen
psalms and immediately thereafter the priest should go to the altar of St.
Laurence and there read the passion and the service of the day to the novices
who are listening with their teachers; and immediately afterwards the
novices adore the cross next to that same altar.]

The young people partake of the reading of the passion, the association of
the convent with the tomb of St. Ethelburga, and the adoration of the
cross. They continue to participate until part way through the adoration of
the cross at the high altar when they leave for a meal. (“Tunc scolares
exeant et uadant ad comedendum)23 [Then the novices should leave and go
to dinner]. Indeed throughout the ordinal there are clear instructions that
the young, the infirm, and those in leadership roles should not fast for too
long a period. On many of the main feast days where there are several long
services before the communal meal, the ordinal directs “post missam sco-
lares et iuuencule et illa que lectura est et ille que sunt ministrature uadant
accipere mixtum”24 [After mass, the novices and young girls and the one
who is the reader and those who minister should go to partake of a snack].
The ordinal indicates a tremendous concern by those in charge for the
appropriate nurture of those who are being trained to become nuns. By the
time they make a profession of vows, the novices at Barking have partici-
pated in most of the rituals, served in leadership as lectors and cantrixes, and
learned a very large repertoire of chant. They know the psalms thoroughly.
Their piety has begun to be formed by the images and sounds of medieval
chant. If the nunnery is not their vocation, they have ample opportunity to
discover this at a young age. If it is their vocation, they have been well
trained to serve as the ebdomadaria and perhaps have been inspired to go
on to become the real abbess, prioress, or cantrix.

Priests in the Abbey

As we have seen in the chapter on processionals, the exact placement and
ordering of personnel carries immense theological significance. The abbess,
generally the highest ranking ecclesial authority present, walks at the end of
the procession except when royalty is present. Nunneries, however, are
186 PERFORMING PIETY

never exclusively comprised of women because nuns are required to have

a priest present to say mass. The spiritual authority of the abbess is thus to
some extent subverted by the presence of the priest who has ritual powers
that the abbess does not have and, most significantly, the right to consecrate
the elements. The Barking Ordinal contains instructions on musical lead-
ership within the mass that shows a careful nuancing of these relationships
not only for the mass, but also, on principal feast days, at matins and ves-
pers. Barking seems to have had several clergy who participated in such rit-
uals as the Visitatio Sepulchri as well as the everyday services.
The liturgy for Christmas gives several instructions that clarify the
involvement of the clergy in the rituals. Vespers on Christmas Eve begins
with the priest intoning Deus in adiutorium, but the abbess, prioress, presen-
trix, and succentrix provide the rest of the musical leadership. The priest’s
role seems almost like an announcement at the beginning of the service that
he is present. At matins the priest begins the Te Deum Laudamus and reads
the gospel.25 The instructions for the Missa in Gallicantu [The Mass of the
Cock’s Crow] include detailed rubrics for the performance of a troped
Gloria:

Sacerdos incipiat. Gloria in excelsis. Cui tres sorores in medio choro respon-
deant dicentes. Quem ciues celestes. Chorus flexis genibus sicut in uigiliam
pasche, concinat. Et in terra pax hominibus.26
[The priest begins the Gloria in excelsis to which three sisters in the middle of
the choir should respond singing Quem cives celestes. The choir, kneeling as
on the Easter vigil, sings together Et in terra pax hominibus.]

On this ceremonial occasion, the musical leadership of the Gloria is divided

between the priest who sings the incipit, the group of three nuns who sing
the troped interpolations, and the rest of the choir, alternating with the
small group of nuns. Although with only the trope incipit listed it is diffi-
cult to assess exactly what was sung, the trope Quem ciues celestes is one of
the tropes found in the Winchester Troper from the eleventh century. The
opening several lines show how the added verses alternate with the canon-
ical text:

Gloria in excelsis deo

Quem cives caelestem sanctum clamantes laudes frequentant
Et in terra [pax hominibus]
Ut ministri domini verbo incarnato terrenis promisserat
laudamus te27
[Glory to God in the highest
whom the citizens [of heaven] regularly praise exclaiming [their] heavenly
“Sanctus”
 BARKING ABBEY 187

and on earth peace to men

as he had promised to those of the earth through the incarnate word of the
Lord
we praise you.]

The portions sung by the small group of nuns are the more taxing musi-
cally; the priest’s role is clearly ceremonial.
The instructions for the mass continue giving details as to the chanting
of the scripture by the subdeacons.

Post collectam: assint tres subdiaconi tunicis induti. duo qui leccionem ysaie
prophete. scilicet Populus gencium. alternatim decantent. et tercius qui episto-
lam beati Pauli recitet, Ep. Apparuit gracia.28
[After the collect three subdeacons should appear wearing tunics, two of
whom should chant antiphonally the lesson from the prophet Isaiah, namely
Populus gencium and the third who should recite the epistle of St. Paul,
Apparuit gracia.]

The ordinal assigns to the deacons the chanting of these lessons in an ornate
way for this principal feast. These clerics presumably are well versed in the
chanting of the gospel at the mass also. These instructions are rare in the
ordinal as the incipits for the Epistle and the Gospel are generally given
with no instructions. It was probably the norm for the clergy to read them.
Among other duties clearly designated for priests and deacons are chant-
ing the collects and the canon of the mass, preaching, incensing the altar
and convent, receiving the oblations of bread and wine from the nuns, and
carrying the Gospel book to be kissed by the nuns. The nuns perform most
of the sung portions of the liturgy, both ordinary and proper. Thus, the
presence of priests at the mass, or at other services, does not diminish the
role of the choir nuns as primary participants in the ritual although they are
not the sacramental leaders.

Music for the Mass

The Mass Ordinary
When most contemporary musicians think of a “mass,” they think of the
musical sections of the mass ordinary—Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and
Agnus Dei—the portions of the mass set by post-medieval composers.
While the texts as we know them are indeed the backbone of the medieval
mass, the repertoire is hardly a fixed entity during the medieval period. The
practice of troping, which can mean the addition of new music to an exist-
ing chant, the addition of new text to an existing musical melisma, or the
188 PERFORMING PIETY

addition of both text and music to a chant, flourished from the ninth cen-
tury on. Chants were then identified by a title that included the part of the
mass and the incipit of the trope—that is, the Kyrie lux et origo is the Kyrie
with the lux et origo trope. The repertoire for the mass ordinary at Barking
in the early fifteenth century includes several settings of the Kyrie, Gloria,
Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, many of them troped versions. As we saw in the
above discussion about the role of the priest, the troped sections could be
performed by a smaller group (or soloist), in contrast to the canonical text.
Since there are no complete musical settings in the ordinal or in any other
source from Barking, we cannot make an exhaustive musical study here but
only suggest the range of versions mentioned in the text.
The musical and textual incipits in the ordinal indicate at least seven
troped Kyries and eight different musical incipits for non-troped Kyries.
The troped chants listed are: Kyrie genitor, Kyrie lux et origo, Kyrie o rex
clemens, Kyrie o rex splendens, Kyrie qui nupcias, Kyrie rex genitor, and Kyrie rex
splendens. Some of these were part of the English repertoire as early as the
eleventh century; others seem to be later additions.29 Since the composi-
tion of Kyrie chants continues through the Middle Ages, this variety is not
unusual.30
Among the Gloria settings the tropes mentioned include the Quem ciues
celestes, Spiritus et alme, and Te unum deum as well as three untroped settings
with musical incipits.31 David Hiley comments that “Glorias were usually
sung with trope verses on high feasts from the tenth to the twelfth century,
but because the trope verses were so often applied to different base
melodies there seems to be no overwhelming reason for believing that
tropes and melodies were composed at the same time. . . . After Gloria
tropes fell out of use in the thirteenth century, only one modest Marian
example, Spiritus et alme, held its place. It and the Gloria melody it embell-
ishes (Bosse 23) seem first to have become popular in the Paris region in the
second half of the twelfth century.”32 At Barking the Gloria with Spiritus et
alme is specifically called for on the major Marian feast days. If the ordinal
is correct, the nuns at Barking continued to sing other troped Glorias as
well, considerably after the thirteenth century.
The settings of both the Gloria and the Kyrie range from simple ferial
chants to the more elaborate festal chants. Even the ferial chants could be
used on occasions of some liturgical importance as this rubric for the Ember
Days indicates: “Gloria in excelsis dicatur cum nota feriali propter magnam
solennitatem”33 [The Gloria in excelsis is sung with the ferial chant for the
purpose of great solemnity].
There are fewer indications of the specific chants used for the Sanctus
and Agnus Dei but there are several tantalizing references to the “Sanctus et
Agnus de sancta Ethelburga.”34 This description probably implies a troped
 BARKING ABBEY 189

version of those chants with texts appropriate to the patron saint of the
abbey. For the mass on the Saturday of the Ember Days before Trinity
Sunday, the rubric calls for “Sanctus per uersus. Laudes deo. et Agnus
similiter per uersus dicatur V. Deus deorum. a toto conuentu”35 [The Sanctus
is said with the verse Laudes deo and the Agnus likewise should be said by
the whole convent with the verse Deus deorum]. On another occasion (the
translation of the Virgin saints Ethelburga, Hildelithe, and Wulfhilda) the
“Kyrie. Sanctus et Agnus festiuales dicantur cum nota”36 [The Kyrie, Sanctus,
and Agnus should be sung in festal style with music]. These rubrics all indi-
cate that the cantrix chose from a variety of chants for the ordinary of the
mass, and that with careful choice even the ordinary portions of the mass
fit the particular liturgical occasion.

The Sequence
The origins of the sequence form and especially its relationship to the
Alleluia have been and continue to be a matter of great scholarly debate. By
the end of the ninth century, however, the sequence is regularly part of the
liturgy for the mass on many feast days. It follows immediately after the
Alleluia, probably replacing the repeat of the Alleluia verse itself.37 Although
it is difficult to generalize about this genre, the sequence usually contains
pairs of verses that are set to the same music. The pairs of verses may be of
radically different length (e.g., two verses of seven syllables each followed
by two verses of fifteen syllables each). By the twelfth century a school of
sequence writing, associated with the composer Adam St. Victor, develops
in Paris. These Parisian sequences are rhymed and exhibit more regular
patterns of meter as well as some unifying musical characteristics (e.g.,
musical rhyme).38 Hiley comments that “rhymed sequences were com-
posed in enormous numbers throughout the Middle Ages. The vast major-
ity are quite unknown.”39
Sequences are an important component in the Barking liturgy, many
feasts being distinguished in the ordinal as being “cum sequentibus” indi-
cating that the level of the feast was high enough to include a sequence in
honor of the occasion.40 The Barking liturgy includes over one hundred
different sequences, many of them used on multiple occasions. The
sequence Clare sanctorum appears on at least ten different feasts for apostles
and is sung throughout the octave of the feast in some cases. Judging by the
text incipits alone, the repertoire contains pieces from the earliest stages of
the repertoire including at least seven from the tenth-century Winchester
repertoire, many examples from the rhyming Parisian school (e.g., Hodierne
lux diei, Mane prima sabbati, and Laudes crucis attollamus), and several that are
much more local in character and possibly unique to Barking. Although
190 PERFORMING PIETY

there is one sequence for St. Erkenwald in Analecta Hymnica (Christi lampas
aurea), it is not sung at Barking. There the nuns sang Fulget clara on his feast
day (April 30). Celo stella, Gaude virgo regia, Iubilemus, Summi regis, Salve
mater ethelburga, and Dulci laude all embellished occasions in honor of St.
Ethelburga.
Since we have only text incipits for these sequences, it is difficult to
determine whether they are adaptations of other sequences with a few
appropriate word changes, new texts set to preexisting melodies, or new
compositions for these “local” saints. There are, for example, many
sequences beginning Iubilemus any one of which could have been the
model for the sequence for St. Ethelburga. On the other hand, there are no
listings in Analecta Hymnica beginning Celo stella, Gaude virgo regia, Salve
mater ethelburga, or Dulci laude.

Alleluia Verses
The choice of Alleluia verses in the post-Pentecost season often provides a
useful clue to the liturgical influences on a particular use. These verses are
usually taken from the psalms and frequently appear in numerical order for
the twenty-three Sundays after Pentecost. The incipits in the Barking
Ordinal indicate that the psalms verses are taken from Psalms 5, 7, 17, 20,
30, 58, 64, 77, 80, 87, 89, 94:1, 94:3, 97, 99, 104, 107, 113, 114, 117, 124,
and 129. David Hiley has not located this exact sequence of psalms in any
other sources that he has studied, although it is similar to the Downpatrick
Gradual with which it shares twenty psalms and with Rouen with which it
shares nineteen.41 These comparisons are unfortunately inconclusive in
helping us to identify the sources of the influences on Barking’s liturgy.

Music for the Office

Responsory Prosulas
The responsory prosula, like the early trope, seems to have developed from
an initial addition of text to an existing melisma into an independent addi-
tion of text and music to the responsory. At Barking, these interpolations
seem to be almost exclusively for the responsories at vespers. As Steiner and
Falconer note, “prosulas may occur at two points in a responsory: in a
melisma towards the end of that part of the responsory that serves as a refrain
after the verse . . . or in the verse, where the prosula is fitted in around the
existing text.”42 The prosulas at times took the place of an additional verse
of the responsory but tended to be almost sequence-like pieces. Hiley sug-
gests that “Many prosulas are, in effect, small sequences, self-contained
musical items which could easily take on a life of their own. One extremely
 BARKING ABBEY 191

popular piece, Inviolata integra, which originated as a prosula for the Marian
responsory Gaude Maria, was frequently used as a sequence at masses for the
Blessed Virgin Mary.”43 At Barking Abbey, the convent sings the prose
Sospitati in honor of St. Nicholas not only at first vespers and the proces-
sion, but also as a stand-alone piece at the afternoon meal. “Nota quod
prosa sancti Nicholai. scilicet. Sospitati. incipiatur a cantrice dum conuen-
tus sit ad prandium in refectorio”44 (Note that the prose of St. Nicholas,
namely Sospitati should be begun by the cantrix while the convent is at
lunch in the refectory). These rubrics demonstrate that the boundaries
between liturgy and the rituals at meals are often very slight.
The Barking Ordinal refers to these additions to the liturgy as prosae, a
term which in other contexts connotes a sequence. Their use at Barking
seems to have centered principally around the Sanctorale as the accompany-
ing table (table 7.1) shows.
The table includes all of the indications of the additions of a prosula
where both the responsory and prosula text incipits are given. With the
exception of Easter, all of these examples are from the Sanctorale. There are
several other occasions where the ordinal calls for a prosa but does not spec-
ify which one. The Marian feasts are well represented as are the feasts of the
local saints (Ethelburga, Wulfhilda, and Erkenwald). Indeed the liturgy for
the Octave of St. Ethelburga also calls for prosulas after the fourth, eighth,
and twelfth repsonsories at matins but does not name them.45 While the
repertoire includes some well-known prosulas (e.g., Sospitati and Inviolata),

Table 7.1 Responsory Prosulae in the Barking Ordinal

Responsory Prosa (Prosula) Liturgical Occasion

Et eius tumba Sospitati St. Nicholas—Vespers/procession

O Maria Stella maris Conception BVM—Vespers
Gaude maria Inviolata Purification BVM—Vespers
O lux pontificum Habita a sanctis St. Erkenwald—Vespers
Ustum significans Merito angelorum St. Laurence—Vespers
Sancta maria succurre Beatissimam me Assumption BVM—Vespers
Stirps iesse Spiritus almam feminam Nativity BVM—Vespers
Solem iusticie Hodie prodit uirga Nativity BVM—procession
In purificacione Ad angelos St. Wulfhilda—Vespers
Quam beata Et pernoscere St. Ethelburga—Vespers 1
Dulcis ethelburga Collaudemus St. Ethelburga—Vespers 2
Ecclesiam deo Et lustret excelsa 8ve of St. Ethelburga—Vespers 1
Cor edmundi Sint saluti St. Edmund—Vespers
Apparuit caro Dulcis amor St. John the Evangelist—Vespers
Dum transisset Ortum predestinacio Easter—Matins

Note: BVM ⫽ Conception of Blessed Virgin; OVE ⫽ Octave (in liturgy the octave of a feast is one week
later)
192 PERFORMING PIETY

local composers probably provided much of the repertoire for specific

Barking Abbey observances. Hiley indeed suggests that responsory prosulas
are frequently a “special feature of an office composed for a local saint and
not known elsewhere.”46 Few antiphoners contain more than twenty
prosulas, so Barking would seem to have made relatively extensive use of
this genre.

Cambridge Trinity College 1226—The Barking Hymnal

Cambridge, Trinity College 1226 is a fifteenth-century manuscript, gener-
ally described as a hymnal (figure 7.1). Scholars attribute it to Barking
Abbey because it contains three hymns for St. Ethelburga and one for St.
Erkenwald. The manuscript includes two distinct sections. The first of
these two sections, folios 3–12, gives the antiphons, psalm incipits, and
hymns for the week days between the Octave of the Epiphany and the
beginning of Lent. The material in this section is almost identical to the
corresponding passage in the Barking Ordinal, another clear indication of
the manuscript’s origins at Barking.47 More specifically, the manuscript
includes the music for the period from prime on the third weekday
through prime on Saturday. This portion of the manuscript is clearly a frag-
ment of a more complete manuscript, perhaps the antiphonal that the ordi-
nal frequently mentions. The hymnal itself begins in the middle of a hymn
and then continues with hymns from both the Temporale and Sanctorale.
The hymns for Advent and Christmas are missing—the first complete
hymn is Cantemus odas for the Feast of St. John the Evangelist—but the
hymnal seems to be complete after this point.
Between the indications in the ordinal and this manuscript, we can dis-
cern that the repertoire at Barking included over a hundred distinct hymns.
Many of these were part of the hymn repertoire that was fairly standardized
by the end of the tenth century, the so-called New Hymnal. Approximately
sixty-five of the hymns, for instance, are listed in Inge Milfull’s study of
Anglo-Saxon hymnals.48 A comparison, with the Cambridge Hymnal (tenth
century) reveals that about three-quarters of these hymns are in the Barking
repertoire in the fifteenth century.49 However the repertoire at Barking
also includes chants for post-tenth-century feasts and demonstrates the rise
of Marian hymnody from the twelfth century on. Barking Abbey clearly
stayed current with the hymn repertoire.
In general the music is notated for only the first verse of each hymn,
but in some instances all verses of the hymn are provided with musical
notation. The only unica in the manuscript are the three hymns for
St. Ethelburga, the first abbess of Barking in the seventh century, and one
for her brother, St. Erkenwald, founder of the abbey. Unfortunately the
 193

Figure 7.1 Hymn to St. Ethelburga

Source: Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 41r (by permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity
College, Cambridge)
194 PERFORMING PIETY

musical staves for the hymn to St. Erkenwald have been left blank. Dreves
published the texts for all four of these hymns in Analecta Hymnica.50 The
one hymn to St. Erkenwald, Festiva dies annua, celebrates his translation to
heaven, recalls his service as abbot and as Bishop of London, marks his zeal
and celibacy, and anticipates a joyful reunion with him in heaven. The
blank staves may well indicate a process of creation that was never finished.
These hymns, as well as the prosulas and sequences, raise the intriguing
question of authorial and compositional ownership.51 We know, for exam-
ple, that a Barking nun, Clemence, wrote an Anglo-Norman Version of the
Life of St. Katherine in the middle of the twelfth century. She could certainly
have written appropriate hymn and sequence texts. The musical vocabulary
of chant is so thoroughly ingrained in the ear of the cantrix that she could
easily have written the hymns we find here. Are the unique works from
Barking the results of a few specific talented nuns or the aggregate of several
nuns over the centuries? There is, unfortunately, no evidence to indicate the
specific composers or dates of composition of these hymns.
Bede preserves parts of Ethelburga’s biography in his Ecclesiastical History,
but Jocelyn of Canterbury, writing in the last years of the eleventh century,
relates it in much greater detail in his works.52 Jocelyn explicitly credits a
Barking nun, Vulfruna (Judith) as his source of the material from Chapter 13
onward. Is it possible that Judith herself, as the resident historian, wrote
some of the hymn texts? Jocelyn’s work suggests that she has written a missal
so she may well have been active in liturgical matters.53 There is a close cor-
respondence between the Jocelyn biography and the allusions in the hymn
texts but no way of ascertaining which would have been written first.
On stylistic grounds, Susan Boynton suggests that “the partial end
rhyme in the first two texts suggests the eleventh century rather than ear-
lier or later. The more consistent rhyme and alliteration in Haec aula Christo
concinat suggests a later date to me.”54 Haec aulo does in fact, refer to an
event in Jocelyn’s texts that occurs as part of the Norman Conquest so it
would have been written in the late eleventh century or after. The other
two texts allude to stories that occurred earlier in the history of the abbey.
The first of the hymns to Ethelburga, Assit nobis maris amore, serves as the
vesper hymn not only for the Feast of St. Ethelburga (October 11) but also
for the feasts of the Translation of saints Ethelburga, Hildelith, and
Wulfhilda (March 7 and September 23). The text of this six-stanza hymn
with nine-syllable lines calls upon Ethelburga to be present and emphasizes
her role as progenitor of the abbey as well as her continuing role as their
protectress and intercessor in heaven. The poem also invokes her fellow
saints, Hildelith and Wulfhilda and likens them to the Trinity. While the
text is careful to credit Jesus with the actual cure, it claims Ethelburga’s
intervention as the source of health and wholeness.55
 BARKING ABBEY 195

Adsis nobis matris amore, Be present to us with a mother’s love

Adsis, Ethelburga, favore,
Tu nos in Christo genuisti,
Tu lactasti, tu solidasti
Nos custos jugi pietate
De coelesti sede tuere,
Et nobiscum prompta manere
Tecum fac et nos habitare.
Assuevisti munere divo
Hoc septum splendore superno
Et suavi gratanter odore
Nutu dulci mirificare.
Huic et pronam porrigis auram
Et multam das larga salutem,
Diversos morbos maculasque
Hic Jesus curat, pia, per te.
Congaudent tua lumina bina
Hildelit Wilfridque beata,
Nobis tres caecae sua quaeque
Sanantur trina bonitate.57
Hinc trinum laudemus et unum
Patrem, natum, pneumaque
sanctum,
Nos solvet vestra prece trina,
Qui regnat per saecula cuncta.58
Be present, O Ethelburga with favor
You gave birth to us in Christ
You nursed us, you strengthened us
O protectress watch over us from
the seat of heaven with continual piety
Remain ever with us
and make us to dwell with you.
You are accustomed by [your] divine
office gladly to exalt this abbey
with heavenly splendor, with pleasing
odor and by [your] sweet pleasure.
To it56 also you extend your prone voice.
and you lavishly bestow plentiful health
Diverse ills and stains here Jesus
cures, through you O faithful Ethelburga
Your two lights, Sts. Hildelith and
Wulfhilda rejoice with you
Our three blind women are cured by
your triune goodness.
Let us therefore praise this Trinity: one
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
who will set us free us by your
triune prayer
who reigns forever and ever.

Musically the hymn tune is in the authentic g-mode with a range of F-g.
See example 7.1 The high point of the music (g) is on the word
Ethelburga in the second phrase, giving special prominence to the setting
of her name. In verse five, the names of Hildelith and Wulfhilda also fall
on this phrase of the chant. The tune is predominately syllabic with some
neumatic portions. The opening on a rising fifth sets important modal
parameters and gives the hymn a strong imperative feel matching the
opening text.

Example 7.1 Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 41r

196 PERFORMING PIETY

The five-stanza hymn in eight-syllable lines for matins, Lucent Ethelburga

mira, emphasizes a different side of the saint. This text praises her strength at
subduing the enemy and healing the sick. It alludes to two miracles—repelling
the Danes and the healing of a young girl.59 The brief mentions of these stories
in the hymns undoubtedly bring the entire history of the abbey to the minds of
the nuns. An interesting image in the last line contrasts the enclosure of the
nuns to the opening of the gates of salvation, making it clear that one leads to
the other. This paradoxical relationship—closing one set of doors to open
another—is possible through the body of the “nourishing virgin,” Ethleburga.
The use of several similar sounding Latin words connects fierceness, beasts, the
out of doors, and the gate of salvation—ferina, ferocitas, feras, foras, and foris. This
rather playful use of language further connects the paradoxical point.

Lucent Ethelburga mira O wondrous Ethelburga

Sublimiter miracula,
Quae trudit hostes efferos
Et sanat aegros anxios.
Ursus, leo, lupus sacra
Sua servant per te limina
Arcentque longe noxios,
Quos mox receptant credulos.
Ferina sic ferocitas
Hominum domatur per feras,
Et qui rapaces venerant,
Opima dona victimant.
Orare sueta debilis
Ad corpus almae virginis,
Hinc dum foras excluditur,
Foris saluti redditur.60
your miracles shine forth eminently
you drive away cruel enemies and
heal the ill [and] distressed.
Bear, lion, and wolf watch over
their holy shrines/entrances through you
and keep away the harmful ones whom
presently as believers they receive.
Thus the bestial ferocity of men
is tamed by animals
and those who rapacious had come
now offer in sacrifice rich gifts.
A weak one accustomed to pray
to the body of the life-giving virgin
Henceforth is returned to health
when the door to the outside is closed.

The tune for Lucent ethelburga is also in the authentic g-mode although its
range extends only to E. See musical example 7.2. The first phrase explores
the lower portion of the range before moving to D. The second phrase
reverses this motion returning to G., the third line starts and ends on C and
then the final line moves from D down to the final on G. The melody is
more sinuous and less direct than Assit nobis as well as more neumatic.

Example 7.2 Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 41v

 BARKING ABBEY 197

The third hymn to Ethelburga, Haec aula Christo, is also a five-stanza

hymn with octosyllabic lines. The author praises the saint as the reflection
of the light of Christ and celebrates the power of that light of love to van-
quish enemies. When coupled with the text Lucent ethelburga, this hymn
further strengthens the nuns’ understanding of Ethelburga as a light shining
in the darkness. The vivid depiction of evil (ecclesiae fuem suae iactat
marine turbine) and the ultimate victory of love reinforce the basic
Christian message through the agency of Ethelburga.

Haec aula Christo concinat This church sings together to Christ

Quo lux Ethelburga micat,
Sol verus hanc illuminat
Gratamque signis comprobat.
Hostes pavore luminis
Pelluntur aede virginis
Et mente capti lubricant,
Ne busta sancta proterant.
Ecclesiae furem suae
Jactat marino turbine,
Tranquillitas mox redditur,
Dum virgo votis poscitur.61
Ferratus hinc abscesserat,
Qua caritas matris vocat,
Cadunt regresso vincula
Per caritatem diruta.62
by whom the light of Ethelburga twinkles
the true sun illuminates her
and affirms her blessedness with signs.
By fear of [this] light the enemies
are expelled from the temple of the virgin
and, held captive in mind, they slip
lest they tread upon the holy tombs.
She63 throws the thief out
of the church with a whirling sea
Tranquility is restored as soon as
the virgin is beseeched with prayers.
Thus bound, he had been taken away
inasmuch as the mother’s love calls
the bonds fall upon his return
demolished by love.

While this chant shares the mixolydian scale with the other two, it is in the
lower plagal mode with a range of D-d. See musical example 7.3. More
than half the syllables in the chant receive more than one note making it
the least syllabic, most neumatic chant of the three. It reaches the top of its
register in the second phrase where Ethelburga’s name is introduced. The
opening of the hymn is modally ambiguous, finally settling into a sense of
the g-mode by the end of the first phrase.

Example 7.3 Cambridge, Trinity College 1226, f. 42r

198 PERFORMING PIETY

These three hymns, while they form a small portion of the propers for
St. Ethelburga, give us some ideas of how the nuns venerated their patron
saint. The antiphon Ethelburga mater accompanied processions on most
occasions. Clearly Ethelburga was nursing mother, light of Christ, healer of
illnesses, vanquisher of enemies, and intercessor for the abbey. The nuns’
choral adoration of this saint offers us a picture of how the identification
with a particular saint becomes embodied in the gathered community
through the hymns sung in her honor.

Veneration of Saints
A major portion of medieval monastic worship centers on the veneration of
the saints, the “great cloud of witnesses”64 who precede Christians on their
journey. In the liturgical practices at Barking Abbey, the Virgin Mary and
St. Ethelburga, the patron saints of the abbey, receive primary attention.
The devotion to these two holy women—the one so universally beloved
and celebrated and the other so entirely local—resonates throughout the
liturgy. For example, nearly every festal procession ends with antiphons to
Mary, Ethelburga, and the resurrection. Along with Ethelburga and
Erkenwald, the abbey also celebrated the lives of Hildelith (d.c. 712) who
trained Ethelburga and subsequently became abbess herself and Wulfhilda
(d.c. 1000) an abbess at Barking upon its restoration after the destruction by
the Danes. “Her body having been found incorrupt thirty years after her
death was placed in the same feretry as the first abbesses and became the
object of equal veneration.”65 Additionally, the abbey church had a great
many altars dedicated to specific saints with appropriate chants and liturgies
to mark special occasions. A few examples of these special devotions illu-
mine the ways in which ritual weaves together music and action to imprint
the model of the saint’s life on the heart and soul of each nun.

St. Ethelburga
Each abbey bears the responsibility for the veneration of its own people and
especially for those who have served in leadership capacities. The liturgical
calendar in the Barking Ordinal (which is missing November and
December) includes twenty former abbesses, eighteen former prioresses,
and several priests, bishops, and other related people for whom the nuns
should hold remembrances. Some specifically call for a mass, others for a
procession, and still other just list the names. The importance of such cer-
emonies increases greatly, however, when the larger church has recognized
the person’s contributions through canonization. Thus the saints with spe-
cial ties receive unusually elaborate liturgical services. Through all of these
 BARKING ABBEY 199

services and commemorations, the nuns internalize the history of their spe-
cific house as well as general Christian history.
St. Ethelburga, first abbess of Barking and sister of St. Erkenwald,
appears seven times on the calendar in the ordinal:66
March 7 Translacio. sanctorum. ethelburge. hildelithe. Wlfilde
[duplex]
March 14 Octaue sanctarum uirginum Ethleburge. hildelithe.
Wlfilde. Missa.
June 4 Hac die feretrum sancte Ethelburge amotum est missa
ad eius altare67
July 7 Sancte Ethelburge. virginis. commemoracio.
September 23 Translacio sancte Ethelburge. Hildelithe. Wlfildis.
duplex.
October 11 Sancte Ethelburge uirginis principale
October 18 Octaue sancte Ethelburge duplex.
Additionally, the ordinal instructs the nuns to hold a weekly commemora-
tive office for St. Ethelburga. The exact instructions change seasonally. For
example, the following instructions for the week after Trinity Sunday
describe this ritual for Ordinary time:

Nota quod ab hac ebdomada usque ad aduentum domini: teneatur de beata

ethelburga semel in ebdomada usque aduentum domini cum xij. leccionibus.
nisi propter principales festiuitates et propter seruicium beate marie remaneat.
Et cum sic contigerit aliquo die in ebdomada missam habeat capitalem.68
[Note that from this week until Advent, an office of twelve lessons should be
held once a week in honor of St. Ethelburga unless due to principal feast days
or to the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary it should remain. And when it
happens thus, a capitular mass should be held for St. Ethelburga on some day
of the week.]

Thus the nuns hold a weekly remembrance of their patron saint, reading
her story and singing antiphons and responsories that are proper to her
feast. Chanting “adsis nobis matris amore, adsis Ethelburge favore,”69 the
nuns invoke her presence in their midst frequently, prayerfully, and in close
proximity to her tomb and her altar.
The veneration of St. Ethelburga reaches its peak on the actual day of
October 11, celebrated as a principal feast in her honor. Some of the liturgy
(e.g., the capitular mass) draws upon the “Common of Virgins,” the chants
and prayers used on the feasts of all virgin saints. These link Ethelburga
with such other saints as Agnes and Agatha, as well as with several Anglo-
Saxon women. The procession on this day follows the pattern for principal
feast days at Barking. It begins with the processional chant Salve festa dies,
200 PERFORMING PIETY

that remarkable text which is adapted to so many feasts. Since the proces-
sional is not extant, we can only surmise that Barking had a version of this
text that referred specifically to Ethelburga. The procession goes around
the cloister and the church, stopping at the tomb of St. Ethelburga where
the choir kneels and sings the antiphon Ethelburga mater. The ordinal then
continues:

Cum autem in reuertendo nauem ecclesie intrauerint, ibidem sedeant

auditure sermonem ad solennitatem diei pertinentem. et tunc denuncietur
populo illic adunato. quod omnibus locum istum ob ueneracionem beate
uirginis ethelburge ab hac solennitate. usque ad festiuitatem omnium sancto-
rum deuote petentibus. Quindecim anni et ducenti et uiginti octo dies de
penitencia eis iniuncta relaxantur.70
[When however they will have re-entered the nave of the church, they
should sit in there to hear the sermon pertaining to the solemnity of the day
and then it should be declared to the people there united that to everyone
devotedly seeking this place on account of the veneration of the blessed vir-
gin Ethelburga from this solemnity until the feast of all saints there is loos-
ened fifteen years and two hundred twenty-eight days of penitence enjoined
to them.]

This passage indicates that outside community members would have shared
in this important feast day and that through their continued worship of
Ethelburga they might receive an indulgence of 15 years, 228 days. The
instructions also suggest that the preacher bring together the legacy of
Ethelburga with the present celebration for the instruction of the nuns and
for others in attendance. If, as McLachlan suggests, the tomb of Ethelburga
was a “centre of pilgrimage,” there were undoubtedly people who traveled
to Barking specifically for this feast day to receive the indulgence.71
Between sext and none, while the nuns are in the refectory, “lectrix
ebdomadaria legat leccionem de uita et miraculis sancte Ethelburge”72 [The
weekly reader should read the lesson of the life and miracles of St.
Ethelburga]. Having already spent several hours in liturgical celebrations,
the nuns’ attention is also directed to Ethelburga’s life and works during
their meal time. The full integration of the day—meals and liturgy—is
completed through the singing of the chant Hec est dies as the nuns proceed
from the refectory to the church for none.73 This verse, sung on several
principal feasts at Barking, links this festal day to others and contributes to
keeping the minds of the nuns focused on God and on this important feast
day whether at a meal or in church.
St. Ethelburga, who the hymns portray as a light, a healer, an exemplar,
was after all a nun at the same abbey as these nuns. She is a more accessible
role model than Mary. By holding her story up for contemplation and
 BARKING ABBEY 201

learning, the church hopes to engender in each generation of nuns a simi-

lar piety and virtue. The chants and hymns in Ethelburga’s honor, sung for
principal feasts and in weekly remembrances, lodge themselves in the con-
scious and unconscious minds of the nuns through constant repetition.

St. Thomas of Canterbury

The nuns of Barking also have a special connection to St. Thomas of
Canterbury through his sister Mary who was a nun and abbess of the con-
vent.74 The abbey possesses relics of this saint, among many others, an
important physical connection to his legacy. A brief rubric in the ordinal
indicates the manner in which the conventual community venerates the
relics:

Seq. Inter laudes. Reliquie beati thome in choro ad deosculandum [deportan-

tur], et sic debet fieri de omnibus/ qui habeat reliquias.75
[Seq. Inter laudes The relics of St. Thomas should be carried into the choir to
be kissed and thus it should be done for all for whom there are relics.]

The kissing of the relics, like the kissing of the Gospel book, while singing
a chant brings a sense of physical proximity to the sacred. As all ritual
intends that people can experience the divine, many of the practices around
the saints attempt to capture the divine spark of the saint, present somehow
in the tomb or the relics, in the performance of these rituals.
St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Ethelburga are only two of a host of
saints whose feast days elicited fervent worship at Barking. Ethelburga’s
brother, Erkenwald, her sister abbesses Hildelith and Wulfhilda, saints for
whom an altar was named, and other saints whose relics were at Barking all
receive special adoration. Each of these occasions imprints a story on their
minds and lifts up a particular place in the abbey church. Through the
cumulative effect of these rituals, the nuns are able to appreciate a wide
variety of spiritual gifts and guides.
The details of fifteenth-century liturgical life as represented in sources
from Barking Abbey are amazingly complex. It is easy to see why the
Protestant Reformation focused on a simplification of ritual practices. In
reading the Barking Ordinal one can become absorbed in the intricacies of
which feast has precedence over another, or the complex shifting of events
dependent on the date of Easter. Yet this liturgy developed in the context
of monastic life for professional/professed nuns. They live this life in all its
complex and varied manifestations day in and day out. From their entrance
as scolares through their profession and consecration and until their death,
the images of not only the life of Christ but also of the lives of saints and
202 PERFORMING PIETY

peers, pervade their imagination. The words that they sing are engraved on
their hearts, the sound of the Latin gradually evolving into a mature faith.
The Barking bells call the nuns to worship, peal on festal occasions, toll
at deaths, and signal the beginnings and endings of times set aside for med-
itation, conversation, work, worship, and silence. These sounds punctuate
the nearly ceaseless round of sung prayer offered by the choir nuns. While
at times the routine must seem unbearably tedious and while things seldom
function to perfection, the vocation of the choir nun at Barking Abbey
provides women in fifteenth-century England a place of some status where
they could sing themselves into a state of piety.
CHAPTER 8

THE BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY

hen Henry V founded a house of the Bridgettine order for women

W and men at Syon Abbey in 1415, he gave rise to an institution that
still exists today. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth century this establish-
ment exerts enormous influence in English monastic circles, drawing nuns
from other English houses as well as attracting new monastic vocations.
Simultaneously, the Syon priests establish a reputation for extraordinary
levels of teaching and preaching.1 Extensive extant sources from Syon
Abbey provide marvelous documentation of its medieval practices, allow-
ing us to understand in great detail how they carry out St. Bridget’s vision
of unceasing worship with a strong Marian focus.
In the Bridgettine order, the nuns’ spiritual lives center around seven
days of liturgy repeated weekly with little attention to either the sanctoral
or temporal cycles of the usual liturgy. This comparatively simple liturgical
practice offers many benefits to the nuns. They can delve deeply into the
texts they sing, growing increasingly sophisticated in their theological
and spiritual understanding of the words and music. The author of the
renowned fifteenth-century work The Myroure of oure Ladye clearly under-
stands his own task as providing precisely the resource materials that will
allow such increased understanding.2 The extreme focus on Mary also
provides a strong, feminine image for these brides of Christ. Through
their unceasing devotion to Mary they focus on the Christian message
through a particular lens, the role of Mary. With her they suffer through
Christ’s crucifixion and rejoice in the resurrection. Both the spiritual and
aesthetic ideals of the order stress the benefits of this simplicity and single-
mindedness.
The very single-mindedness of the nun’s liturgy, however, also severely
restricts the variety and quantity of music they sing. The Marian emphasis
runs the risk of depriving the nuns of the full gamut of liturgies, feast days,
and images that their Benedictine and even Cistercian counterparts enjoy.
204 PERFORMING PIETY

Bridgettines celebrate only a modest number of feast days and even those
are observed primarily through a minor rearrangement of their seven-day
office. Thus, for example, they sing the Thursday liturgy for all of
Christmastide and the Friday liturgy during Holy Week. The primary
point of contact with the richness of the liturgical year is the processions.
In their processional rituals and music and in their overhearing of the
brothers’ liturgies, the nuns do acknowledge their solidarity with the
calendar of the wider church.
Although Bridgettine nuns share many aspects of conventual life with
their sisters of other orders, their overall experience is more intensely clois-
tered and limited in scope than that of nuns in other orders. Whereas
Benedictine nuns sing both the Lady Mass and the High Mass, at Syon the
brothers always sing the main mass. Nuns are restricted from being at
the altar. Thus the structures of the double order send a double message.
The abbess is indeed a powerful figure; the nuns outnumber the priests and
lay brothers; the unique nature of the order is its focus on Mary; the sisters
sing a specific repertoire known as the Cantus sororum (Song of the Sisters).
Yet, as we shall see, they are taught by men; their services occur upstairs in
the church while both the Lady Altar and the High Altar are downstairs;
their images and devotions are restricted.
Our examination of the musical experiences of the nuns of Syon Abbey
seeks to understand the ways in which the liturgy forms the piety of the
nuns through their very specific and unique performance as brides of Christ
who worship his mother.

Brief History of the Order

St. Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303—73), married at a young age and wid-
owed in mid-life, founds the Bridgettine Order (also known as the Order
of St. Savior) around 1346 (figure 8.1).3 Bridget receives (in Swedish)
visions of the order itself and of much of the liturgy—a vision that she
passes on to Master Peter of Skännige, one of the priests who travels with
her, for translation into Latin. Her rule sets forth the numbers of nuns
(sixty), priests (thirteen), deacons (four), and lay brothers (eight). The
abbess, called the Sovereign, holds the property and is in charge of tem-
poral matters. The confessor-general, the head of the brothers, has spiri-
tual authority in this order. Although the nuns and brothers sing and serve
in the same church, regulations keep them strictly apart. Confessions are
heard through a grate, food is passed through special doorways, and in all
other things the rule sets forth ways to keep them apart. In England, King
Henry V founded the Bridgettine house at Syon Abbey in 1415 before he
set out for Agincourt.
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 205

Figure 8.1 St. Bridget presenting a book to the Bishop from the Revelations of
St. Bridget of Sweden
Source: British Library, Cotton Claudius B. I, f. 117 (by Permission of the British Library)

The arrangement of the Syon Church follows Bridget’s concept of

separation. As Collins describes it:

The interior, on the other hand, had of necessity to be unusual and compli-
cated. The choir of the sisters, mainly a wooden structure, was raised high
above the centre of the nave; it apparently occupied the second and third (of
the five) bays and was supported by their six pillars which pierced its floor.
The sisters would seem to have entered the church from their convent
206 PERFORMING PIETY

through a door in the upper part of the north wall, whence they reached the
choir by crossing a bridge over the north aisle. There was no other access.
Eastwards from the choir they looked upon the Lady-altar, at which a priest-
brother celebrated for them the daily Mary-Mass. . . . Westwards from their
choir the sisters looked down upon the High-altar, placed at the east end of
the choir of the brothers.4

The sisters and brothers each have distinctly separate entrances. When the
sisters receive communion, they do so through special niches in the north
wall of the brothers’ choir.
St. Bridget envisioned a constant flow of praise emanating from the sixty
sisters and twenty-five brothers prescribed by her rule. The nuns’ offices in
honor of Mary follow directly after the brothers who recite the office
according to local usage (e.g., at Syon, the Sarum rite). The nuns are to
gather for their offices as the brothers finish their offices. The Additions to
the Rules spell out exactly how the nuns are to arrive in the choir and begin
their private devotions as the men finish and then “As sone therfor as the
brethren cese of syngynge, the ebdomodary schalle begynne Dignare me lau-
dare te”5 (As soon, therefore, as the brothers finish their singing, the ebdo-
madaria shall begin Dignare me laudare te). Thus the sisters would hear the
ends of the brothers’ offices as they arrive, and the beginning of men’s
offices as they leave the choir.
The specifically Bridgettine liturgy developed around a core of readings
dictated to St. Bridget by an angel and known collectively as Sermo Angelicus.6
These twenty-one lessons, three for each day of the week, focus on certain
aspects of Marian worship; in particular each day the readings focus on one
aspect of Mary’s life. For instance, on Fridays the liturgy emphasizes the suf-
fering of Mary. Master Peter translated the Sermo Angelicus into Latin from
Bridget’s native Swedish and then compiled the Cantus Sororum, the divine
office of the Bridgettine nuns. In creating this liturgy, Peter generally fol-
lowed the established monastic structures, but in some ways not only the
content but also the outline of the service differs from the normative proce-
dures.7 Much of the musical and liturgical material for the offices is unique to
the Bridgettines and was probably composed by Peter himself.
The nuns sing the full complement of monastic offices: matins, lauds,
prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline. In the development of the
Cantus sororum, however, Peter generally simplifies the liturgy. For exam-
ple, in the office of Matins, the most complex of monastic hours, Peter
reduces the number of nocturnes from three to one. The readings for the
nocturn each day are the lessons from the Sermo Angelicus. This process
of simplification is also reflected in the liturgy for lauds and vespers in
which one antiphon serves for all five psalms. There are, however, a few
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 207

additional features in the liturgy. At lauds and vespers the nuns sing a short
memorial office for St. Bridget, including an antiphon, a versicle and
response, and a prayer. For each of these hours, two antiphons are given—
one for principal feast days and one for all other occasions. The nuns also
recite Psalm 130 (De profundis) after terce at an open grave within the
cloister and recite a prayer asking for forgiveness before vespers daily.
The Bridgettine nuns also dedicate themselves to the worship of Mary
in the mass, and hence their principal observance is at the Lady Mass where
they participate in the choral portions of the service. The liturgy for this
mass is not regulated on a weekly basis but rather according to the liturgical
season of the year, as is usual for a Lady Mass.

Extant Manuscripts Pertinent to this Study

The source materials for Syon Abbey are found in abundance not available
for any other nunnery in England. Although the extant catalogue from the
abbey includes only the men’s library, there at least fifty manuscripts that
can be traced to the sister’s library.8 Many of these works are devotional
treatises, both in Latin and in Middle English. Many scholars have written
about the strong relationship between the nuns and their books at Syon.
Devotional reading of books owned by the abbey was always a part of Syon
life. Rebecca Krug suggests that by the early sixteenth century any ban on
personal property no longer extends to books but that private reading
material exists in quantity. She writes:

Bridgettine emphasis on individuality as part of a collective identity, which

is most strongly reflected in the liturgy and in Bridget’s Life, was part of a
religious, disciplinary program of lived performance. Private, devotional
reading constituted one aspect of this program, and was intended to occupy
the nun when she was not involved in liturgical performance. What seems
to have changed over the course of the fifteenth century is the centrality of
the material book—the actual, printed copy and its writing—to the lives of
the sisters both before and after they entered the monastery. Increasingly, the
nuns’ private reading at Syon Abbey involved an intense experience of
identification with books as both material and spiritual objects.9

The nuns of Syon Abbey are not only a willing audience for many devo-
tional treatises in the vernacular, but also the raison d’etre of their composi-
tion. The Myroure of our Ladye and The Orcherd of Syon for example are both
written for the nuns at Syon but published for a wider audience. As Grise
points out, these devotional materials from Syon seek to improve the spiri-
tual conditions of the nunnery by offering nuns additional understanding of
208 PERFORMING PIETY

Table 8.1 Extant Liturgical Manuscripts from Syon Abbey

MS Sigla Description

Aberdeen, UL 134 Part I of The Myroure of oure Ladyea

Oxford, Bod.Lib. Rawlinson Parts II and III of The Myroure of oure Ladye
C941
Alnwick Castle, Duke of Processional (with music)
Northumberland 505a
Cambridge UL Add 7634 breviary fragment (with music)
Cambridge UL Add 8885 Processional (with music)
Cambridge, Magdalene Coll.11 Breviaryb (English rubrics)
Cambridge, Magdalene Coll. 12 Breviary (Latin rubrics)
Cambridge, St. John’s Coll. 139 Processional (with music)
Dublin, Archbishop Marsh’s Psalter
Lib. Z.4.4.3
Firle Park, Sussex, Lord Gage Psalter
London, B.L. Arundel 146 The Additions to the Rule of Saint Saviourc
London, B.L., Cotton App. xiv Hours of the Holy Spirit, etc.
London, B.L. Harley 487 Psalter
Oakley Park, Earl of Plymouth Psalter
Oxford, Bod. Lib. Auct. D.4.7 Bridgettine Breviary (Latin rubrics)
Oxford, Bod.Lib., Rawlinson Breviary offices (Latin rubrics)
C781
Oxford, St. John’s Coll. 167 Processional (with music)
Oxford, St. John’s Coll. 187 Hours of the Holy Spirit, etc.
Syon Abbey, 1 Processional (with music)d
Syon Abbey, 6 Lectionarye

Notes:
a
Blunt, The Myroure of oure Ladye
b
The first part of this manuscript has been published in Collins, Bridgettine Breviary.
c
This manuscript is edited in Aungier, History and Antiquities, 243–404 and more recently in Hogg, The
Rewyll of Seynt Sauioure, vol. 4.
d
James Hogg has published a facsimile of the manuscript in “Processionale for the Use of the Sisters of Syon
Abbey,” Analecta Cartusiana 35:11 (1991): 45–299.
e
James Hogg has published a reproduction of this manuscript in “Syon Abbey MS 6—A Medieval
Brigittine Lectionary for the use of the Syon Sisters,” Analecta Cartusiana 35:10 (Salzburg, 1990): 27–252.
Hogg comments that “the compilation probably served the cantor of the week, the hebdomadaria” (28).

their vocation.10 Simultaneously, these works reach the many lay people
who look for spiritual writings in Middle English.
Our focus in this chapter is not, however, the overall literacy of the
Syon nuns but the relationship of their musical endeavors to their spiritu-
ality. Here too, we can rely on a number of sources. Table 8.1 defines
the sources with greatest relevancy to our study of the liturgical-musical
practices of Syon Abbey.
While there are many source materials for understanding the liturgy at
Syon Abbey, there are few that actually incorporate music besides the five
processional manuscripts. Thus, knowledge of the actual music sung by the
nuns comes primarily from continental sources. As we examine the Syon
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 209

materials, we will look at the information they provide on the spiritual for-
mation of the nuns through singing, on Bridget’s concept of the ideal
sound of their music, and on the music itself primarily as represented in
English sources.

Spiritual Formation
Lyke as it goyth dayly throughe your mouthes so let yt synke & sauoure contynually in
youre hartes.
—Blunt, Myroure

Just as it goes daily through your mouths, let it sink and savor always in your hearts.

This sentence from the renowned Middle English book The Myroure of oure
Ladye, expresses the relationship between musical practices and piety in the
Bridgettine house at Syon Abbey. The simplicity of the liturgy, its contin-
ual focus on the Virgin Mary, and its careful explication in Middle English
aim to increase the depth of the nuns’ experiences of the divine. Indeed,
The Myroure offers us remarkable insights into a late medieval theology of
music, crafted to articulate in more complete terms the basic monastic
understanding expressed in Chapter 19 of the Benedictine Rule.11 The
author draws upon a wide variety of sources in this work, integrating (and
translating) many of Bridget’s writings as well as incorporating biblical
passages and other theologians.
The author of The Myroure sets forth in Chapter 12 “what profyt ys in
the songe of dyuyne seruyce more then in the songe withoute note”12
[What benefit there is in singing the divine service rather than just reading
it]. In this chapter the author cites Isidore, Augustine, St. Maude, St. James,
and King Robert of France in support of his seven benefits of singing.13
In so doing, the author connects the nuns with the views of the church
universal even as he instructs them in their own particular liturgy.
The seven benefits that accrue to those who sing the service are:

(1) It stirs the soul to contrition for sins.

(2) It melts the heart to greater devotion.
(3) It sometimes causes devout souls to receive special spiritual gifts.
(4) It does away with depression. (vndyscrete heuynes)
(5) It chases away evil spirits.
(6) It overcomes the spiritual and physical enemies of the church.
(7) It pleases God so much that He desires and loves to hear it.14

The author works to express the special synergy between music and God
that is so easily experienced and so difficult to express verbally. These
210 PERFORMING PIETY

understandings are foundational to the nun’s conception of her daily work

in divine service. They undergird her own perceptions of how singing
contributes to her spiritual development and growth. The author expresses
the clear physical, spiritual, and cognitive benefits of singing; research cen-
turies later confirms that singing can indeed lift the spirits, increase blood
flow, embed texts more deeply in our neural passageways, and enhance the
sense of community among those who sing.15
The author of The Myroure also shows how the spiritual growth of the
nun is specifically tied to her increasing capabilities for singing the office.
In Chapter 19, he delineates four specific types of attention that singers
may pay. First, the singer keeps the mind fixed on the pronunciation of
the words, not worrying about meaning. Second, she gradually begins to
pay attention to the literal meaning of the text. Third, she begins to
understand the spiritual meaning of the text. Finally the singer must be
sure that she sings the entire service correctly, understanding the structure
and contents. The author suggests that he wrote The Myroure especially to
accomplish the third point: “And therfore that ye shulde haue some maner
of vnderstondynge of your seruyce, yf ye lyste to laboure yt; causeth me
to begyn thys worke”16
[And therefore I have written this book so that you can have some under-
standing of your service if it pleases you to work at it.]
These steps to full understanding enumerated in The Myroure describe
the spiritual/musical progression a nun would make from a young
woman entering who concentrates on the proper pronunciation
and reading of the words, to the newly professed nun who knows the lit-
eral meaning of the words and then to the third stage—which can last a
lifetime—the discerning of the full spiritual meaning, enhanced by the
sounds of the music. When someone reaches the fourth and final stage
she is ready to be the chantress, to understand the whole context of wor-
ship, and to understand how the chants and readings and prayers relate
to each other. The author suggests that “The forthe entendaunce ys to
take hede that all the seruyce be sayde as yt oughte to be”17 (the fourth
understanding is to take heed that the service is said as it should be).
Indeed the Additions tell us that the chantress should be “cunnyng and
perfyte in redyng and syngynge, hauynge experience of the ordinal and
makyng of the table for the quyer”18 (knowledgeable and perfect in
reading and singing, having experience of the ordinal and with making
the table for the choir). In this way, moving from literal to spiritual
understanding, the performance of chant is integrally related to the
broader spiritual journey of each nun individually and to the convent as
a whole.
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 211

The author stresses that to reach these goals the mind as well as the heart
and voice should be occupied. Citing St. Bernard, he writes:

Moche more then oughte we to beware that we lette not oure mynde renne
vpon idell and vayne thinges in tyme of this holy seruyce. For ryght as bodely
meate is not ryght profytable, but yf yt be wel chewyd in the mouthe &
swolued in the stomacke; so thys holy seruyce, but yf yt be well chowed in the
mynde, & sauerly felte in the harte, yt fedeth not the soulle sufycyently. &
therfore sayth saynt Bernarde that yt profyteth but lytel, to syng only with the
voyce, or to say only with the mouthe, wythout entendaunce of the harte.19
[We should be even more careful then to avoid letting our minds think of
idle and vain things during the sacred service. For just as we do not get the
benefit from meat unless we chew it carefully in the mouth and swallow it
in our stomachs, so the divine service must be well chewed in the mind and
felt in the heart or it does not feed the soul sufficiently; therefore St. Bernard
says that it profits us little to sing only with the voice or speak only with the
mouth without the understanding of the heart.]

The author intends that this devotional volume will provide the nuns with what
they need to “chew their meat” well—a translation of their texts, an explication
of the theological significance of those texts, and a full theology of liturgy. So he
continues to stress that merely singing the texts without processing them men-
tally is an insufficient mode of worship for the mature nun. This admonition is
an important aesthetic point as well, for a choir that is fully engaged in the mean-
ing of the text sings better than one that is concerned only with the performance
of the notes. Although it is hard to quantify, the combined mental/musical focus
creates a greater sense of unity among the performers.
The constant engagement of the same texts offers nuns an opportunity
to delve more deeply into their relationship with the divine. As Ann
Hutchison suggests:

In their engagement with the liturgy, they are developing their own text.
Their text is omnipresent—a vital presence, in fact—and in addressing it as
contemplatives they are participating in a continuous dialogue with the
divine, a “conversation” which demands that they de-construct, interrogate,
and repeat an infinite number of times.20

It is this very conversation that the author of The Myroure seeks to foster
by his careful work of translation and interpretation. And it is, in part, a
musical conversation as these texts are sung repeatedly.
The performance of the liturgy thus has two principal goals for the nuns
of Syon Abbey. On the one hand it offers communal praise to Mary, the
mother of Christ. This musical praise is a delight to God and an important
212 PERFORMING PIETY

spiritual contribution. At the same time, each nun forms her own piety
through this performance. Its unending cycle of seven days of lessons,
repeated weekly, grounds her own spiritual journey.21
The close relationship between spiritual and aesthetic is also evident in
the spiritual significance attributed to various musical qualities. Thus, for
example, the author of The Myroure discusses at length the problems with
rushing and skipping syllables in performance. He offers many possible rea-
sons for rushing—bad habits of trying to get through too quickly, thoughts
of worldly matters, pure carelessness—and suggests that these reflect spiri-
tual problems. The musical offering is compared to the offering of a calf
with the suggestion that just as the calf needs to be cut into distinct pieces
so the sung praises need to be in distinct words and syllables! He offers a
more musical image in comparing clear and distinct syllables to the proper
striking of the strings of the harp. What some might take as just a bad per-
formance, carries important spiritual significance for the nun. This close
interrelationship forms the basis for the musical aesthetic of Syon Abbey.

Musical Aesthetics
Both the Additions and The Myroure offer clear insights into the desired
musical sound of the Syon nuns. The music is to be grave, sober, and seri-
ous with no polyphony or instrumental accompaniment. The pronuncia-
tion should be plain and distinct. The sisters should be unified in their
singing. They should be aware of the need to be moderate in their tempos
so that they leave time for the brothers’ services. The two sides of the choir
should be well balanced in sound. A beautiful sound is pleasing to God
unless the performer herself is so puffed up with the beauty of her voice
that her heart displeases God. In all of these matters, the writers are clear to
emphasize the correlation between the musical and spiritual.
As one might expect, the singing of the divine service is the first priority
of Syon nuns. The Additions instruct that:

And for dyuyne seruyse is to be preferred before al other thyng, therfor,

whan they here the ryngyng ther to they schal come to chirche be tymes,
that they mow make redy ther hertes to God before the begynnynge, as they
mow the more dewly preyse hym.22
[And since the divine office should take precedence over any other activity,
therefore when they hear the ringing for service they should come to church
at once; thereby they can make their hearts ready before they begin the ser-
vice so that they may praise God more appropriately.]

There is a clear connection between the practical instruction to get to

church on time and the spiritual imperative to prepare one’s heart for
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 213

worship. Bridget details in her own writings that the nuns’ service should
be sung immediately following the brothers’ service and that it should be
sung a bit more slowly: “Dicitque, quod cantus fratrum in monasterio suo
debet antecedere cantum sororum et quod ipse sorores aliqualiter morosius
quam fratres, seruatis temporibus, debent suum cantum moderare”23 [And
she said, that the brother’s song in her monastery ought to precede the song
of the sisters; and the sisters themselves, watching the time, should regulate
their song a little bit more slowly than the brothers].
A constant theme in medieval monastic writings is the tension between
the quality of the musical performance and the spiritual performance of the
liturgy. In The Myroure, the author speaks to this in detailing the impor-
tance of music:

The seuenthe profyt of holy chyrche songe is that yt pleasyth so moche god,
that he desyreth and ioyeth to here yt. And therfore he sayth to hys spouse
holy chyrche. Sonet vox tua in auribus meis. that ys, Thy voyce may sounde in
myne eres. Glad then ought ye to be to sing that songe that god himselfe
desyreth to here. But so yt oughte to be songe, that it sounde wel in to his
eres for else yt auayleth but lytell. For he taketh more hede of the harte, then
of the voyce. But when bothe accorde in hym, then is yt beste. And yf ether
shulde fayle, yt is better to lacke the voyce then the harte from hym.24
[The seventh benefit of sacred music is that it pleases God so much that he
wants and enjoys hearing it. Therefore he says to his holy bride, the church,
Sonet vox tua in auribus meis, that is, Your voice may sound in my ears. So you
should be happy to sing the song that God himself wants to hear. But it
should be sung so that it sounds good to his ears or else it avails little. For he
cares more for the heart than the voice, but when both of them agree it is the
best. And if either should fail, it is better to have a bad voice than a bad
heart.]

Here the author walks a fine line between emphasizing the importance of
a beautiful performance and the status of one’s heart. In reality this descrip-
tion is more strongly weighted toward the benefits of a well-crafted per-
formance than many medieval descriptions even though in the end he falls
back on the heart. He goes on to imply that those who do not have a gift
for singing should perhaps worship in silence or by saying the service.
This emphasis upon offering God as beautiful a rendition of the liturgy
as is possible undergirds the careful instructions in the Additions concerning
the choice of the cantrix and her duties. Thus, an important cornerstone of
devotion at Syon is the understanding that aesthetic perfection is not anti-
thetical to good liturgy but a helpful adjunct.
The Myroure also provides some more specific clues to performance
indicating that the aesthetic goals of chanting are not avant-garde musical
214 PERFORMING PIETY

renditions but music that continues to hold devotion at its core. What
should the song sound like? The author is very clear that it should reflect
inner devotion, and hence he is quite adamant about the types of singing
that should be avoided:

For ye oughte not in syngynge to seke pleasaunce of voyce, ne delyte you in

swetnes of the selfe songe, ne in hygh songe, ne in curyous syngyng ne in no
maner of vanyte but only to seke compuncyon for youre synnes, and deuo-
cyon in god, and in hys holy mother, whose praysyng ye synge.25
[For in singing you should not seek pleasant vocal qualities nor take pleasure
in the sweetness of the song itself, in high-pitched song, in artful singing or
in any type of vanity, but you should only seek compunction for your sins
and devotion to God and his holy mother, whose praise you sing.]

Clearly music for its own sake and especially any musical novelties (e.g.,
polyphony?) should be avoided, not so much because those who hear them
are harmed but because the performer herself loses focus on God. Or as the
author says, “Hereby ye may se how perylous yt ys to eny body to delyte
hym other to hys owne voyce, or in the outwarde songe”26 (Herein you
can see how perilous it is for anybody to enjoy either his own voice or the
sound of the music).
Two vocal sins that the author describes graphically are those of skip-
ping over notes and syllables and of pitching the chant too high.27 In each
case he describes an evil fiend collecting the skipped notes or high notes as
the property of the devil. Pitching things too high offers the nun an oppor-
tunity to show off the reaches of her own voice and thus leads to pride.
The ideal music should be “meke, sad, & sober”28 (meek, serious and
sedate). In an interesting comparison with the women in Exodus, taken from
Chapter 4 of Bridget’s Reuelaciones Extrauagantes, the author continues:

Hast thou not redde that Moyses syster for the grete myracle that was done
in the red see, went out with vyrgyns & women syngyng in tympanes and in
cymbals a songe of ioy vnto god. So oughte my mothers doughters go out of
the red see. That ys to saye, from the couetyse and plesaunce of the worlde,
hauynge in the handes of theyr workes tympanes, that ys to saye, abstynence
from flesshely luste, and cymbales of clere praysynge, whose songe oughte
not to be slowthfull, ne broken, ne dyssolute but honest and sad, and
accordynge in one, and in all wyse meke.29
[Have you not read that Moses’ sister went out with virgins and women
singing with tambourines and cymbals a song of joy unto God for the great
miracle of the Red Sea. So my mother’s daughters should go out of the Red
Sea—that is from the covetousness and pleasure of the world, having in their
work tambourines—that is to say abstinence from fleshly lust—and cymbals
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 215

of clear praise, whose song should not be sluggish or broken or dissolute but
honest and serious, in unison, and in every way meek.]

Bridget herself and the author seem to be stretching things a bit to compare
this wonderful biblical image of women dancing and playing percussion
instruments as they sing to this meek, sad, and serious sound of the
Bridgettine nuns. The original Latin of Bridget’s description uses the descrip-
tion “cantus non sit remissus, non fractus”30 [The song should not be relaxed,
nor broken]. “Cantus fractus” is a medieval term for a type of polyphonic
improvisation. We can assume here that both this expression and the English
“brekyng of notes,” seen in the next description, prohibit polyphonic per-
formance by the nuns.31
The Additions to the Rule imparts an even clearer sense of the desired
musical sound at Syon. These instructions focus not so much on the spiri-
tual description as on practical matters:

ther songe schal be sadde, sober, ande symple withe out brekyng of notes,
and gay relesynge, withe alle mekenes and deuocion; but organs schal thei
neuer haue none; ther psalmody schal be dystyncte and open, and althynge
schal be mesured and moderyd after discrecion.32
[their singing should be serious, sober, and simple, without breaking of notes
and gay releasing, and with meekness and devotion; they should never have
any organs; their psalmody should be distinct and clear and everything
should be measured and moderated with discretion.]

In this passage we learn that the singing should be simple, completely in

keeping with the liturgy itself. Clearly the focus is to remain on the mes-
sage of the chant. Just as The Myroure cautions against skipping syllables, the
Additions suggests that the psalmody needs to be chanted distinctly. The
message in all of the Syon sources is that the nuns should take great care in
the performance of the liturgy for both practical and spiritual reasons.
The instructions to the chantress regarding pitch and tempo specifically
cite the importance of maintaining even, regular observances to protect the
voices and the mood of the choir.33 This requires the chantress to know the
full range of each chant and the capabilities of her singers as well as to
understand the entire liturgy.
The unity of choral singing is a further important criterion in the Syon
aesthetic. There are numerous references to the importance of listening to
one another, in procession as well as in the observances in the choir.34 The
author of The Myroure instructs:

And therfore eche one oughte to haue an ere to other. so yf eny dyscorde
hapen; eche one be redy to gyue stede to other. And not one haste
216 PERFORMING PIETY

fourthwarde, an other drawe backeward, but all ought to synge togyther and
accorde togyther, that as ye oughte to be all of one harte, so ye prayse god,
as yt were wyth one voyce.35
[And therefore, each one should listen to the other so that if there is any dis-
cord, each one is ready to yield to the other instead of one hastening forward
and another drawing back. But all should sing together and agree with each
other so that as you should all be of one heart, you praise God as it were with
one voice.]

One of the principal functions of music in the liturgy is creating commu-

nal unity through breathing and moving together. Musical unity comes
from a willingness to blend with others, to give way if you are out of step,
to put the claims of unity ahead of the desire for perfect musical rendition
or the sound of your own voice. It is difficult to attain a choral blend and
even more complex to create spiritual unity through choral unity. This
oneness is, however, the goal of the choral office to which these nuns
are called.
In both the theological and practical realms, music at Syon Abbey is a
critical component of the spiritual formation of the nun. In the liturgy she
is nurtured into an increasing understanding of the meaning of St. Bridget’s
unique service; the music of the chant inscribes the words on her heart
with emotional depth; the tutelage of the brothers creates a mental
understanding of her calling as well as the texts she sings.

The Cantus Sororum

The Bridgettine liturgy, known throughout the order as the Cantus
Sororum (Song of the Sisters), includes antiphons, responsories, hymns, and
psalms for the weekly liturgy. The music is economical in that it reuses
material from one occasion for another. For example, many of the respon-
sories and some antiphons for the weekly services also serve as part of the
processional liturgies on specific feast days. The great majority of the music
itself is fairly syllabic-neumatic rather than melismatic.
Only one fragmentary noted breviary survives from Syon Abbey; it
shows a close correspondence to continental sources confirming the expec-
tation that the nuns sing the same offices as their continental counterparts.
This manuscript, Cambridge University Library Additional 7634, includes
seven leaves from a large fifteenth-century noted breviary. All of the
other Syon breviaries are smaller, text-only volumes.36 Accordingly, for a
broader look at the music of the Cantus Sororum we will rely partially on
continental sources.
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 217

The Antiphons
The Bridgettine nuns sing thirteen antiphons each day for a total repertoire
of ninety-one chants. These include three for matins, one for the psalms at
lauds, and one for the Benedictus, one each for prime, terce, sext, and
none, one for vesper psalms and one for the Magnificat, and finally one for
the compline psalm, and one for the Nunc Dimittis. The author of the
Myroure carefully instructs the Syon nuns in the understanding of both the
spiritual function of the antiphon and its actual performance. He suggests
“Psalmes betoken good dedes. as I sayde before. And antempnes betoken
charite”37 (psalms symbolize good deeds as I said before; antiphons
symbolize charity). He then continues:

The antempne ys fyrste begonne of one & afterwarde ended of all; in token
that charite beginneth fyrste of god that ys one for he loueth vs fyrste. as
saynte Iohn saythe. and therfore we oughte to begynne our loue in hym and
so sprede yt after to all. And therto accordeth. that the syster that begynneth
the antempne alone. standeth turned to the aulter. and afterwarde turneth to
the quyere, in token that charite begynneth in the loue of god. & afterwarde
stretcheth to al other. The antempne before the psalme is begonne but a
lytell. but after yt is songe all hole; tokenynge that charite without dedes is
but lytell. but in good dedes yt is encresed, and at the ende when the rewarde
of good dedes shall be gyuen in blysse. then shall the Antempne be songe all
hole. and that of all togyther, for then shall Charyte be full and parfyt.
wherby all shall ioye in god and all togyther eche of other.38
[The antiphon is first started by one and later finished by all, symbolizing that
charity begins first of God, who is one, for he loves us first as St. John says.
Therefore we should begin our love in him and afterwards spread it to all.
And therefore it means that the sister who begins the antiphon alone faces
the altar, and then turns to the choir, indicating that charity begins in the
love of God and later stretches to all others. The antiphon is begun only a lit-
tle before the psalm, but after the psalm it is sung completely, symbolizing
that charity without deeds is little, but through good deeds it is increased and
at the end when the reward of good deeds is given in bliss, then the entire
antiphon should be sung, and that by the whole choir together for then char-
ity will be full and perfect, whereby all rejoice in God and also altogether in
each other.]

There is a wonderful and careful intertwining here, as in so much of the

Myroure, of the spiritual and practical. Through these remarks, the author
indicates the exact performance practice (the soloist singing only the incipit
before the psalm and the choir singing the entire antiphon after the song),
the gestural moves (facing the altar and facing each other), and the radiation
218 PERFORMING PIETY

of the spirit of love/charity from one to all. The Syon nun surely has at least
the opportunity to understand her chanting deeply and through all of the
senses.
There are clear, if subtle, differences in style among this repertoire, the
antiphons for the Benedictus, Magnificat, and vespers being relatively
ornate as compared with the shorter and more syllabic chants of compline
and the Nunc Dimittis.39 Viveca Servatius studies and edits the entire
corpus of antiphons in her monograph on the subject. Working from con-
tinental sources, she categorizes the antiphons as pre-existing chants, adap-
tations of new texts to existing melodies, or entirely new creations. She
estimates that fifty-five of the ninety-one chants are unique to the
Bridgettine liturgy. In all probability these works can be ascribed to Master
Peter who also translated Bridget’s revelations into Latin.40
The distribution of newly composed, adapted chants, and pre-existing
ones correlates with the subject matter of the day. Thus on Saturday when
the Syon liturgy focuses on the Assumption of Mary, all but three of the
chants come from previously existing Marian liturgies, primarily from the
Feast of the Assumption. Wednesday’s liturgy with a focus on the concep-
tion, birth, and childhood of Mary, incorporates several chants from the
Feast of the Nativity of the BVM while Thursday’s story of the annuncia-
tion and the birth of Jesus attracts several chants from the Feast of the
Circumcision. In contrast, the services for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and
Friday use virtually no pre-existing material. For example, on Sunday, the
office emphasizes Mary’s relationship to the Trinity, a less common topic,
and all of the antiphons are newly composed. Tryggve Lundén describes
the office:

As regards the Sunday office it is obvious that St. Bridget’s source has been
Speculum virginum, written about the year 1000 by a German Benedictine
monk using the pseudonym of Peregrinus. Like this Benedictine St. Bridget
maintains that Mary existed in the prescience of God as a perfect being long
before her nativity, and that God’s love of Mary exceeded Abraham’s love of
his son Isaac and Noah’s love of his ark.41

This trinitarian emphasis is tinged throughout the Sunday service with a

Marian presence. For this Bridget and Peter create entirely new antiphons.
The antiphon before the Magnificat at Vespers for example reads:

Patrem cum filio. et spiritum cum vtroque. vnum verum deum. anime nostre
exultantes iugiter magnificent qui nostram fragilitatem eternaliter prenoscens.
ab inicio nobis adiutricem mariam virginem preordinauit. cuius anima in deo
exultans. ipsum summe magnificauit.42
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 219

The Syon nun understands this text through the work of the author of the
Myroure who translates it into Middle English:

Oure sowlles ioyenge mote contynewally prayse the father wyth the
sonne, and the holy goste wyth eyther of them. one very god whiche ende-
lesly before knowynge oure fraylte. endelesly he ordeyned before. the
vyrgyn mary to be oure helper. whose sowlle ioynge in god praysed hym
soueraynely.43
[Our souls should continually rejoice and praise the Father, with the Son
and the Holy Spirit, with both of them, one true God who eternally
foreknowing our frailty, preordained the Virgin Mary from the beginning
to be our helper, whose soul rejoicing in God praised him supremely.]

The last portion of this passage not only emphasizes Mary’s rightful place
before the beginning of time but also indicates that she serves as an exemplar
to the nuns. Her soul “rejoicing in God” praises him (through the
Magnificat) just as the nuns are about to praise him by singing the Magnificat.
Throughout the Syon liturgy, Mary and Bridget serve as models for the nuns.
None of the uniquely Bridgettine antiphons (with the exception of a
memorial to St. Bridget) appears complete in Cambridge University
Library Additional 7634. The portions included do correspond quite
closely with the versions presented by Servatius in her edition. Overall, the
repertoire of antiphons of the Cantus Sororum exemplifies the Bridgettine
aesthetic ideal of “meek, sad, and sober.” They are modest in scope, appro-
priate to the liturgical setting, and heavily weighted toward the modes with
finals on d and g. There is sufficient variety to make each day unique
although there is no attempt to unify the music on a day to day basis
through mode or melody.

The Hymns
Peter composed the texts of almost all of the hymns that are sung at the
hours.44 The liturgy requires five hymns for each day—one each at matins,
lauds, compline, and vespers, and one for the little hours. To streamline the
liturgy even further, the same music is used for the hymns from matins
through none. And, in the manner of the Lesser Doxology, two stanzas of
the hymn for Sunday matins end all of the hymns (except for the three with
a different meter).

Maria mater gracie. Mary, mother of grace

mater misericordie. Mother of mercy
tu nos ab hoste protege. Protect us from the enemy.
in hora mortis suscipe. Receive us in the hour of death.
220 PERFORMING PIETY

Gloria tibi domine. Glory be to thee Lord

qui natus es de virgine who was born of a virgin
cum patre et sancto spiritu with the father and the holy spirit
in sempiterna secula amen.45 forever and ever. Amen.

These two stanzas function as a cohesive structural component of the

liturgy, unifying the hymns and stressing their Marian orientation, while
still retaining the customary dedication to the Holy Trinity.
Of the thirty-five hymn texts, twenty-nine are considered to be the
work of Peter while six are taken from other liturgical sources.46 Two of
these chants (O gloriosa domina and Quem terra pontus) are matins hymns
and the music is therefore used for the hymns at lauds and the little hours
on those days. Since, with the exception of three hymns for vespers, all the
hymns are in Ambrosian meter—iambic tetrameter—the musical settings
are easily interchangeable. Most of the melodies associated with the hymns
come from preexisting chants.47
Cambridge University Library Additional (UL Add) 7634 includes two
complete hymns. The hymn for the lesser hours on Saturday, Virgo passentem,
in the G-plagal mode with a range of C-d, is relatively elaborate melodi-
cally although it has only two verses of text besides the doxological pair.
The music, as expected, is taken from O gloriosa domina, a preexisting chant.
In contrast to the neumatic character of Saturday’s hymn tune (fifty-two
notes, thirty-two syllables), the hymn for Sunday at the lesser hours
is quite syllabic (thirty-seven notes, thirty-two syllables) except for the
five-note melisma at the halfway point. See example 8.1.

O ueneranda trinitas. O worshipful trinity

o trium vna deitas
lustra uero nos lumine
pro virginis precamine.
Quam matrem ante secula.
lucis eterne sanxeras.
ut bona semper agere.
cernamus mala fugere.48
O one godhead of three persons
lighten us with true light
on behalf of the virgin’s prayer.
Whom thou ordainest before the ages
to be the mother of eternal light
that we might always discern to do
good things and to flee evil.

Example 8.1 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 2v

 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 221

The very basic dorian tune that accompanies this text has a range of only a
fifth. The simple text calls to mind the more complex imagery of the
matins hymn on the same day (O Trinitatis gloria) and reiterates Mary’s pres-
ence with the Trinity from the beginning of time. There is nothing showy
or elaborate in this hymn—just a clear, devout expression of faith in the
importance of Mary in the cosmic scheme. The hymn melodies, used for
several sets of words, must have resonated in the nuns’ ears long after the
service, carrying the message deeply into each nun’s mind and heart.

The Responsories
The Bridgettine liturgy includes three great responsories for matins for each
day of the week as well as one short responsory chant for each of the other
offices. Cambridge UL Add 7634 does not include any of these chants.
They appear in English sources only in so far as several of the matins
responsories serve also as processional chants for certain feast days.49
Table 8.2 shows the daily responsories that also appear in one of the Syon
Processional volumes.
Thirteen of the twenty-one matins responsories find use as processional
chants for specific feast days as well as appearing in the weekly liturgy.50 As
a result, for Bridgettine nuns these connections help to link the weekly
liturgy more strongly to the greater liturgy of the church. Some of these
chants are unique to the Bridgettine liturgy (e.g., Beata mater anna); others
come from previously existing liturgical sources (e.g., Summe Trinitati). In
addition to processional occasions, the nuns might well hear the brothers
singing these chants as part of their observances of many feast days also.
These responsory chants, as one might expect, are far more melismatic than
the antiphonal repertoire. For Bridgettine nuns, as for all monastics, the

Table 8.2 Matins Responsories Found in Processionals

Text incipit Matins service Processional use

Summe trinitati Sunday Trinity Sunday

Marie summe trinitatis Sunday Dedication Day
Te sanctum dominum Monday Feast of St. Michael and All Angels
Christi virgo dilectissima Monday Feast of the Annunciation of the BVM
O ineffabiliter divitem Tuesday Feast of the Visitation of the BVM
Beata mater anna Wednesday Feast of St. Anne
Stirps iesse Wednesday Feast of the Nativity of the BVM
Solem iusticie Wednesday Feast of the Nativity of the BVM
Sancta et immaculata Thursday Feast of the Circumcision
Videte Miraculum Thursday Feast of the Purification of the BVM
Felix namque es Thursday Feast of the Visitation of the BVM
Sicut spinarum vicinitas Friday Palm Sunday
Que est ista que processit Saturday Feast of the Assumption of the BVM
222 PERFORMING PIETY

presence of the responsories at matins lends gravity to this most solemn of

the daily offices.

Troped Benedicamus Domino Chants

The Bridgettine liturgy includes a troped version of Benedicamus Domino
appropriate for each day of the week. Two of these survive in Cambridge
UL Add 7634, making an examination of the musical setting possible.
“Benedicamus Domino / Deo gracias” is the closing salutation of the
monastic office and is traditionally set to a variety of chants, with more
elaborate versions being used for feast days. These melismatic versions are
in turn often troped. (The music of the Benedicamus Domino is repeated
for the Deo gracias in each case.) At Syon Abbey the troped versions are
sung after lauds and vespers, while the other hours end with an untroped
version.
The Roman Rite prescribes chants for each of the different categories of
feasts. The chant from first vespers on a solemn feast day is used in the
Bridgettine liturgy for Saturdays. See example 8.2. As compared with the
version in the Antiphonale Monasticum, this version inserts a few additional
notes at “suam mariam” in troping the original.
The Benedicamus Domino from Sunday lauds exhibits an unusual struc-
ture. The two halves of the chant are not symmetrical since the first half has
been lengthened by a substantial internal repeat. Schematically the chant
may be represented as abb ab. The music for the chant is not one of the
commonly used settings of Benedicamus Domino. See example 8.3.

Example 8.2 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 3r–v

 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 223

Example 8.3 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 2r–v

Even this blessing connects to the Sunday theme of the Trinity, empha-
sizing that Jesus is the Son of Mary as well as of the Father.

Music for St. Bridget

Mary is not, of course, the only exemplar for Syon nuns. Their
founder, canonized in 1393, a mere twenty years after her death, serves
as yet another and perhaps more attainable ideal. Musically her image
is reinforced by several chants especially in her honor. Every day at
lauds and vespers the nuns sing a short memorial office that incor-
porates an antiphon, versicles, and a prayer in her honor. There is a
festal and ferial antiphon for each of the two offices for a total of
four in Bridget’s honor. All four are written in iambic tetrameter, like
the hymn texts. Gaude birgitta, the ferial morning antiphon, is a brief
reminder to the nuns of the importance of St. Bridget as an exemplar: See
example 8.4.
Musically this antiphon begins with a short melisma on “Gaude,”
which is echoed at the beginning of the final line. It moves to a high
point in pitch on the third line before settling back down to g. The fol-
lowing prayer specifically requests “presta quesumus ut eidem in vita et
moribus conformemur” [that we may be conformed to her in life and
death].
The evening daily antiphon expands the imagery of Bridget, comparing
her to a rose dropping goodness and a vessel of grace. The festal antiphons
are longer and include additional images of Bridget. All of these musical
224 PERFORMING PIETY

Example 8.4 Cambridge, University Library Additional 7634, f. 2r

selections reinforce the central message of the Bridgettine order that each
nun should mold herself to be as much like Bridget and Mary as possible.
Bridget’s feast days reinforce this message with additional verbal
metaphors, visual imagery, and tunes. Consider for example this beautiful
authentic dorian mode chant written specifically to honor Bridget. The
nuns sing this chant in procession on the Nativity of St. Bridget, held on
July 23.

Virtutis dei dextere To the one skillfully running

trinam regenti machinam
trino ditata munere
birgitta dedit gloriam
Captiva mundi carcere
mundam conservans animam.
Soluta carpis onere
Sponsoque iuncta sedere
partem elegit optimam.
the triune machine of God’s strength
Bridget, enriched by a three-fold
gift, gave glory.
Captive in this earthly prison
keeping her soul pure.
freed from the burden of the flesh
and united with [her] spouse she
chose to settle on the best role.

This ornate, responsorial chant proclaims Bridget as one who can set us free
from the prison of this world. Although the text is rhymed and also in
iambic tetrameter, the musical setting is not hymn-like but distinctly that of
the more soloistic responsorial chant used for festal processions.

The Lady Mass

The Bridgettine nuns participated daily in the singing of the Lady Mass,
while the brothers sang the High Mass. Both the Additions and The Myroure
include detailed instructions for the performance of the Lady Mass and its
repertoire. Just as the nuns have a daily repertoire for the offices, so they
have a sequence that is sung at mass for each day of the week. These
sequences again tie the Lady Mass specifically to the nuns’ other offices.
The mass itself, as is common for the Lady Mass, changes by season of the
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 225

church year. The description in The Myroure makes clear that the nuns sing
a troped Gloria for the Lady Mass. None of the music for the Mass survives
in English sources.

Consecration of Nuns
The service for the consecration of members of the Bridgettine order does
not require much musical participation by those members. At the opening
of this joint ceremony, the sisters and brothers to be professed must answer
questions.51 At other points in the mass, they participate in the ordinary
chants, the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, and the litany. There are no special
antiphons or responsories in the service until the ending rituals.
The processionals from Syon Abbey incorporate this part of the ritual
for the profession of nuns. After the nuns receive communion in the ser-
vice of consecration, they process to the chapter house singing a hymn, a
responsory, and an antiphon. This procession is described in both the
processionals and in the Additions:

the chauntres schal begyn thys ympne, Sponse jungendo filio, and then alle
schal go to the chapter procession wyse, the Qongest before and the abbes
after, with the newe professed sustres folowyng her, the chauntres assygnyng
them where they schal knele before the abbes in the myddes of the chapter.
And the seyd ympn, with the response, Regnum mundi and antem O jocundis-
simam ended, the abbes, turnyng to the mageste, withe al the covente, schal
say thys preces folowyng in a soft voyce, with note.52
[the chantress should begin the hymn Sponse jungendo filio, and they should
all go processionally to the chapter, the youngest going first and the abbess
last with the newly-professed sisters following her; they should kneel
before the abbess in the place where the chantress has assigned them in the
middle of the chapter. And after the responsory Regnum mundi and the
antiphon O jocundissimam have ended, the abbess turning to the majesty
with all of the convent should say the following preces in a soft voice with
music.]

The responsory Regnum mundi is used as a recessional chant in some of the

services discussed in Chapter 6, but the other two chants are from the
Bridgettine liturgy—Sponse jungendo filio is the hymn for Thursday com-
pline, and O jocundissimam is the antiphon before the Nunc Dimittis in the
Saturday compline service.
Since the sisters and brothers of Syon Abbey share the service of
profession, it is not surprising that they do not use the elaborate ritual gen-
erally used to consecrate virgins; instead, the essential elements of the
226 PERFORMING PIETY

service—the episcopal blessing of the garments and the taking of the vow
by the new members—are retained, while the special chants relating to vir-
ginity and marriage with Christ are omitted. For the nuns of Syon Abbey,
who do not celebrate the feasts of St. Agnes and St. Agatha, the musical
correspondences of the more elaborate version would not have resonated
as they do for Benedictine nuns.

Conclusions
The liturgical life of a Bridgettine nun is comparatively simple and circum-
scribed. Her vocation is to offer worship to Mary through a carefully con-
structed office and to conform herself more and more to the image of the
Virgin held up in The Myroure of our Ladye. The nun hopes to be, like
Bridget, a vessel for Christ. As Krug suggests, “by performing the liturgy
perfectly, reading Bridget’s words aloud, the sisters should conform them-
selves to Bridget’s image and ultimately to God’s.”53 The nuns, in fact, hear
very few readings from the Bible, their longer readings coming from
Bridget’s Sermo Angelicus.
The Bridgettine nun’s musical repertoire is similarly limited to a body of
music that repeats weekly. While this office includes the chanting of all the
psalms, ninety-one antiphons, twenty-one great responsories, hymns, short
responsories, and versicles, it remains a restricted repertoire by comparison
with nuns of other orders. It is easy to envision that the Syon nun soon
memorized the weekly office. In just two years of monastic life, she would
have sung each chant a hundred times. This music is deeply embedded in
the nun’s ear, heart, and mind. Only an opening note or two would be
needed to bring the whole chant to mind, just as most churchgoers today
know exactly what comes next when they hear “Amazing . . .” or “Praise
God . . .” There is no doubt that through the music of the Bridgettine
office, each nun’s piety is strengthened, deepened, and enriched.
The Syon nuns also have the advantage of a well-educated group of
brothers who work with them to insure that the nuns understand their
liturgy. Through such devotional works as The Myroure of oure Ladye and
The Orcherd of Syon, as well as through sermons and other public pro-
nouncements, the nuns have access to the best theological thinking of the
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Yet for all the attraction and strength that draw me to this liturgy, I
remain uneasy about the lacunae in the nun’s experience. Does she know
the stories of Agnes and Agatha? Does she sing about Thomas and Peter
and Paul? Is this liturgy an expression of low expectation for women, a sort
of “keep it simple for the poor dears” approach? I wonder what the expe-
rience was like for a nun, like Matilda Newton, who transferred from
 BRIDGETTINE NUNS OF SYON ABBEY 227

Barking to Syon, for example.54 Did she miss singing the daily mass or par-
ticipating in liturgical drama?
In the end, I believe that Syon offers a profoundly different spiritual path
for women, one that emphasizes a narrow, restricted but also deep
approach to spiritual formation. Rather like the mantras of some Eastern
religions, the repetitive nature of the Syon liturgy may well allow a nun
to move into deeper meditative states where the music and text are so
completely known to her that she moves into that mystical place where
experience replaces thought.
CONCLUSIONS

he piecing together of this mosaic of musical life will never be entirely

T complete. Too many sources have perished over time. Yet the picture
that emerges has several clear images. The great majority of medieval nuns
participate fully in the daily singing of the monastic offices. They chant the
Office of the Dead. They instruct younger nuns in the rudiments of singing
and reading. They participate in the act of pilgrimage through procession-
als around the church and cloister and occasionally into the community.
Indeed such bright spots in the mosaic as Barking Abbey suggest that in
many nunneries the creativity of individual nun musicians found ample
scope in the creation of chants for local feasts and the development of litur-
gical drama.
The medieval nun absorbs the lessons of the church through her body
in the very act of singing the divine office 365 days a year. She breathes in
the words of holy scripture, she resonates to the sounds of the chant, she
tunes herself to the cosmic mystery through the eight modes of church
music. Through learning liturgical practice, the novice incorporates the
communal ethos—literally bringing it into her body (in corpor) through the
words she sings and the liturgical practices she observes. Bowing to her
elders and the cross, smelling the unique odors of incense, learning to rec-
ognize the particular peals of bells that call her to worship, the nun experi-
ences in a multisensory way what it means to live as a daughter of God and
the bride of Christ. In every aspect of life the convent reinforces the sacra-
mental concept of an outward and visible sign signifying an inward and
spiritual blessing. Through the singing of the divine office the nun per-
forms her piety publicly and frequently, representing the orderly nature of
the universe in her ordering of liturgical time.
This understanding of the liturgy represents, of course, an ideal. And yet
at the same time, it would be hard for someone living within the walls of
the convent to escape some of these formative experiences no matter how
resistant her spirit might be to them. Her life fosters a mystagogical
approach to understanding Christianity—one in which the nun experi-
ences the mystery and meaning of the ritual through participation and only
230 PERFORMING PIETY

later through reflection and teaching. So although an individual nun might

be late to services or resent their intrusion on her other activities, she nev-
ertheless absorbs an attitude toward life that makes every moment sacred.
Some nuns ran away and many no doubt went through periods of disbe-
lief, but few would be immune to the sheer bodily knowledge acquired
through long hours of singing.
Although the medieval liturgy is often faulted for its exclusion of lay
people from meaningful experience of the texts and actions of worship, the
nuns have ample opportunity to participate in the singing of chants for
both the office and mass. Low education levels may well preclude a full
theological understanding of the liturgy for many nuns, but few nuns could
miss the spiritual experience stemming from the sounds of the chant, the
processional movement, and the other sensory encounters. Bishops and
others express concern for the translation of documents and writings into
the vernacular for the use of nuns, a clear indication that they expect nuns
to understand theological concepts as well as their injunctions. The efforts
of the brothers of Syon while notable are not unique. Many people in the
church hierarchy demonstrate their interest in creating comprehensible
documents. Indeed, the nuns themselves clearly participate in this work.
From the Anglo-Saxon glosses in one of the psalters at Shaftesbury in the
tenth to eleventh centuries to the Anglo-Norman translation of the life of
St. Katherine by Clemence of Barking to the many late medieval works in
Middle English owned by nunneries, it is clear that the nuns want to
understand their liturgy and devotional materials.
One of the great gifts of convent life to medieval women is the oppor-
tunity for leadership that it provides. Within their own world women
serve as spiritual, financial, musical, and culinary experts. The variety of
images for abbesses alone expands the range of possibilities for a woman
beyond those of virgin and whore. Although the chaste life is presup-
posed, the abbess is also seen as shepherdess, mother, mirror, guide, gov-
ernor, physician, steward, and teacher. She receives the crozier as a symbol
of her pastoral authority. Thus any nun entering the convent would soon
see a variety of possible arenas for her talents and interests and the way that
she could best serve the common good. Where the nun herself might not
identify these gifts, the community might well do so for her. Thus, as we
saw in chapter 2, the community at Goring recognizes that Margaret
Wodall has exceptional gifts as a musician and urges that she be made
cantrix.
The cantrix herself has remarkable scope to shape the musical life of the
community. Through her own singing voice and through her choice of the
ebdomadaria each week, she can model a particular vocal sound ideal.
Although I am sure that in many instances the cantrix struggles to find even
 CONCLUSIONS 231

one nun who can do the job well, in larger houses her choices, even
unconsciously, affect the sound of the group and the particular sound to
which younger nuns will aspire.
The cantrix also controls the pace and pitch of worship. At times her
tempi may well be out of step with those her sisters prefer. I imagine that
complaints to bishops about haste and sloppiness in worship reflect most
prominently on the cantrix and her leadership. Since the focus of monastic
worship is intended to be more on the spiritual virtue than the aesthetic
beauty, virtually no one comments on the sound quality unless the vanity
of the singer conflicts with the proper humility of the nun. Surely, though,
the nuns are not indifferent to the contrast between a smoothly sung solo
verse of a responsory and a poorly performed rendition. In my own expe-
rience, the former is much more conducive to a spiritually uplifting
encounter with the divine.
The cantrix also has many opportunities to make musical decisions and
even to compose. Although the abbess of Barking decrees that liturgical
drama could rouse the nuns from their depression (see chapter 5), it is
probably the cantrix who carries out these plans. The cantrices or possibly
other nuns with dramatic flair, undoubtedly have a part in the unique ver-
sion of the Visitatio Sepulchri at Wilton and the several dramatic rituals at
Barking. The work is partly arranging previously existing chants and partly
composing. As teacher of the young, as director of the established, as
chooser of specific chants, the cantrix impacts the rest of the community
several hours a day.
It is, I believe, hard to overemphasize the importance of aural memory
in the medieval period. Although we study the period through the remain-
ing manuscripts, large portions of the opus dei could be sung from memory
by an experienced nun. Within the nunnery much of the non-liturgical
time is supposed to pass in silence. So the sounds of the bells ringing and of
the chanting of the opus dei break in on the consciousness of nuns with par-
ticular strength. Just as the nun travels in procession through the church
and the cloister, so she moves through her life as a nun in a type of aural
procession. She learns the basic psalm tones, presumably the first sounds to
be fixed indelibly in her mind. She probably carries a special memory of the
first small solo she sings, intoning a chant. The sounds of her first holy
week, her first Christmas, her first profession service build up layers of aural
memory until the occasion of her own consecration service when the par-
ticular chants of St. Agnes and St. Agatha play so large a role in her own
participation. In her mind she stores a wealth of musical phrases, associated
with specific texts, to which she can turn in periods of meditation. The
unconscious mind has a great ability to sort through and find just the right
turn of phrase and melodic fragment. In the nun’s brain, the psalms,
232 PERFORMING PIETY

antiphons, hymns, and responsories are embedded with the particular

strength that comes from the association of music and word together.
And so from these experiences the medieval nun develops and expands
her spirituality through the aural and verbal images that surround her daily.
She knows God through the sounds of grace in the refectory, of proces-
sions to the graveyard to bury her sisters, of rejoicing in the resurrected
Christ, of the washing of her sisters’ feet, and most intensively in the recita-
tion of the psalms. God is experienced as yearning, sadness, joy, exaltation,
and a host of other emotions. As she gains in spiritual maturity her own
performance of piety becomes richer with the patina of years of experience.
The community performance grows that much stronger because each nun
brings both individual and communal memory to the experience.
APPENDIX A: LIST OF NUNS HOLDING
THE POSITION OF CANTRIX

Name Title Date House

Agnes Assye Praecentrix 1532 Flixton

Agnes Harvy chantress 1523 Romsey
Agnes Kyng third cantrix 1501 Winchester
Agnes Mason Praecentrix 1532 Thetford
Agnes Massaw fourth cantrix 1501 Winchester
Agnes Trusset second cantrix 1501 Winchester
Alicia Boyfeld cantrix et sacrista 1530 Elstow
Alicia Oxford Cantaria 1535 Godstow
Alicia Snow Precentrix 1520 Catesby
Alicia Wytchill Precentrix 1520 Studley
Anicia Tanfeld Cantarista 1511 Shepey
Anna Belfeld subcantarista 1530 Burnham
Anna Wynter Succentrix 1532 Campsey
Barbara Jernyngham Precentress 1499 Campsey Ash
Christine Hopkyn Precentrix 1501 Wherwell
Christine More fourth cantatrix 1502 Romsey
Elizabeth Chatok cantarista 1511 Shepey
Elizabeth Nernewte Precentrix 1445 Studley
Elizabth Nuttell Praecentrix 1532 Bungay
Ellen Tawke Third cantatrix 1502 Romsey
Isabella Bride Precentrix 1525 Styxwould
Isabella Vavisour Precentrix 1519 Godewell
Isolda Cayvill cantrix 1310 Wilberfoss
Jana Twyford cantarista 1530 Burnham
Jean Dygges Precentress and Sub-prioress 1496 Malling
Joan Paten Precentrix 1502 Romsey
Johanna Browyng Precentrix 1525 Nuncoton
Johanna de Baketone eciam Cantarissa 1347 Polsloe
Johanna Palmer Subprecentrix 1520 Catesby
Katerina Grome praecentrix 1532 Campsey
Katerina Jerves praecentrix and iiii priorissa 1526 Carrow
Margaret Bawdewin precentrix 1501 Winchester
Margaret Scroope 1st cantrix 1527 Barking
Margareta Harman precentrix for 35 years 1526 Campsey

(Continued)
234 APPENDIX A

(Continued)

Name Title Date House

Margeria Legate Precentrix 1526 Thetford

Margery Croylande Precentrix 1440 Stamford
Maria Fystede Cantatrix 1502 Romsey
Mulieris Proudhomme Cantarissa 1347 Polsloe
Olive Beaufou chantress 1333 Romsey
Rosa Reve Succentrix 1532 Thetford
APPENDIX B: THE ROLE OF THE
CHANTRESS AT SYON ABBEY

his appendix includes the main description of the chantress in the

T Additions to the Rules of Syon Abbey as well as some additional descrip-
tions of her duties.1

Of the Office of the Chauntres

The chauntres and subchauntresses euerychone owe to be cunnyng and
perfyte in redyng and syngynge, hauynge experience of the ordinal and
makyng of the table for the quyer, with habilite of voyce, of the whyche
one whom the abbes assygnethe schal be the chefe chauntresse. To whos
charge principally it belongeth for to haue besy attendaunce aboute
dyuyne servyse, that al thynge be done in goode rewle, and that nothyng
be omytted thoroughe her negligence or of any other to her power. Also
to sette the songe euen and mensurably, neyther to hyghe nor to lowe,
neyther to faste nor to slowe, but sadly and deuoutly after the solennyte
of the feste or day, and after the lenghte of bothe seruyses of sustres and
brethern, and after the disposicion of ther brestes; ffor to syng so hyghe
oo day, that they may nomore, or to longe and lowe, that they enwery
and brynge a slepe bothe themself and ther herers, thys wantethe discre-
cion and doctryne of our Lord, whiche techethe in hys holy rewle that al
thynge scholde be done resonably. Therefor it is accordyng that sche
haue alwey two or thre, or atte leste one note before al other, in settyng
of euery thyng, that they may the better understonde what heght and
mesure they schal kepe. Sche also muste haue a grete warnes that no
defautes be made in dyuyne servyse, so that whan any suster in ryngyng2
or redynge happethe to make any defaute notably perceyued of other,
and doethe not amende it forthwith, sche schal fayre and esyly amende
the defaute. But yf sche perceyue that it may not be mended with oute
grete disturbaunce or taryeng of the quyer, than in al suche cases it is bet-
ter to procede, and latt eche suster preuyly by herself amende the defaute,
236 APPENDIX B

in awnter the herers be rather hurte than edyfyed by suche unwonte ger-
rynges, and the chauntres, whan sche seeth her tyme, schal proclame such
a defaute, for the whyle dissimuled. Also it is her parte to se that the
quyer be euen on euery syde in nowmber, voyce, and kunnyng, by
kallyng ouer from oo syde to another as nede is, and this in moste conu-
enient tyme sche may, that the quyer be not distracte ther by (and to
rewle the processions, et caetera3). Also to entune to the abbes softly alle
the antems that sche is to begyn in double festes and other, and to
remembre her whan sche schal rede any lesson, or synge any verse yf
nede be, or do any other thinge in any conuentual acte. Also to write or
make to be writen all the names of sustres that aske the religion,
expressyng the day with the {ere of our Lord whan they be admytted to
the {ere of profe, and to ordeyn for the skrowes of ther renouncyng and
of ther obedience making, yf sche have the charge of them, and also to
sette in the names of sustres and brethren professed in the register of the
chapter, and in the martilage, whan they decese, withe the day and {ere
of our Lorde, and {erly to rede ther obites after De profundis after the
houre of teer, as ther {eres come aboute, and to warne the sustres of
(diriges, trintals, and {er dayes, and of al other4) thynges nygh to falle, and
to se that the Rewles, Addicions, Injunccions, and al other thynges be
dewly redde, so that nothyng of any statute or custom be ouer passed
concernyng dyuyne seruyse. Also it is her charge to haue alle the bokes
in kepyng that longe to dyuyne seruyse, chapter, and freytour, and to se
that they be corrected, and made of one acorde; and also to correcte the
reders, so that withoute her knowlage nothing be corrected in any of the
seyd bokes, nor chaunged in the ordynal, withe oute the consente of
the abbes, and assente of al the couente, by the counsel of the general
confessour in that party as tochyng to the chaunge of the ordynalle. Also
to haue the fyrst proclamacions in the chapter of al defautes made openly
any where in dyuyne seruyse, and therfor sche owethe to be ware that
sche do nothyng troblesly or commaundyngly, and that sche be not to
importune in her assignacions, nor sette any thyng hygher or lower,
lenger or schorter, but yf it be veray nede, doyng al thynge quietly, pesy-
bly, religiously, and charitably, withe goodly wordes or sygnes, and withe
maner of a mylde besechyng, that the sustres haue a joy to do any thyng
after her. For often tymes statly and unreligious porte causeth murmur
and grudgynge to other, and excludethe grace from bothe partyes. None
ther for schal presumptuously take any note before her, but to her settyng
hygher or lower, lenger or schorter, tabulyng and assygnementes, alle
owe redyly to obey as in dyuyne seruyse. Suche as do the contrary, to the
disturbance and lettyng of Goddes seruyse, they schal be corrected as they
that do more grevos defautes.
 APPENDIX B 237

Of the Subchauntresses
The office of the chefe subchauntres is for to assiste the chauntres in myd-
des of the quyer in hyghe festes, and for to fulfyl her office in al places as
ofte as she is absente, or hathe any impedimente, and also to sette the table
after the forme expressed to fore in the sex and twentyethe chapter.

Chapter XXVI
Of the Maner of Doyng of Dyuyne Seruise, Et caetera
In alle principal and hyghe festes the abbes stalle is to be arayed more hon-
estly than other tymes, and the chauntres withe one of her felawes in al
suche festes schal kepe the myddes of the quyer, al seruyse tyme, occu-
pyeng the office of the rectrices or two begynners, begynnynge alle thynge
towarde the este, saue at Indulgete they schal conforme them to the quyer.
Alle maner of chaptres at euensonge, complen, matens, pryme, and
howres, schal euer be seyd in a lowe sober voyce. Also in alle hyghe festes
the chauntres schal assygne one of the eldest sustres to rede the fyrste leson
at matens, the pryores to the secunde, and the abbes to the thrydde, and foure
at the leste of the eldest sustres, beste disposed in the brestes to synge the
verse of the response at the fyrst euensonge, and the thrydde verse at matens,
and Allelujah at masse and Benedicite at euensonge in festes of our lady. In
alle other double festes and dayes sche schalle assygne other sustres to do
the seyd thynges, and al other after the feste or day is. So that on sondayes
and festes of nyen lessons, or of the strenghte of nyen lessons, as Seynt John
Portlatyn, Inuitatorium triplex, and suche other, sche schal assigne a nother
suster to synge the venite withe the sustres that be tabled ther to, and so sche
schal do to the thryd response at matens, and allelujah at masse, but in dou-
ble festes foure at leste schal synge the venite.

Of Makynge of the Table

Wherfor that the more certeynte be had in our lordes seruyse in the
chirche, chapter, and freytour, the chauntres schal euery fryday make the
table, and sette it in suche a place of the quyer that alle the sustres may loke
ther up on, and se what they schal do. Hauynge a besy attendaunce that no
sustres be tabled to any thynge but suche as haue habilite and sufficience to
kepe it in euery place in redynge and syngynge, wyke by wyke, as they
be in order after ther profession. And {et for the more sykernes sche schal
aske of tho sustres whom sche is purposed to table, wheyther they may
kepe ther wykes or no, so that yf they be notte disposed to kepe ther tymes,
sche may purvey and make a chaunge withe some other susters, eache
238 APPENDIX B

kepynge for other as ther course comethe aboute, what syde that euer they
be of. But none schal be ouer skypped in any wyse for any suche chaunge,
withe oute a very resonable cause knowen to the couente, and allowed by
the abbes. Also it is to be marked that in the table schal neuer be sette past
two sustres to any thynge, nor no mo schal synge it but yf they be assygned
by the abbes or chauntres.
APPENDIX C: THEORETICAL MATERIAL
FROM WHERWELL ABBEY

St. Petersburg Library, Russia, Publ. Lib. Q.v.I, 62,

f. 11r and 12
See figure 2.3
Gamma A. B. C. D. E. F. G.
Iste littere dicuntur graves quia gravem cantum reddunt.
Item A B-rotundum que h quadratum C.D.E.F.G.
Iste littere dicuntur acute quia acutum cantum reddunt.
Item A. B. rotundum que h quadratum C.D.
Iste littere dicuntur superacute quia superacutum cantum reddunt.
Septem sunt voces ut re mi fa sol la. Iste vii voces ponuntur in vii locis
in manum non simul et semel.
Primus locus incipit in gamma gravi et desinit in E-gravi.
Secundus in C-gravi et desinit in a acutam.
Tertius in F gravi et desinit in D acutam.
Quartus in G gravi et desinit in E acutam.
Quintus in C acutam et desinit in A superacutam.
Sextus in F-acutam et desinit in D superacutam.
Septimus in G acutam et desinit in [illegible]
Primus et Quartus et septimus utuntur h quadrato.
Secundus et Quintus utuntur natura vel proprio cantu.
Tercius et sextus b rotundus.
In gamma gravi nulla est mutacio quia non est ibi nisi sola uox et de sola
uoce non fit mutatio nec in a-re nec in be-mi ra⬍cione⬎ predicta. In ce
fa-ut sunt due mutationes fa-ut pro ascendendo ut-fa pro descendendo.
Similiter in de sol-re et in e-la-mi et ef-⬍f⬎a-ut. In ge sol-re-ut sunt vi
mutationes quattuor regulares et due irregulares: sol.re. re.sol sol.ut ut.sol.
Iste sunt regulares; re.ut ut.re irregulares.
In a-la-mi-re similiter: la.mi mi.la, la.re re.la; re.mi mi.re irregulares.
240 APPENDIX C

In be fa- be mi nulla est mutatio quia iste sunt due claves B rotundum
et h quadratum. B rotundum non habet nisi solam vocem et de sola voce
non fit mutatio.
In h quadrato similiter. In Ce- sol-fa-ut sunt viii mutationes: quatuor
regulares et iiij irregulares. Sol.fa. fa.sol sunt irregulares et alie sunt
regulares. In de-la-sol-re similiter.
In E la-mi sunt due mutationes. La.mi pro ascendendo mi.la pro descen-
dendo. In ef fa-ut similiter.

Translation
Gamma A. B (square) C. D. E. F. G
These letters are designated low because they deliver a low song.
Similarly A B (round) or B (square) C.D.E.F. G.
These letters are designated high because they deliver a high song.
Likewise A. B (round) or B(square) C.D.
These letters are designated superhigh because they deliver a very high
song.
There are seven tones, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. These seven tones are not
placed in the seven places on the hand at one and the same time.
The first place begins in the low gamma and ends on low E.
The second on low C and ends on high A.
The third on low F and ends on high D.
The fourth on low G and ends on high E.
The fifth on high C and ends on super high A.
The sixth on high F and ends in super high D.
The seventh on high G and ends in [illegible].
The first and the fourth and the seventh make use of the square B
(B-natural).
The second and the fifth make use of the natural or the individual song.
The third and the sixth the round B (B-flat).
In the low G there is no mutation because there is only a single tone and
from a single tone no mutation is made; likewise in A-re or in B-mi for the
preceding rationale. In C-fa-ut, there are two mutations: fa-ut ascending
and ut-fa in descending. Simlarly in D-sol-re and in E-la mi and in F-fa-ut.
In G-sol-re-ut there are six mutations, four regular and two irregular.
Sol-re, re-sol, sol-ut, ut-sol. These are the regular. Re-ut, ut-re are the
irregular ones.
Similarly in A-la-mi-re, la-mi, mi-la, la-re, re-la. Re-mi, mi-re are
irregular.
In B-fa and B-mi there is no mutation because there are two keys,
B-flat and B-natural. B-flat only has one tone and from one tone no
 APPENDIX C 241

mutation is made. Likewise, in B-natural. In C-sol-fa-ut there are eight

mutations, four regular and four irregular. Sol-fa, fa-sol are irregular and
the others are regular. Similarly in D-la-sol-re. In E-la-mi there are two
mutations, la-mi ascending and mi-la descending. Likewise in F-fa-ut.

(Continued on p. 242)
242 APPENDIX C

Example C.1 St. Petersburg Library, Russia, Publ. Lib. Q.v.I, 62, f. 12––Vocal
Exercises from Wherwell Abbey
APPENDIX D: THE VISITATIO FROM
THE WILTON PROCESSIONAL

1. a–b Crucem super altare honorifice restituant. deinde sonatur matutinis et dicantur festive
dum cantatur iii lectio levent tres cantrices et lavent manus suas et absconso velamine candidum
velum capitibus suis inponant in similitudine mulierum. Dumque tertium responsorium
repetatur unus sacerdos amictu indutus et alba sepulchri locum adeat ibique manu tentus
palmam quietus sodeat in similitudine angeli et tres mariae ante hostium chori tria filateria
manibus gestantes duabus candelabra turribula cum incensu ante eas deferentibus querentes et
lamentantes. hoc modo hic tres uno ore dicant.
244 APPENDIX D

1c–f sine mora movent se cantantes accedant ad sepulchrum

APPENDIX D 245
246 APPENDIX D

2. Angelus

3. Mariae

4. Angelus

5. Mariae
 APPENDIX D 247

6. Angelus tunc aperiat hostium sepulchri dicat

7. Angelus velud revocat illas dicat

8. Et statim eant mariae singillatim et prosternant se coram sepulchrum et adorent locum in

quo dominus iacuit deponant philateria que gestant autem in eodem sepulchro. Angelus
interim

9. Cuius iussionis voce vertant se ille tres ad alium locum dicentes antiphonam:
248 APPENDIX D

10. Postea vi. coram sepulchro dicant et reliquos versus.

11. Sine mora revertantur mariae ad seuplchrum dicant.

12. Subdiaconus accipiat textum ostendat eis quem ipse adorent prius et osculetur post ea
omnis et populis. Interim angelus dicat.
 APPENDIX D 249

13. Mariae.

14. Maria magalene prosternat se ante sepulchrum. Due alie dicant.

15. Maria genuflexione coram sepulchro dicat.

250 APPENDIX D

16. Interim prostrat se coram monumento. Angelus.

17. Et percutiat capud eius spiculo interim sumatque sudarium cum ea. Deinde convertant se
illae tres ad populum. quinque monachae stantesque mariae dicens.

18. Maria magdalene

19. Extendat sudarium contra populum

20. Item ille sex

 APPENDIX D 251

21. Chorus dicat.

22. Omnes congaudent pro triumpho regis nostri quod de morte surrexit. Sacerdos dicat ante
altare.

23. Cantrix in eodem loco dicat.

Supponatque sudarium altari revertuntur omnes ad chorum. Tunc procedit processio cum
omni ecclesiastico apparatu.

Translation

1. They should respectfully put the cross back upon the altar. Then Matins is rung, and they
should be said festively. While the third reading is chanted, three cantrices should get up and
wash their hands; and, after concealing [their] covering, they should put a white veil over their
heads in the likeness of the women. And while the third responsory is being repeated, one priest
dressed in a mantle and alb should approach the tomb, and there he should sit still holding a
palm in his hand in the likeness of the angel. The three Marys [standing] in front of the entrance
to the choir, bearing three phylacteries1 on their two hands and carrying before them a candelabra
and a censer with incense, moan and lament and with one voice the three should speak thus:
1a. Woe to us! How the sighing pounds in our minds on account of our comforter
who has been so wretchedly taken from us, whom the cruel Jews gave unto death.
1b. For just as the sheep go pitifully astray when the shepherd has been felled and
students are thrown into confusion when their teacher leaves them, so now, with
Him gone, extreme sadness grips us.
While singing they should immediately approach the tomb
1c. But let us hasten to His tomb and cover His most sacred body with ointment.
If we loved him while He lived, let us love Him now that He is dead.
252 APPENDIX D

1d. Who will then roll away for us the stone from the entrance so that we may
make fitting homage at the burial site of him whose wondrous goodness gave us
solace?
1e. For He who revived Lazarus and restored joy to his weeping sisters will be able
to bring help to us.
1f. Eya2 good Jesus, sweet comforter, look upon us; Eya now refresh our minds
with your serene countenance; Eya mercifully receive our prayers in praise
of you.
2. Angel
What weighs so heavily on your breast? Wherefore do you continue in such sullen
spirit?
3. Marys
It is on account of Jesus that we remain in such pain. His death has become known
to us. The impious condemned him to the tree of death. With the impious they
condemned him to the dreadful cross, and they pierced him with a lance.
4. Angel
O, you followers of Christ, whom do you so mournfully seek? And whom do you
wish to anoint with the holy oil?
5. Marys
O supernal citizens, we seek the crucified Jesus. Tell us wretched ones who took
Him from us.
6. The angel should then open the entrance to the tomb and say:
He is not lying here for He is risen. Fear not. Behold the place where the Lord lay.
7. The angel, as if calling them again, should say:
Come and see the place where the Lord lay. Alleluia. Alleluia.
8. And immediately the Marys should go one by one and prostrate themselves before the tomb
and adore the place in which the Lord had lain. They should place the phylacteries, which they
are carrying, in the tomb. Meanwhile the angel says:
Now let your faces no longer be sad. Tell His followers that Jesus lives. Go now to
Galilee; hasten to see Him.
9. At this command, the three turn themselves toward a different spot and say the antiphon:
Alleluia. The Lord is risen. Today the strong lion, Christ the son of God, is risen.
Give thanks to God. Eya.
10. Thereafter the six standing before the tomb should say the remaining verses
Here are the devout women. They bear the very best ointments. They wish to
embalm the body of Jesus, whom they love. Then with a tender word the angel
soothes their timorous minds saying: Why do you seek the living Jesus here—He
who rules the Heavens forever?
 APPENDIX D 253

When they had heard this, they were greatly astonished and, moved suddenly by a
great trembling, they began to run joyfully and rejoicing,
11. Immediately, the Marys should return to the tomb and say:
Here is Jesus in the flesh made new and beautiful in appearance. He greets the
women most kindly and purifies their souls. They bare his feet and in veneration
cover them with tender kisses.
12. The subdeacon should take the cloth3 and show it to them. They should adore it first and
then the entire congregation should kiss it. Meanwhile the angel should say:
Tell my followers that they should go to Galilee and that there my brothers will
see me.
13. Marys
Early in the morning at the break of day she hastened hence seeking the body in the
tomb which contained all creation. And lo, she saw the angels; but when she saw
that Jesus was not there, she became greatly saddened in spirit.
14. Mary Magdalene should prostrate herself before the tomb. The two other Marys
should say:
As she began to weep, the angels said: Why do you flood your eyes with tears so?
Then, turning around, she saw the Lord, but thinking him the gardener, she unwit-
tingly speaks thus:
15. Kneeling before the tomb, Mary should say:
I am seeking my Lord. If you know where they have taken Him, tell me that I may
bring Him thence.
16. Meanwhile she prostrates herself in front of the monument. Angel:
If you want to know who I am: I am called Jesus. I am the only son of God.
Recognize your God, your Redeemer. You are Mary, whom I love. I wished to
make my appearances to you first of all so that your name henceforth should be
praised with glory forever.
17. And He should strike her head with a weapon4 meanwhile, and she should take the
sudarium5 with her. Then the three Marys should turn toward the people. Five nuns stand-
ing sing to Mary:
Tell us, Mary, what you saw on the way.
18. Mary Magdalene
I saw the tomb of the living Christ and the glory of Him risen.
19. She should hold up the sudarium to the people
I saw the angelic witnesses, the sudarium and His garments. Christ is risen, and my
hope will proceed before you into Galilee.
20. The six
We must believe the veracious Mary alone rather than the entire deceitful crowd of Jews.
254 APPENDIX D

21. The choir should say:

We know that Christ is risen from the dead. Have mercy on us, O victorious king.
22. All should rejoice on account of our king’s triumph, that he rose from the dead. Before
the altar the priest should say:
We praise you O God.
23. In the same place [i.e., from the altar] the cantrix should say:
We confess you O Lord!
She should place the sudarium on the altar and all should return to the choir. The procession
should proceed with every ecclesiastical accoutrement.
NOTES

Introduction
1. Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman, trans., The Letters of Hildegard of
Bingen, vol. I (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 79, letter 23.
2. Barbara Newman, ed., Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her
World (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), p. 149.
3. Since the vast majority of the primary and secondary sources on English
monasticism focus on male communities, I do in many instances compare
the practices of monks and nuns. My intention, however, has been to cre-
ate the picture without an assumed reference to “normative” male practices.
4. One interesting question is the issue of whether or not Gilbertine nuns sang
the offices. The statutes of the order suggest that they did not. See William
Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, rev. ed., ed. John Caley, Henry Ellis, and
Bulkeley Bandinel, 6 vols. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and
Brown, 1817–20), 6:2–80. “Sanctimoniales nostras cantare non permit-
timus; set omnino interdicimus, cupientes magis cum illa beata Virgine,
perpetua Dei omnipotentis matre, et filia in spiritu humilitatis indirecto
psallere, quam cum illa Herodiadis filia lasciva modulatione infirmorum
mentes pervertere” [We do not allow our nuns to sing; but absolutely for-
bid it, desiring more that they praise indirectly with the sainted Virgin, per-
petual mother of the almighty God and daughter in a spirit of humility, than
that they overthrow the minds of the weak through lascivious rhythmic
modulations with that daughter of Herodias. Translation from Heather
Josselyn–Cranson]. Josselyn-Cranson is working on a dissertation at Boston
University on musical participation among Gilbertine women. She takes a
detailed look at some of the conflicting documents.
5. For an edition of this work see Thomas Symons, trans. and ed., Regularis
Concordia Anglicae Nationis Monachorum Sanctimonialiumque (London:
Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1953). We will be discussing it in more detail in
subsequent chapters.
6. Much of the information in this section is taken from the standard listing of
monastic houses in England, David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock,
Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (London: Longman Group,
1971). Knowles’s opening essay on the development of monasticism (pp.
8–47) is followed by listings of all known houses in England. For a concise
256 NOTES

summary of the state of nunneries see the Eileen E. Power, Medieval English
Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 (1922; repr., New York: Biblo and Tannen,
1964), pp. 1–6. Although some of the demographic information that Power
uses has been modified by subsequent scholars, this book still offers one of
the most comprehensive looks at the subject matter available and incorpo-
rates a wide variety of primary source materials.
7. Amesbury subsequently (in 1177) becomes a dependent of the Abbey of
Fontevrault, a double order. The women of this order actually follow the
Benedictine Rule so it does not change the liturgical practices in major
ways.
8. Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, p. 42.
9. Power, Medieval English Nunneries, 344ff. For an excellent discussion of the
issues of enclosure and especially of sexual innuendoes against nuns, see Jo
Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 353–82.
McNamara’s book provides an excellent overview of nunneries across
Europe through modern times.
10. Medieval calendars, especially in the Book of Hours, did often also include
references to the Zodiac signs and seasonal activities.
11. This manuscript has been edited and published by J.B.L. Tolhurst, ed., The
Ordinale and Customary of the Benedictine Nuns of Barking Abbey, Henry
Bradshaw Society, vol. 45 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1927). This partic-
ular page of the calendar is on page 2. This manuscript gives a wealth of
information about liturgical practices in the nunnery, setting forth the text
incipits for most of the chants sung on feast days.
12. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 2.
13. Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 190–91 lists the propers for February 3.
14. For a superb discussion of the Divine Office, see Lila Collamore, “Charting
the Divine Office,” in The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages, ed. Margot
E. Fassler and Rebecca A. Baltzer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000),
pp. 3–11. The book includes a wide variety of useful essays illuminating
several methodological issues in working with this repertoire.
15. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 367 describes the practices at Barking Abbey.
16. See chapter 4 for a discussion of extant musical sources from nunneries for
this service.
17. James MacKinnon, ed., Antiquity and the Middle Ages: From Ancient Greece to
the 15th Century (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, 1991), p. 89.
18. I use the term soundscape to denote the entire “sonic environment,”
including the sounding of bells, the chanting of the nuns and priests, and the
spoken prayers. See R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New
York: Knopf, 1977), p. 275 for more on this terminology. Reinhard
Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985)
begins his study with a chapter entitled “Townscape–Soundscape”
(pp. 1–9) in which he depicts the various sounds one might have heard
around the city and their significance in the lives of the people.
 NOTES 257

19. When I was working at Syon Abbey in Devon in 1974, I went to hear
vespers at the monastery at Buckfastleigh. I spent a delightful half hour
with a monk showing me around the church and explaining the symbol-
ism of various items before the service. And then the singing started.
Nothing I had imagined while working on the dissertation could have
prepared me for how awful the sound was! Many of the monks did not
sing on pitch. It did more than any number of medieval sources to
remind me that the music of each monastery did not sound like contem-
porary recordings!
20. For an insightful review of issues of performance in medieval studies, see
Bruce W. Holsinger, “Analytical Survey 6: Medieval Literature and
Cultures of Performance,” New Medieval Literatures 6(Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003):271–311. For an article specifically on liturgy, see
Kathleen Ashley, C. Clifford Flanigan, and Pamela Sheingorn, “The
Liturgy as Social Performance: Expanding the Definitions,” in The Liturgy of
the Medieval Church, ed. Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter
(Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 2001), pp. 695–714.
21. Ashley et al., “The Liturgy as Social Performance,” p. 714.
22. Samantha J.E. Riches and Sarah Salih, eds., Gender and Holiness: Men,
Women, and Saints in Late Medieval Europe (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 6.
23. Denis Renevey and Christiania Whitehead, eds., Writing Religious Women:
Female Spiritual and Textual Practices in Late Medieval England (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2000), pp. 1–17.
24. Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa, “Veneration of Virgin Martyrs in Margery
Kempe’s Meditation: Influence of the Sarum Liturgy and Hagiography,” in
Renevey and Whitehead, Writing Religious Women, p. 178.
25. I do not use it, as so many people do today, in contradistinction to “reli-
gious.”
26. N.R. Ker, ed., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books,
2nd ed. (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964) provided
the basis for my location of manuscripts during my dissertation research in
1973–74. David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval
English Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995) provides a more thorough description of the manu-
scripts and is based on scholarship in the intervening years.
27. Tolhurst, Ordinale.
28. Published in George J. Aungier, The History and Antiquities of Syon
Monastery, the Parish of Isleworth, and the Chapelry of Hounslow. Compiled from
public records, ancient manuscripts, ecclesiastical and other authentic documents.
(London: J.B. Nichols and Sons, 1840).

Chapter 1 The Religious Rules

I am indebted to Frank Henderson for his careful reading of this chapter in an
earlier version and his comments and suggestions for its improvement.
258 NOTES

1. For a more detailed study of the early rules, see Jo Ann McNamara,
“Muffled Vocies: The Lives of Consecrated Women in the Fourth
Century,” in Medieval Religious Women: Distant Echoes, ed. John A. Nichols
and Lilllian Thomas Shank, vol. I (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications,
1984), pp. 11–30; Julie Ann Smith, Ordering Women’s Lives: Penitentials and
Nunnery Rules in the Early Medieval West (Aldershot, England: Ashgate
Publishing, 2001). See also the discussion in chapter 6.
2. The ceremony for the installation of the abbess includes the transmission of
a copy of the rule from the bishop to the abbess. See chapter 2 for more
information on this service.
3. Smith, Ordering Women’s Lives, p. 178.
4. Smith, Ordering Women’s Lives, p. 147.
5. Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, eds., Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the
English People, book 4, chapter 6 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 354.
6. Colgrave and Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical, p. 355.
7. Colgrave and Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical, p. 362.
8. Colgrave and Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical, p. 363.
9. Shari Horner’s excellent book The Discourse of Enclosure: Representing Women
in Old English Literature (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001)
examines the relationship between ideas of enclosure in monastic commu-
nities and representations in literature. She asserts that “the discourse of
enclosure offers a particularly valuable model for examining how the social
institutions of female monasticism and Old English literature interact. The
point is not that female monasticism and literature exist in a cause-and-
effect relationship, but rather that both construct and are in turn constructed
by the social and religious discourses within early English culture,” pp. 6–7.
10. Colgrave and Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical, pp. 406, 408.
11. Colgrave and Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical, pp. 407, 409.
12. Thomas Symons, trans. and ed., Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis
Monachorum Sanctimonialiumque (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1953),
p. 2.
13. Symons, Regularis Concordia, p. 2.
14. Symons, Regularis Concordia, p. xxiii.
15. Arnold Schröer, ed., Die Winteney-Version der Regula S. Benedicti, Lateinisch
und Englisch (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1888), p. 42. The Latin quotes in this
section are taken from the thirteenth-century Latin/Middle English version
of the rule associated with Wintney Priory.
16. We will examine their roles in considerably more detail in chapter 2.
17. Frank Henderson suggests that this is the only version to include the infor-
mation on the priest in Chapter 11, including the feminine versions from
France and Germany.
18. Schröer, Die Winteney-Version, p. 58.
19. Christopher Page, The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in
France 1100–1300 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989),
p. 185.
 NOTES 259

20. For a much more detailed and complex discussion of the relationship of
music, body, and gender, see Bruce W. Holsinger, Music, Body, and Desire
in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2001). He discusses Boethius in several places, notably in
pages 13–15.
21. Holsinger discusses the role of punishment in pedagogy in considerable
detail. See especially Music, Body, and Desire, pp. 259–92.
22. Schröer, Die Winteney-Version, pp. 124, 126.
23. Frank Henderson compares the language used in six of the Middle-English
versions in his article “Feminizing the Rule of Benedict in Medieval
England,” Magistra 1:1(Summer 1995):9–38. He examines explicitly the
titles used for the leaders of the community, the members of the commu-
nity, and many of the officers.
24. Nancy Bradley Warren, Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later
Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001),
p. 30.
25. Nicholas Watson, “Censorship and Cultural Change in Late Medieval
England: Vernacular Theology, the Oxford Translation Debate, and
Arundel’s Constitutions of 1409,” Speculum 70:4(October 1995):825.
26. Mechthild Gretsch, “Die Winteney-Version der Regula Sancti Benedicti:
Eine Frühmittelenglische Bearbeitung der altenglischen Prosaübersetzung
der Benediktinerregel,” Anglia 96(1978):310–48. As a result of the linguis-
tic studies by Gretsch, she concludes “Das Spätwestsachsische, in dem die
ae. Benediktenerregel verfasst und überliefert wurde, war auch die Vorstufe
des Dialekts, den der Autor der Winteney-Version und der—oder die-
Schreiber, die zwischen jenem Original und der Hs. W. anzusetzen sind,
sprachen. Nichts deutet darauf hin, dass an der Hs. W oder einer ihrer
Vorstufen ein Schreiber aus dem Norden oder dem Mittelland arbeitete,”
pp. 345–46. [The late west Saxon, in which the English Benedictine Rule
was composed and handed down, was also the first stage of the dialect spo-
ken by the author of the Winteney-Version and the scribe or scribes
that worked between the Original and the Manuscript W. Nothing leads to
the conclusion that a scribe from the North or the Midlands worked on the
Manuscript W or one of its precursors.]
27. Gretsch, “Die Winteney-Version,” pp. 346–48.
28. Schröer, Die Winteney-Version, p. 50.
29. Schröer, Die Winteney-Version, p. 51.
30. Schröer, Die Winteney-Version, p. 47.
31. Jeanne Krochalis, “The Benedictine Rule for Nuns: Library of Congress,
MS 4,” Manuscripta 30(1986):22 (f. 36r of the manuscript).
32. Krochalis, “Benedictine Rule,” 21–34.
33. Betty Hill disagrees with Krochalis’s assessment. See Betty Hill, “Some
problems in Washington, Library of Congress MS Faye-Bond 4,” in In
Other Words: Transcultural studies in Philology, Translation, and Lexicology
presented to Hans Heinrich Meier on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday,
260 NOTES

ed. J. Lachlan Mackenzie and Richard Todd (Providence: Foris, 1989),

pp. 35–44.
34. Kock, Middle-English, p. 19.
35. Warren, Spiritual Economies, 34ff.
36. In some places the author has omitted the title of the person responsible for
leading certain liturgical actions. For example, the translation of Chapter 9 omits
the agency of the cantrix in beginning the Gloria Patri, and similarly, in Chapter
18, omits the abbess. These omissions probably do not so much represent a
change in practice as they do the vagaries of translation. They do, however,
remove the public recognition of those roles in the reading of the rule.
37. Kock, Middle-English, p. 39.
38. Kock, Middle-English, p. 40. This passage in the Northern Prose version
while similar in content to the version in Wintney, is clearly not a transla-
tion from that source.
39. Kock, Middle-English, pp. 16–17.
40. Antha Spreckelmeyer, “Feminine Experience in the Northern Metrical
Version of the Benedictine Rule,” Magistra 1:2(Winter 1995):267–80.
Spreckelmeyer also focuses on “wayward nuns” in her article “Reclaiming
the ‘Wayward Nun:’ Thematic Similarities in Three Middle English
Versions of the Benedictine Rule,” Magistra 2:1(Summer 1996):51–62.
41. See Thomas Frederick Simmons, The Lay Folks Mass Book or the Manner of
Hearing Mass with rubrics and Devotions for the People in Four Texts E.E.T.S.,
o.s. 20 (London: N. Trübner , 1879).
42. Kock, Middle-English, p. 48.
43. Kock, Middle-English, p. 79.
44. Kock, Middle-English, p. 79. In translating the passages from the Northern
Metrical version, I have attempted to retain the rhyme words wherever
possible.
45. Kock, Middle-English, p. 97.
46. Kock, Middle-English, pp. 99–100. *The rhyme-word is missing, possibly
kete, “glad,” “gladdened,” “strengthened.”
47. An interesting parallel can be drawn with metrical versions of the psalms
both in the Middle Ages and during the Reformation period. The metrical
versions are more easily sung but less exactly translated.
48. Warren, Spiritual Economies, p. 38.
49. Kock, Middle-English, p. 119.
50. See Henderson’s description, “Feminizing the Rule,” p. 18.
51. Two versions of the consecration service survive: Cambridge UL Mm 3.13
and Oxford Barlow 11. These will be discussed in detail in chapter 6.
52. Barry Collett, Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England with an Edition of
Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517 (Aldershot:
Ashgate Publishing, 2002), p. 82. I have reproduced the punctuation as in
this edition but have inserted the letters that were abbreviated with a tilde
in the original.
 NOTES 261

53. Collett, Female Monastic Life, p. 83.

54. Collett, Female Monastic Life, p. 54.
55. Collett, Female Monastic Life, p. 119. Refer to the English translation in the
section on the Wintney version.
56. Denis Renevey and Christiania Whitehead, eds., Writing Religious Women:
Female Spiritual and Textual Practices in Late Medieval England (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 3.
57. There are several sources for more complete discussions of the development
of the Augustinian Rule. See George Lawless, Augustine of Hippo and His
Monastic Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) and Luc Verheijen, La Règle
de Saint Augustin, 2 vols. (Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1967). According to
Frank Henderson, Charles Dereine, “Vie communie, règle de Saint
Augustin et chanoines reguliers au XI siècle,” Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique
41(1946):394–95 suggests that written references to the rule of Augustine
do not necessarily refer to a written text at all but rather to an attitude and
way of life.
58. J.-P. Migne, Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Patrologiae Latinae, 33:2 (Paris: venit
apud editorem, 1865), p. 960.
59. St. Augustine, Letters, trans. W. Parsons, vol. 5 (New York: Fathers of the
Church, 1956), p. 43.
60. Helena M. Chew, “Abbey of Lacock,” in A History of Wiltshire, ed. R.B.
Pugh and Elizabeth Crittall, Victoria History of the Counties of England,
vol. 3(London: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 309.
61. W.H. Blaauw, “Episcopal Visitations of the Benedictine Nunnery of
Easebourne,” Sussex Archeological Collections 9(1857):10–11.
62. A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of
Lincoln, Lincoln Record Society, vol. 14 (Horncastle: W.K. Morton and
Sons, 1918), p. 125.
63. A.T. Bannister, ed., Registrum Thome Spofford Episcopi Herefordensis, A.D.
MCCCCXXII –MCCCCXLVIII, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 23
(London: 120 Chancery Lane, 1919), p. 81.
64. A. Erens, “Les Soeurs dans l’Ordre de Premontré,” Analecta Praemonstraten-
sia 5(1929):17. The transition from one set of rules to the other explains the
confusion in R.E.G. Cole’s article on Broadholme, “The Prior of St. Mary
of Brodholme,” Associated Architectural Society Reports 28(1905–1906):43–86,
in which he incorrectly asserts that the nuns of Broadholme would not have
sung the hours. He also, however, cites a visitation record showing that
entering novices must have the ability to read and sing. As there were no
double houses of the order in England, we may safely assume that all English
Premonstratensian nuns had choir responsibilities.
65. J. le Paige, Bibliotheca Praemonstratensia Ordinis (Paris, 1633), p. 826.
66. Francis Aidan Gasquet, Collectanea Anglo-Praemonstratensia, vol. 2, Camden
Society, 3rd series, vol. 10 (London: Offices of the Royal Historical
Society, 1906), p. 104.
262 NOTES

67. David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England
and Wales (London: Longman Group, 1971), p. 283.
68. For a very detailed study of Dartford Priory, see Paul Lee, Nunneries,
Learning and Spirituality in Late Medieval English Society: The Dominican Priory
of Dartford (Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press in association with
Boydell Press, 2001).
69. Lee, Nunneries, Learning, and Spirituality, p. 26. Lee bases his comments on
information from the study by William A. Hinnebusch, The History of the
Dominican Order, 2 vols. (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1965).
70. David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English
Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995), pp. 130–34. Bell also lists a copy of the Constitutiones
sororum Ordinis Predicatorum for the Convent of St. Catherine of Siena of
Dominican nuns in Edinburgh (p. 137).
71. See R.W. Chambers, ed., A Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book and Walter
W. Seton, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Franciscan Rules, Early English Text
Society, o.s. 148 (London: Oxford University Press, 1914; repr., Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 63–71 in which Seton ably traces the
development of the rule for Franciscan nuns.
72. Chambers and Seton, Franciscan Rules, p. 85.
73. See Mary Natvig, “Rich Clares, Poor Clares: Celebrating the Divine
Office,” Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 4(2000):59–70.
Natvig traces the musical practices of the order on the continent. On page
61 she notes that whereas literate nuns are to say the office, illiterate nuns
are to say the Pater Noster. The numbers are almost identical (p. 62) to
those in the English source. Natvig also notes indications that some Belgium
Franciscan nuns sang polyphony.
74. Chambers and Seton, Franciscan Rules, p. 86.
75. Chambers and Seton, Franciscan Rules, p. 109.
76. Chambers and Seton, Franciscan Rules, p. 104. See chapter 4 for a discussion
of a manuscript from the Franciscan house at Aldgate that includes the text
for the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin.
77. Although the instruction to “say” the psalms, like the Latin “dicere,” in
some instances refers to sung psalmody, the author here seems to be making
a distinction between spoken and sung. In the previous sentence, the author
says “whether they read or sing.” So it would appear that some portions of
the liturgy were spoken.

Chapter 2 Musical Leadership in the Nunnery

1. See Marilyn Oliva, “Aristocracy or Meritocracy? Office-Holding Patterns
in Late Medieval English Nunneries,” in Women in the Church: Papers Read
at the 1989 Summer Meeting and the 1990 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical
History Society, ed. W.J. Sheils and Dianna Wood (Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1990), 199. Full article on pages 197–208. See also Oliva’s work in The
 NOTES 263

Convent and the Community in Late Medieval England: Female Monasteries in the
Diocese of Norwich, 1350–1540 (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1998).
2. Cantrix, the feminine form of cantor, is the most common term for the
woman who leads the music. Precentrix, the feminine equivalent of pre-
centor, is often used when there are two officials. The precentrix is the
“head” cantrix and the succentrix is her assistant. See below for a more
complete discussion of terminology.
3. For a discussion of a variety of roles within the nunnery, see Barbara
Newman, ed., Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998). This series of essays
describes the wide variety of roles that Hildegard fulfills.
4. For the purposes of this discussion, I will use abbess as the person in charge
and the prioress for the second-in-command unless I specifically state
otherwise.
5. W.G. Henderson, ed., Liber Pontificalis Chr. Bainbridge Archiepiscopi Eboracensis,
Surtees Society, vol. 61 (Durham: Andrews, 1875), pp. 248–49.
6. A pontifical is a liturgical book for the bishop. Virtually all of the services in
the pontificals are in Latin. We will deal with the pontificals much more
fully in chapter 6 on the consecration of nuns.
7. This transcription is taken from typed notes that accompany the manuscript
in the Library files. I am grateful to the Library of Congress staff for copy-
ing these notes for me.
8. Barry Collett, ed., Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England with an Edition
of Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517, chapter
2 (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2002), p. 90.
9. Nancy Bradley Warren, Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later
Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001),
p. 41.
10. Collett, Female Monastic Life, chapter 63, p. 156.
11. Ernst A. Kock, ed., Three Middle-English Versions of the Rule of St. Benet and
Two Contemporary Rituals for the Ordination of Nuns, Early English Text
Society, o.s. 120 (1902; repr., Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint , 1992), p. 41.
12. Kock, Middle-English, p. 110.
13. See Warren, Spiritual Economies, pp. 39–44, for a discussion of the abbess in
English rules. Valerie G. Spear’s book Leadership in Medieval English
Nunneries (Woolbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2005) appeared too late to
be included in this discussion. Spear studies the role of the abbess in sixteen
medieval English nunneries. Her work is a very helpful study of the office
of the abbess; however, she does not discuss the musical role of the abbess
in any detail.
14. Kock, Middle-English, p. 57.
15. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis, p. 147. Many other pontificals include this
prayer also.
16. The translator of the Northern Metrical Version does, however, espe-
cially emphasize the importance of meekness and humility including the
264 NOTES

injunction that the abbess be “chaste & sober, meke & myld, of bering
bowsum os a child” [Chaste and sober, meek and mild, of bearing obedient
as a child]. See Kock, Middle-English, p. 111. However, an earlier passage
refers to the nuns as her daughters, clearly envisioning her as the mother of
the order. Kock, Middle-English, p. 58.
17. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis, p. 249.
18. C. Horstman, ed., Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole, an English
Father of the Church and His Followers (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1895),
pp. 325–26. The Middle English version of this work is associated with the
circle of mystics around Richard Rolle.
19. J.B.L. Tolhurst, ed., The Ordinale and Customary of the Benedictine Nuns of
Barking Abbey, Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. 45 (London: Harrison and
Sons, 1927), p. 24.
20. Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 105–106.
21. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 32.
22. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 141.
23. “We inioyne also to you ladye priores to prouide for a sufficient ordinall
within this yere whereby the ladyes may be more ripe and redy in the
seruice of god and with the better deuocon to sing or say the same” [We
enjoin you Lady Prioress, to provide a sufficient ordinal within this year so
that the nuns may be more prepared and ready in the service of God and
may sing or say the same with better devotion]. E. Peacock, “Injunctions of
John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln to Certain Monasteries in his Diocese,”
Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity 47(1882):54.
24. A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of
Lincoln, Lincoln Record Society, vol. 14 (Horncastle: W.K. Morton and
Sons, 1918), p. 120.
25. Margot Fassler, “The Office of the Cantor in Early Western Monastic
Rules and Customaries: A Preliminary Investigation,” Early Music History
5(1985):50–51. This article, one of the few on the topic, offers excellent
bibliographic references for the ninth through the eleventh centuries.
26. Arnold Schröer, ed., Die Winteney-Version der Regula S. Benedicti, Lateinisch
und Englisch (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1888), pp. 44–45. See discussion in
chapter 1.
27. Henry G. D. Liveing, Records of Romsey Abbey: An Account of the Benedictine
House of Nuns, with Notes on the Parish Church and Town (A.D. 907–1558)
(Winchester: Warren and Son, 1906), p. 112.
28. The “cantrices” are mentioned in the visitation at Malling in 1299 in Rose
Graham, ed., Registrum Roberti Winchelsey Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi A.D.
1294–1313, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 52 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1956), p. 834. The precentrix is mentioned along with the
priorissa and sacrista in the visitation records from West Malling in 1321.
Charles Johnson, ed., Registrum Hamonis Hethe Diocesis Roffensis A.D.
1319–1352, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 48 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1948), p. 218.
 NOTES 265

29. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 68. Brackets as in Tolhurst. Note that Barking does
have a librarian who is distinct from the cantrices. Her work will be
described more fully in chapter 3.
30. The term cantarista could also refer to a chantry priest, the person who
specifically sang masses in an endowed chapel. See R.E.Latham, ed., Revised
Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources with Supplement
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 68. This volume lists cantarista
and cantista as words for chantry priest. They list cantarista, cantorissa, and
cantrix as meaning “precentress.”
31. Horstman, Yorkshire Writers, pp. 327–28.
32. Fassler, “Office of the Cantor,” pp. 39–42.
33. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 151.
34. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 2.
35. George J. Aungier, The History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, the Parish of
Isleworth, and the Chapelry of Hounslow. Compiled from public records, ancient
manuscripts, ecclesiastical and other authentic documents (London: J.B. Nichols
and Sons, 1840), pp. 359–60.
36. Aungier, History and Antiquities, pp. 361–62.
37. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 335.
38. A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, Lincoln
Record Society, vols. 35 and 37 (Hereford: Hereford Times, 1944), 35:154.
These volumes will be referred to as LRS 35 and 37.
39. A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of
Lincoln, Lincoln Record Society, vols. 7, 14, and 21 (Horncastle: W.K.
Morton and Sons, 1914), 7:53. These volumes will be referred to as LRS 7,
14, and 21.
40. LRS 7:53.
41. Mary Bateson, ed., “Archbishop Warham’s Visitation of Monasteries,
1511,” English Historical Review 6(1891):33.
42. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 361.
43. A. Jessopp, ed., Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, A.D. 1492–1532,
Camden Society, n.s. 43 (Westminster: Nichols and Sons, 1888), p. 219.
Harman, who is precentrix at this visitation in 1526, has become the sacrist
by the bishop’s 1532 visit.
44. Jessopp, Visitations, p. 220. The bishop also hears from a nun at Thetford
about the condition of the books but there is no indication that she herself
has the responsibility for them. “Domina Maria Bardewell examinata dicit
quod pauci sunt libri in choro et tamen lacerantur” [Lady Maria Bardewell
being examined, says that there are few books in the choir and those are
getting torn], see Jessopp, Visitations, p. 91.
45. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 281. I’m indebted to Susan Boynton for pointing out
that this indicates a practice of replacing the vesper hymn with a sequence
for certain feast days.
46. See chapter 7 for a discussion of music that is unique to Barking Abbey
and the possible role of the cantrix in creating that music. Also see the
266 NOTES

discussion of processions and liturgical drama in chapter 5 for additional

music that is unique to specific houses.
47. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 360. See full text of the chapter from the
additions on the role of the chantress in appendix B.
48. For a more general discussion of teaching in the nunnery, see chapter 3.
49. R.W. Chambers, ed., A Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book and Walter W.
Seton, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Franciscan Rules, Early English Text
Society, o.s. 148 (London: Oxford University Press, 1914; repr., Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 85.
50. For a more general discussion of the education of children in monasteries
see Susan Boynton, “The Liturgical Role of Children in Monastic Custom-
aries from the Central Middle Ages,” Studia Liturgica 28(1998): 194–209.
Boynton does not study any nunnery customaries so her remarks apply to
the training of boys, although it is quite possible that many of the proce-
dures described the activities of girls as well. For example, she draws upon
the Regularis Concordia written for monks and nuns but using entirely male
forms (e.g., pueri—boys).
51. This manuscript is in the St. Petersburg Library, Russia, Publ. Lib., Q.v.I,
p. 62. I am indebted to the work of Diana K. Coldicott, Hampshire
Nunneries (Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore, 1989), pp. 71–72, which
includes a reproduction of the Guidonian Hand. Ms. Coldicott graciously
informed me of the presence of copies of these leaves in the Hampshire
Record Office and helped me obtain copies of them for my research.
52. David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English
Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995), pp. 212–13. For a transcription of the verses in honor
of Matilda, see Alexandra Barratt, “Small Latin? The Post-Conquest
Learning of English Religious Women,” in Anglo-Latin and its Heritage:
Essays in Honour of A.G. Rigg on his 64th Birthday, ed. Siân Echard and
Gernot R. Wieland (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2001),
pp. 63–64.
53. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 128.
54. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 360.
55. Chambers and Seton, Franciscan Rules, pp. 104–105.
56. Traditionally, Anglican choral music distinguishes the two sides of the choir
as “decani” and “cantoris”—of the dean’s side and of the cantor’s side. In
nunneries the distinction lies between the abbess’s side and the prioress’s
side. For example, at Syon Abbey “Euery other wyke the quyer schal vary,
so that it be on the abbesse syde oo wyke, and on the priores syde another
wyke, begynnynge euermore the saturday at euesonge” [Every other week
the choir shall change, so that it be on the abbess’s side one week and the
prioress’s side the alternate week, always beginning on Saturday at even-
song]. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 362.
57. “In alle principal and hyghe festes the abbes stalle is to be arayed more hon-
estly than other tymes, and the chauntres withe one of her felawes in al
 NOTES 267

suche festes schal kepe the myddes of the quyer, al seruyse tyme, occupyeng
the office of the rectrices or two begynners” [In all principal and high feasts,
the abbess’s stall is to be more honorably decorated than at other times and the
chantress with one of her partners should stand in the middle of the choir in
all such feasts, during the service, filling the role of the two beginners].
Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 334.
58. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 28.
59. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 360.
60. For example, one nun commented “Dicit quod in absencia domine
Margarete Wodall in choro tempore diuinorum non habent aliam ad regen-
dum chorum et diuina officiandum ibidem, sicut ipsa Wodall facit, qua
fauet maxime diuinis officiis et est vtilis monasterio” [She says that in the
absence of Lady Margaret Wodall in choir during the divine office, they
have no one to regulate the choir and officiate at the office in the same way
as Wodall herself does, because she favors the divine office the most and she
is useful to the monastery], LRS 35:156.
61. Mechtild of Hackeborn, The Book of Gostlye Grace, ed. Theresa A. Halligan
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1979), p. 36.
62. Mechtild, Booke of Gostlye, page 73 of microfiche manuscript.
63. Chambers and Seton, Franciscan Rules, p. 104.
64. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 141.
65. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 142.
66. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 362. The serges are, I believe, the same
as the “serches” described at another point in the Additions. These officers
are like sub-prioresses and their job is to watch to make sure that the nuns
are fulfilling their duties appropriately.
67. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 362.
68. Kock, Middle-English, pp. 88–89.
69. Victoria County History, A History of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, vol. 2
(London: Published for the University of London Institute of Historical
Research, reprinted by Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1973), pp. 134–35. Ciborium
and pyx both denote vessels for the consecrated host. They differ primarily
by shape, the ciborium being in the shape of a chalice and the pyx being
rectangular. Both have lids.
70. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 29.
71. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 135–36. The passage continues to give a rationale for
the action: “Que flores in chorum iaceuntur ob recordacionem donorum
spiritus sancti quem dominus noster ihesus Christus ipso die de celis trans-
misit apostolis” [Which flowers should be thrown in remembrance of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit whom our Lord Jesus Christ bestowed upon his
apostles from heaven on this day].
72. David M. Smith and Vera C.M. London, eds., The Heads of Religious House
England and Wales II 1216–1377 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001), pp. 558 and 581. This volume lists all of the known heads of reli-
gious houses during the above dates. There are numerous cases, as one
268 NOTES

would expect, where the prioress becomes abbess or the sub-prioress

becomes prioress. There are a handful of cases where a celaress or a sacristan
accedes to the top position.
73. The records of the 1499 visitation are published in Christopher Harper-Bill,
ed., The Register of John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury 1486–1500. Volume
III: Norwich Sede Vacante, 1499 (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2000), p. 166. The
1526 and 1532 visitation records are included in Jessopp, Visitations, pp. 219
and 290–92.
74. There seems to be some confusion on this issue. Thompson lists her as a
precentrix in 1520 (LRS 37:107). Dugdale lists her as having been elected
prioress in 1529. See William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, rev. ed., ed.
John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Bulkeley Bandinel, 6 vols. (London: Longman,
Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Browne, 1817–20), IV:251. Edward Peacock in his
edition of John Longland’s injunctions, says Alice Whygill was elected as pri-
oress of Studley on December 20, 1529 (Peacock, “Injunctions,” p. 50). Yet
the Thompson volume lists her as the sub-prioress in 1530 and Johann
Willyams as prioress (LRS 37:108).

Chapter 3 The Reality of Musical Life

1. See, e.g., Gilchrist’s assertion that “there was no uniformity of liturgy in
English nunneries and their observances appear to have resembled parish
churches more closely than male monastic churches.” Roberta Gilchrist,
Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women (London:
Routledge, 1994), p. 99.
2. Later chapters look in more detail at the evidence from Barking Abbey and
Syon Abbey, the houses from which we have the largest corpus of useful
material.
3. David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English
Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995), pp. 33–37.
4. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 21.
5. J.B.L. Tolhurst, ed., The Ordinale and Customary of the Benedictine Nuns of
Barking Abbey, Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. 45 (London: Harrison and
Sons, 1927), p. 67.
6. Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 67–70.
7. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 70.
8. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 70.
9. Jeanne Krochalis, “The Benedictine Rule for Nuns: Library of Congress,
MS 4,” Manuscripta 30(1986):22. This passage is also cited and discussed fur-
ther in Betty Hill, “Some problems in Washington, Library of Congress MS
Faye-Bond 4,” in In Other Words: Transcultural Studies in Philology,
Translation, and Lexicology presented to Hans Heinrich Meier on the Occasion of
His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. J. Lachlan Mackenzie and Richard Todd
(Providence, RI: Foris Publications, 1989), pp. 35–37.
 NOTES 269

10. For an interesting discussion of the move towards greater literacy in society,
see M.T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979). Clanchy suggests that
“modern libraries really started with the friars” (p. 130) and contrasts the
Dominican use of books with the Benedictine tradition of meditating on
one book for an entire year.
11. A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of
Lincoln, Lincoln Record Society, vols. 7, 14, and 21 (Horncastle: W.K.
Morton and Sons, 1914–29), 7:53. These volumes will be referred to as
LRS 7, 14 and 21.
12. For information on reading and song schools in the Middle Ages, see
Nicholas Orme, English Schools in the Middle Ages (London: Methuen,
1973), especially pp. 52–56 and 59–86. See also Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran,
The Growth of English Schooling 1340–1548: Learning, Literacy, and Laicization
in Pre-Reformation York Diocese (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1985), which offers an excellent review of the history of scholarship in this
area. Finally, Eileen E. Power’s classic work Medieval English Nunneries c.
1275–1535 (1922; repr., New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1964) continues to
be the best source of specific references to schooling in nunneries. For a
general discussion of the teaching of music and its relationship to poetry see
William T. Flynn, Medieval Music as Medieval Exegesis. Studies in Musicology
8 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999).
13. A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, Lincoln
Record Society, vols. 35 and 37 (Hereford: Hereford Times, 1944), 35:90.
These volumes will be referred to as LRS 35 and 37.
14. LRS 35:89.
15. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 60.
16. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 77. For a discussion of nuns’ learning that focuses
particularly on the twelfth century, see Alexandra Barratt, “Small Latin?
The Post-Conquest Learning of English Religious Women,” in Anglo-Latin
and its Heritage: Essays in Honour of A.G. Rigg on his 64th Birthday, ed. Siân
Echard and Gernot R. Wieland (Turnhout, Beligium: Brepols Publishers,
2001), pp. 51–65.
17. Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 76–77.
18. Nicholas Watson, “Censorship and Cultural Change in Late Medieval
England: Vernacular Theology, the Oxford Translation Debate, and
Arundel’s Constitutions of 1409,” Speculum 70:4(October 1995):822–64.
19. Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England
1400–1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 9–130 passim.
20. LRS 7:ix–xi.
21. Even in male houses where the injunctions are virtually always in Latin, the
bishops instruct that the injunctions should be read in a language that every-
one can understand.
22. Some also deal with leadership and are incorporated into the discussion in
chapter 2.
270 NOTES

23. Bell summarizes this information on and gives comparisons to what work-
ers earn. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 11.
24. This calculation comes from Knowles and Hadcock’s listing of Benedictine
monasteries, David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses: England and Wales (London: Longman Group, 1971), pp. 52–58.
25. See a discussion of the people in the nunnery in chapter 7 on Barking
Abbey. The actual listing is found in Victoria County History, A History of
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, vol. 2 (London: Published for the University
of London Institute of Historical Research, reprinted by Dawsons of Pall
Mall, 1973), p. 124.
26. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 11.
27. LRS 21:249.
28. LRS 21:249.
29. LRS 21:252.
30. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph, The Register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of
Exeter (AD 1327–1369) Pt. I 1327–1330 (London: George Bell and Sons,
1894), p. 214.
31. Power, Medieval English Nunneries, p. 193.
32. A. Jessopp, ed., Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, A.D. 1492–1532,
Camden Society, n.s. 43 (Westminster: Nichols and Sons, 1888), p. 209.
33. Jessopp, Visitations, p. 210.
34. Edward Peacock, “Injunctions of John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, to
Certain Monasteries in his Diocese,” Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts
relating to Antiquity 47(1882):55–56.
35. LRS 37:99–100.
36. LRS 7:51.
37. LRS 7:51.
38. A.T. Bannister, ed., Registrum Thome Spofford Episcopi Herefordensis,
A.D.MCCCCXXII–MCCCCXLVIII, Canterbury and York Society, vol.
23 (London: 120 Chancery Lane, 1919), p. 81.
39. The saying of the psalter or part of it was a common penance in the Middle
Ages. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests: “In particular the custom spread
widely of dividing the whole Psalter into three parts containing fifty psalms
each. Hence the first psalm, the fifty-first psalm, and the hundred and first
psalm are usually introduced by a full-page miniature or by a richly illumi-
nated initial letter. Thus also in penitential codes and monastic documents
of both England and Ireland during the early Middle Ages, it is common to
find allusions to the recitation of “two fifties” or “three fifties,” meaning
two or three of the divisions of the Psalter.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v.
“psalterium”). The penance the bishop suggests in this passage is a recitation
of the full psalter three times by the individual nun.
40. LRS 35:103.
41. LRS 35:103.
42. LRS 21:250.
43. LRS 21:250.
44. LRS 21:251–52.
 NOTES 271

45. A. W. Goodman, ed., Registrum Henrici Woodlock Diocesis Wintoniensis (A.D.

1305–1316), Canterbury and York Society, vols. 43 and 44 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1940–41), pp. 516–17.
46. LRS 14:90.
47. LRS 35:103.
48. LRS 35:104.
49. Susan Boynton, “The Liturgical Role of Children in Monastic Customaries
from the Central Middle Ages,” Studia Liturgica 28(1998):197–99.
50. Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, 108. An injunction to Godstow
Abbey in the early fifteenth century indicates the type of arrangements that
might be made for visitors and secular people. “Item quod moniales non
confabulentur cum secularibus in naui ecclesie nec in capellis separatis, nisi
tantum in aula abbatisse, et hoc in audiencia ad minus vnius alterius solide
monialis” [Also that the nuns hold no talk with secular folk in the nave of
the church or in the chapels apart, but only in the abbess’ hall, and that in
the hearing of at least one other nun of sound character] (LRS 7: 67).
Bishop Gray recognizes that the worship services could be times where the
secular breach the monastic boundaries. The reference to the separate
chapels indicates that certain groups may have worshipped in specific areas
of the church.
51. See chapter 7 on Barking Abbey for a more complete discussion of the role
of children and young people there.
52. Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 41.
53. Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 42.
54. Jessopp, Visitations, p. 274.
55. Jessopp, Visitations, p. 275.
56. In England before the Reformation, as we learn from a rubric in the Sarum
Breviary, the Festum Reliquiarum was celebrated on the Sunday after the
feast of the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury (July 7), and it was to
be kept as a greater double “wherever relics are preserved or where the
bodies of dead persons are buried, for although Holy Church and her min-
isters observe no solemnities in their honour, the glory they enjoy with God
is known to Him alone.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “relics.”)
57. F.C. Hingeston-Randolph, ed., The Register of Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of
Exeter (A.D. 1307–1326) (London: George Bell and Sons, 1892), pp.
316–17.
58. LRS 14:185.
59. Margot E. Fassler and Rebecca A. Baltzer, eds., The Divine Office in the Latin
Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments,
Hagiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 10.
60. LRS 14:186.
61. W. H. Blaauw, “Epsicopal Visitations of the Benedictine Nunnery of
Easebourne,” Sussex Archaeological Collections 9(1857):12.
62. The translation of alta seems a bit obscure here. Blaauw translates it as
“deep.” Other meanings for alta include “raised” and “expensive.”
63. Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, p. 280.
272 NOTES

64. See Chapter 2 on the leadership of the sacristan for this list.
65. William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, reved., ed. John Caley, Henry
Ellis, and Bulkeley Bandinel, 6 vols. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees,
Orme, and Browne, 1817–20), 3:424–25.
66. For more complete discussions of this topic see Frank Ll. Harrison, Music in
Medieval Britain (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), pp. 202–218
and Francis Routh, Early English Organ Music from the Middle Ages to 1837
(London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1973), pp. 1–19.
67. At Limebrook in 1422, Bishop Spofford enjoined the nuns “Also we
forbede all maner of mynstrelseys, enterludes, dawnsyng or revelyng with in
your sayde holy place” [Also we forbid all types of minstrelsy, interludes,
dancing or reveling within your holy place]. See Bannister, Registrum, p. 82.
The nuns at St. Helen’s, London have a slightly more relaxed attitude.
Their constitutions state “Also we enjoyne yow, that alle daunsyng and
revelyng be utterlely forborne among yow, except Christmasse and other
honest tymys of recreacyone, among yowre selfe usyd in absence of seculers
in alle wyse” [Also we enjoin you that you refrain from all dancing and rev-
elling except at Christmas and other proper times of the recreation when
they may be done among yourselves, but in all cases in the absence of sec-
ulars]. See Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, 4:553. Note that consorting
with seculars is more dangerous than the actual dancing. One specific men-
tion of an instrument comes in the tale of the nun from Catesby Isabel
Benet. Isabel complains that the prioress gets angry and calls them whores
even in choir. A later comment reveals the probable basis for this action:
“Item dicta domina Isabella die Lune vltimo preterito pernoctauit apud
fratres Augustinianos Northamptonie et ibidem cum ipsis saltauit et cither-
auit vsque mediam noctem, et nocte sequenti pernoctauit cum fratribus
predicatoribus Northamptonie consimiliter citherisando et saltando, etc.”
[“Also the said dame Isabel on Monday last past did pass the night with the
Austin friars at Northampton and did dance and play the lute with them in
the same place until midnight, and on the night following she passed the
night with the friars preachers at Northampton, luting and dancing in like
manner.”] LRS 14:50.
68. MacKenzie E.C. Walcott, “Inventories and Valuations of Religious Houses
at the Time of the Dissolution, from the Public Record Office,”
Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity 43(1871):245.
69. “Notice the expression ‘payre of organes.’ The organ was for a long time
usually spoken of in the plural, as it is to this day in Spain, from the medi-
aeval use of the two words organum and organa. Organum meant music that
was sung in two or more parts, while organa, in the plural, meant the con-
junction of pipes which we call organ.” C.F. Abdy Williams, The Story of
Organ Music (London: Walter Scott Publishing , 1905), 193n.
70. Routh, Early English Organ Music, p. 9.
71. Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, p. 99.
72. Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, pp. 95–105.
 NOTES 273

73. Marjorie J. Harrison, The Nunnery of Nun Appleton, Borthwick Papers 98

(York: University of York, 2001), pp. 17–18.
74. Information taken from Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, pp. 17–18
and Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, pp. 275–76.

Chapter 4 Everyday Musical Practices: Psalters,

Hours, and the Office of the Dead
1. The standard book for detailing the variety of manuscripts is Andrew
Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to their
Organization and Terminology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982).
This volume gives a wealth of information on different types of manuscripts
as well as types of chants, ceremonial, and so on.
2. “Secular” usage applies to parish churches, non-monastic cathedrals, and
so on.
3. For monastic usage these are Psalms 1, 20, 32, 45, 59, 73, 85, 101, and 109.
In secular usage the illustrated psalms are 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97, and 109.
4. For general descriptions of psalters see Joseph Dyer’s article in New Grove
Dictionary of Music, s.v. “Psalter, liturgical” (Washington, DC: Grove’s
Dictionary of Music, c. 1980). Nigel Morgan’s introductory materials to his
two-volume catalogue Early Gothic Manuscripts (London: Harvey Miller,
1982 and 1988) also describes the thirteenth-century psalter. See especially
I:15–16, 21 and II:13–14.
5. Eileen E. Power, Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 (1922; repr.,
New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1964), p. 162.
6. Celia Sisam and Kenneth Sisam, The Salisbury Psalter Edited from Salisbury
Cathedral Ms. 150, Early English Text Society, e. s. no. 242 (London:
Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 12.
7. Sisam and Sisam, Salisbury Psalter, p. 14.
8. See Phillip Pulsiano, “Psalters,” in Richard W. Pfaff, ed., The Liturgical
Books of Anglo-Saxon England, Subsidia, vol. 23, Old English Newsletter
Subsidia (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 1995), pp. 61–85 for a discus-
sion of various Anglo-Saxon psalters and their textual relationships. There
are several references to the Salisbury Psalter throughout this discussion.
David N. Dumville also offers some brief remarks on the presence of
Anglo-Saxon in liturgical books in his book Liturgy and the Ecclesiastical
History of Late Anglo-Saxon England: Four Studies (Woodbridge, Suffolk:
Boydell Press, 1992), pp. 127–31.
9. Sisam and Sisam, Salisbury Psalter, p. 6.
10. Sisam and Siam, Salisbury Psalter, pp. 284–85.
11. Kristine Edmondson Haney, The Winchester Psalter: An Iconographic Study
(Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1986), pp. 7–9.
12. Claus Michael Kauffman, Romanesque Manuscripts: 1066–1190 (London: H.
Miller, 1975), pp. 82–84. Kauffman connects this volume to the artistic
style of the St. Alban’s Psalter produced for Christina of Markyate, a nun.
274 NOTES

Kauffman’s more recent work suggests an alternative provenance for the

manuscript. In his article “British Library, Lansdowne Ms. 383: The
Shaftesbury Psalter?” he suggests that at least one of the portraits of a woman
in the manuscript represents a royal patron, possibly Adeliza, Queen of
England 1121–35. Despite this he comments that “the manuscript’s link
with Shaftesbury remains incontrovertible” (p. 272). Paul Binski and
William Noel, eds., New Offerings, Ancient Treasures: Studies in Medieval Art
for George Henderson (Phoenix Mill, England: Sutton Publishing, 2001), pp.
256–79. The article includes a very interesting analysis of the prayers found
in the volume also.
13. David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English
Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995), p. 166.
14. Kauffman, Romanesque Mansucripts, p. 84.
15. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 166.
16. See chapter 3 of this book for the inventory at Easebourne.
17. David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England
& Wales (London: Longman Group, 1971), p. 265.
18. On folio 131 of the manuscript is the inscription: “Iste liber constat domine
Johanna Stretford, monasterii Werwellensis sancti cruce” [This book
belongs to Lady Johanna Stretford, of the monastery of the Holy Cross at
Wherwell]. Bell suggests that the inscription is in a fifteenth-century hand
and that the name of Johanna Stretford has been added over an erasure, thus
dating from a later period, see Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 213. It was not
uncommon for nuns to pass on books within a house. See Mary C. Erler,
Women, Reading, and Piety in Late Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2002) for an in-depth discussion of the patterns of book
transmission among women.
19. The differentia is the melodic formula that insures a smooth transition from
the end of the psalm tone back to the antiphon. It is frequently given over
the text “euouae” for the vowels in “seculorum Amen” the ending of the
doxology. In this manuscript it is indicated over “Amen.”
20. This practice differs from the antiphonal where the antiphon is given once
in its entirety and followed by the psalm incipit.
21. The Sarum Rite, generally speaking, is the liturgical use of England cen-
tered in Salisbury before the Reformation. Or as it is expressed in the
Catholic Encylcopedia s.v. “Sarum Rite”: “The manner of regulating the
details of the Roman Liturgy that obtained in pre-Reformation times in
the south of England and was thence propagated over the greater part of
Scotland and of Ireland. Other, though not very dissimilar Uses, those of
York, Lincoln, Bangor, and Hereford, prevailed in the north of England
and in Wales” (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13479a.htm, accessed
January 15, 2005).
22. Walter Howard Frere, ed., Antiphonale Sarisburiense, prepared for members
of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society (London: n.p., 1901).
 NOTES 275

23. See Bernard James Muir, ed., A Pre-Conquest English Prayer Book (BL MSS
Cotton Galba A.xiv and Nero A.ii (ff. 3–13)), Henry Bradshaw Society
(Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1988) for an edition of the texts from
both BL Cotton Galba A.xiv and Cotton Nero A.ii.
24. Muir, Pre-Conquest, p. xvii.
25. BL Cotton Nero A.ii, f. 13r.
26. Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 215.
27. Muir, Pre-Conquest, pp. 134–35.
28. These are published in R.W. Chambers and Walter W. Seton, eds., A
Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book and Two Fifteenth-Century Franciscan Rules,
Early English Text Society, o.s. 148 (London: Oxford University Press,
1914; repr., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).
29. N.R. Ker and A.J. Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, vol. IV
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 201–202. I am extremely indebted to
Hilary Ely of the Cranston Library for her labor of love in sending me digital
photos of innumerable pages from the manuscript so that I could study it.
30. See chapter 5 for a more detailed discussion of the processional contents.
31. Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, pp. 286.
32. For an overview of the musical practices of Franciscan nuns see Mary
Natvig, “Rich Clares, Poor Clares: Celebrating the Divine Office,” Women
and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 4(2000):59–70. Natvig does not
talk much about the English houses except to indicate that they followed
the Isabelline Rule of which the Middle English Rewle of Sustres Menouresses
is a translation. Natvig does indicate that some of the Rich Clares in
Belgium sang polyphony.
33. The feast is introduced in England in the early fourteenth century.
34. Chambers and Seton, Two Franciscan Rules, pp. 102–103.
35. Among studies of the development of Christian rituals surrounding death,
see Frederick S. Paxton, Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual Process
in Early Medieval Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990) for a dis-
cussion of material through the ninth century; Richard Rutherford and
Tony Barr, The Death of a Christian: The Order of Christian Funerals
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990), which examines the origins of
the modern rite; and Peter Marshall, Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation
England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), which gives background
from the late medieval period. Of primary importance for this work is Knud
Ottosen’s study The Responsories and Versicles of the Latin Office of the Dead
(Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1993). I will use his number-
ing of all the responsories and versicles in referring to specific chants.
36. Morgan, Early Gothic, II:339.
37. Paxton, Christianizing Death, pp. 205–206.
38. For an interesting discussion of the way in which the form of this ritual may
have shaped the civic triumph of Henry V in 1415, see Gordon Kipling,
Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy, and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), pp. 201–208.
276 NOTES

39. In the Barking Ordinal there is a suggestion that the ritual may have been
used on occasion as a memorial as well. The rubrics indicate “Insuper dies
ferialibus, quando habeatur Subuenite pro priorissa uel pro similibus, dicatur
ante capitulum” [In addition, on ferial days, when Subuenite is held for the
prioress or those of similar rank, it should be said before the chapter]. J.B.L.
Tolhurst, The Ordinale and Customary of the Benedictine Nuns of Barking
Abbey, Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. 45 (London: Harrison and Sons,
1927), p. 17.
40. As a point of comparison, I have used S.J.P. Van Dijk, Sources of the Modern
Roman Liturgy: The Ordinals by Haymo of Faversham and Related Documents
(1243–1307), 2 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1963), II:386–97.
41. The responsory chants included in this Commendacio service are Ottosen
nos. 90, 57, 38, and 113, accompanying the body to the church and no. 46
at the gravesite.
42. The responsories for the king and abbess are Ottosen nos. 85, 44, 10, 47, 76,
and 27. The two for All Soul’s Day are nos. 37 and 23.
43. See William Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 2 vols.
(London: William Pickering, 1846), 1:114–29.
44. Ottosen, Responsories, p. 44.
45. The use of the word in this context is the source of our modern English word
placebo. According to an online etymological dictionary (www.etymon-
line.com, accessed February 19, 2005) the “medical sense is first recorded in
1785, as ‘a medicine given more to please than benefit the patient.’ ” The
opening word for the first matins antiphon, “dirige” similarly is the root of the
“dirge,” used in the sense of a funeral song as early as 1500.
46. T.C.B. Timmins, The Register of John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury
1388–1395, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 80 (Suffolk: Boydell Press,
1994), p. 31. She also leaves bequests to the nunneries of Wherwell,
Winton, Tarrant Keynston, and Kington St. Michaels to pray for her soul.
Timmins, Register, p. 32.
47. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 16.
48. Office of the Dead found in Frere, Antiphonale, p. 579.
49. André Mocquereau, ed., Antiphonaire monastique XIIIe siècle. Codex F. 160
de la Bibliothèque de la Cathédrale de Worcester, Paléographie Musicale, vol. 12
(1922; repr., Berne: Herbert Lang, 1971). The Office of the Dead is found
on page 435.
50. Ottosen, Responsories, p. 244.
51. Ottosen, Responsories, pp. 239–42. Although there is no musical notation in
the Reigate manuscript the texts indicate the expected Franciscan sequence
of 14–72–24 46–32–57 68–28–38. Ottosen, Responsories, pp. 269–72.
52. The readings for matins follow those in Group 1f in Ottosen with the slight
difference that the fourth reading begins with Job 13:23 rather than Job
13:22.
53. Lawrence L. Besserman, The Legend of Job in the Middle Ages (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), pp. 57–58.
 NOTES 277

54. Ottosen, Responsories, p. 54.

55. For a complete description of the folio see Andrew Wathey, Manuscripts of
Polyphonic Music (Supplement 1 to RISM BIV1–2): The British Isles,
1100–1400 (Münich: G. Henle Verlag, 1993), pp. 44–45.
56. The page is reproduced in Diana K. Coldicott, Hampshire Nunneries
(Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore, 1989), p. 71.
57. This manuscript has been edited by Alexandra Barratt, The Seven Psalms: A
Commentary on the Penitential Psalms, Translated from French into English by
Dame Eleanor Hull, Early English Text Society, o.s. 307 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1995). The edition includes a lengthy biography
(xxiii–xxxiii), adeptly pulled together from a wide variety of sources includ-
ing Hull’s will, which is edited in the volume (pp. 203–204).
58. A facsimile of the folio that includes “Paradisi porta” and “Sancta Maria
virgo intercede” appears in Frank Ll. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain,
2nd ed. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), Plate XIV.
59. Barratt, Seven Psalms, p. xxvi.
60. Barratt, Seven Psalms, p. xxxi.
61. Gilbert Reaney, ed., Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music: 11th–Early 14th
Century, vol. B-IV1 (Münich: G. Henle, 1966), p. 574.
62. John Stainer, Early Bodleian Music, 2 vols. (1901; repr., Westmead, England:
Gregg Press International, 1967), I:xii ff.
63. A concordance of this piece is found in Cambridge, Gonville and Caius
College, 727/334, f. 199.
64. Reaney, Manuscripts, p. 531.
65. See Anne Bagnall Yardley, “ ‘Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne’: The
Cloistered Musician in the Middle Ages,” in Women Making Music: The
Western Art Tradition, 1150–1950, ed. Jane Bowers and Judith Tick
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), pp. 26–27 for a table of
polyphony in continental nunneries.

Chapter 5 Pomp and Piety: Processional Practices

in Nunneries
1. See, e.g., Kathleen Ashley and Wim Hüsken, eds., Moving Subjects:
Processional Performance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Amsterdam-
Atlanta, GA: Editions Rodopi, 2001), which is a collection of essays;
M. Bradford Bedingfield, The Dramatic Liturgy of Anglo-Saxon England
(Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2002). George Hardin Brown’s
review of Bedingfield’s book (George Hardin Brown, Review of The
Dramatic Liturgy of Anglo-Saxon England, by M. Bradford Bedingfield
[Speculum 79:2(April 2004):450–52]) disagrees with Bedingfield’s conclu-
sion that the “Quem quaeritis trope described in the Regularis concordia is in
fact dramatic liturgy and not, as many historians of theater and of liturgy
have asserted, actually early-medieval drama” (Brown, p. 450). However,
even Brown concedes that “Not withstanding my reservations, the book
278 NOTES

can be recommended as a good if incomplete summary of the late Anglo-

Saxon seasonal liturgy, highlighting the many dramatic elements of its
feasts” (Brown, p. 452). In this context, the Bedingfield book provides use-
ful background for the material examined in this chapter. Gordon Kipling
offers analysis of several medieval civic “triumphs” through a lens of their
liturgical overtones in Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy, and Ritual in the
Medieval Civic Triumph (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). Lawrence M.
Clopper suggests that processions may have served to “rechannel lay festive
behavior” into acceptably religious behavior. See Lawrence M. Clopper,
Drama, Play, and Game: English Festive Culture in the Medieval and Early
Modern Period (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), especially pp.
138–39. Reinhard Strohm includes a nice description of the music in vari-
ous processions in his book The Rise of European Music, 1380–1500
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 302–307.
2. C. Clifford Flanigan, “Medieval Liturgical Processions in Semiotic and
Cultural Perspectives,” in Ashley and Hüsken, Moving Subjects, pp. 42–43.
3. Bedingfield, Dramatic Liturgy, pp. 122.
4. See, e.g., the description cited in Kathleen Ashley, “Introduction: The
Moving Subjects of Processional Performance,” in Moving Subjects:
Processional Performance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Kathleen
Ashley and Wim Hüsken (Amsterdam-Atlanta, GA: Editions Rodopi,
2001), p. 10. She describes a Sienese procession in which the women and
children come at the end.
5. See discussion of the term “soundscape” in the introduction to this book.
6. Reinhard Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1985), p. 6.
7. Earlier listings of the manuscript indicate that it is a fifteenth-century vol-
ume, but the library’s current catalogue suggests instead that it is from the
early sixteenth century. See C.W. Dutschke, Guide to Medieval and
Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, CA: Library,
1989), pp. 56–58.
8. David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious House: England
& Wales (London: Longman Group, 1971), p. 257. Malcolm Floyd cata-
logues the contents of twelve English monastic processionals in his article
“Processional chants in English Monastic Sources,” Journal of the Plainsong &
Mediaeval Music Society 13(1990):1–48. He does not include any of the
sources from nunneries in his listing, but the article does provide a useful
point of comparison.
9. J.W. Legg, The Processional of the Nuns of Chester, Henry Bradshaw Society,
vol. 18 (London: n.p., 1899). Unfortunately Legg did not print the music,
but he has provided useful notes on the sources of the various chants.
10. The following inscription appears on folio 85v at the end of the manuscript:
“This booke longeth to Dame Margery Byrkenhed of Chestre.”
11. These two chants, Nunc sequimur and Amo Christum will be discussed in the
chapter 6 of this book on the Consecration of Nuns.
 NOTES 279

12. Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, pp. 267–68.

13. George Benoît-Castelli, “Un processional anglais du XIVéme siecle: Le
Processional dit ‘de Rollington.’ ” Ephemerides Liturgicae 75(1961):281–326.
14. Published (text only) in J.B.L. Tolhurst, ed., The Ordinale and Customary of
the Benedictine Nuns of Barking Abbey, Henry Bradshaw society, vols. 65–66
(London: Harrison and Sons, 1927).
15. Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, p. 256.
16. Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, p. 285. For a detailed
study of this house see Paul Lee, Nunneries, Learning and Spirituality in Late
Medieval English Society: The Dominican Priory of Dartford (Woodbridge,
Suffolk: York Medieval Press in Association with Boydell Press, 2001).
17. The chants through folio 134 show an almost exact correspondence with a
manuscript in the collection at Columbia University, Plimpton 34, a mid-
fourteenth century processional from a Belgium house of Franciscan nuns.
With the exception of some chants for Palm Sunday that are included in the
Reigate manuscript but only alluded to in the rubrics in the Columbia man-
uscript, the ordering and actual music of the chants is virtually identical in
the two sources. The Columbia manuscript does include several chants for
the feasts of St. Francis and St. Clare that are not in the Reigate manuscript.
I am indebted to Susan Boynton of Columbia University and her student
Karen Hiles for bringing this manuscript to my attention. I am also grateful
to Consuelo W. Dutschke, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance
Manuscripts at Columbia University for her assistance with this manuscript.
18. S.J.P. Van Dijk, Sources of the Modern Roman Liturgy: The Ordinals by Haymo
of Faversham and Related Documents (1243–1307), vol. 2 (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1963).
19. See description of this ritual later in the chapter.
20. A. Jefferies Collins, ed., The Bridgettine Breviary of Syon Abbey from the MS
with English Rubrics F.4.11 at Magdalene College Cambridge (Worcester:
Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1969).
21. Published in George J. Aungier, The History and Antiquities of Syon
Monsatery, the Parish of Isleworth, and the Chapelry of Hounslow. Compiled from
public records, ancient manuscripts, ecclesiastical and other authentic documents
(London: J.B. Nichols and Sons, 1840).
22. Two responsories: Beata Mater Anna and Anna mater matris and one antiphon:
Beata virgo virginum. The processionals also include some chants for the ritual
for the consecration of nuns, which will be discussed in chapter 6.
23. Reads “ceuces” in the manuscript but should clearly be “cruces.” See note
in Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 27.
24. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 27.
25. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 372.
26. Roberta Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious
Women (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 19.
27. Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 346–47.
28. Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 346–47.
280 NOTES

29. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 339.

30. Collins, Bridgettine Breviary, p. 138.
31. Benedict also defined the ordering in the monastic house in the same fash-
ion—by order of profession. See especially Chapter 63.
32. See David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English
Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995), pp. 178 and 197.
33. G.R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England: An Introduction to Sermon
Manuscripts of the Period c. 1350–1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1926), p. 201.
34. Thomas Symons, trans. and ed., Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis Mona-
chorum Sanctimonialiumque (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1953), p. 35.
35. Symons, Regularis Concordia, p. 35.
36. Bedingfield, Dramatic Liturgy, p. 96.
37. Gloria laus is the well-known text attributed to Bishop Theodulph of
Orléans and still sung today as “All glory laud and honor.” The children
usually sang the verses and the nuns echoed back the chorus.
38. Bedingfield, Dramatic Liturgy, p. 106.
39. R. Morris, trans. and ed., Old English Homilies of the Twelfth Century, Early
English Text Society, o.s. 53 (London: N. Trübner, 1873), p. 88, transla-
tion by the editor.
40. Morris, Old English Homilies, p. 90.
41. Morris, Old English Homilies, p. 92.
42. Craig Wright, “The Palm Sunday Procession in Medieval Chartres,” in The
Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional
Developments, Hagiography, ed. Margot E. Fassler and Rebecca A. Baltzer
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 354.
43. W.G. Henderson, ed., Processionale ad usum insignis ac praeclarae Ecclesiae
Sarum (Leeds, 1882).
44. Legg, Processional, p. 5.
45. Legg, Processional, p. vii.
46. Pamela Sheingorn’s work on the existence and placement of the Holy
Sepulcher for Good Friday and Easter services does not discuss the possibil-
ity that they played any role on Palm Sunday. It seems possible, however,
that the reference here to “Jerusalem” could refer to a similar place. Pamela
Sheingorn, The Easter Sepulchre in England (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval
Institute Publications, 1987).
47. Legg, Processional, p. 6.
48. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 85.
49. The actual passage in the ordinal reads: “Tunc omnes residentes audiant ser-
monem hospitario ierosolomitano presente. qui ob colligendam elemosi-
nam singulis annis hac die huc uenire solet” [Then all taking their seats
should listen to the sermon along with the member of the Knights
Hospitaller who is in the habit of coming each year on this day to collect the
alms]. Unfortunately no further information is given on the relationship of
the Knights Hospitaller to Barking Abbey. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 86.
 NOTES 281

50. The full description is found in Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 84–87.

51. Benoît-Castelli suggests that the meaning of the phrase “feretrum quod
interpretatur osanna” is that the bier was named “Osanna.” Benoît-Castelli,
“Un processional anglais,” p. 299.
52. Wilton Processional, ff. 35–35v.
53. See Wright, “Palm Sunday,” pp. 155–57 for five versions of the chant
including the Sarum and Parisian versions.
54. See Columbia University, Plimpton 34 for the version from Belgium.
55. The Sarum Processional includes the service for the Reconciliation of
Penitents after the monastic hour of none; if this was done at Barking it
would be on the page that is missing. See Henderson, Processionale,
pp. 54–59 for the Sarum ritual.
56. St. Isidore of Seville, De Ecclesiasticis Officiis, ed. Christopher M. Lawson,
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina CXIII, chapter 28 (Turnholti: Brepol,
1989).
57. Symons, Regularis Concordia, pp. 38–39.
58. It is possible that they also participated in the earlier washing of the Lady
altar but a leaf is missing in the ordinal. The church itself is cleaned on
Wednesday, not Thursday. See Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 90.
59. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 93. “sacerdos incipiat. Hoc corpus. Abbatissa respon-
deat. Quod pro nobis tradetur. et chorum illam pleniter concinat” (Let the
priest begin, Hoc corpus, let the abbess respond Quod nobis tradetur and let the
choir sing it together fully). I have taken the full text from the communion
chant for the first Sunday of the Passion in the Benedictines of Solesmes,
Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, eds., Liber Usualis (New York: Desclee
Company, 1963), p. 573. Tolhurst identifies two sources of it as a commu-
nion chant in the mass for Passion Sunday. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 375.
60. The Middle English word Sher or Schyre means clean or bright and has an
Icelandic root. Sherthursday was the common Middle English designation
for Holy Thursday.
61. Legg, Processional, p. 7.
62. My thanks to Jesse Mann for his translation of these antiphon texts. He
points out the relationship of In bello victus to St. Katherine. She denounced
Maxentius and was reportedly martyred by him. The ending of the transla-
tion of the antiphon to St. Anne is a bit puzzling and I have chosen to trans-
late columpna as a corruption of columba (dove) rather than as column or
pillar.
63. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 94.
64. Unfortunately the leaf in the Barking Ordinal that should include vespers
and matins for this feast is lost so we cannot check it against Barking’s own
usage.
65. Theresa Coletti, Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints: Theater, Gender,
and Religion in Late Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2004), p. 3. Coletti’s book focuses on specifically dra-
matic representations but her work on the issues and implications of Mary
Magdalene at this time is germane to our study.
282 NOTES

66. Wilton Processional, f. 38r.

67. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 95.
68. The tune is no. 7 in Bruno Stäblein, Hymnen (I) Die mittelalterlichen
Hymnenmelodien des Abendlandes (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1956).
According to the Liber Usualis this tone is used for the Office of Sunday from
January 14 to Lent and after Pentecost as well as for all class II and III feasts.
69. A comparison of these two versions with the version in Inge B. Milfull, The
Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church: A Study and Edition of the “Durham
Hymnal” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 281–83,
shows a number of text variants. The Chester version is included in Legg,
Processional, 10. For example, at the beginning of the fourth verse, Milfull’s
version has “pallet,” whereas Chester has “pellet” and Wilton has “psallet.”
70. Milfull, Hymns, p. 27.
71. See Floyd, “Processional Chants.” The hymnal from St. Augustine,
Canterbury is Cambridge University, St. John’s College, no. 262, f. 45. I
have not examined this manuscript but the incipit is listed in the catalogue.
72. Tolhurst, Odrinale, p. 95.
73. Wilton Processional, f. 42v.
74. Beginning on folio 88v of the manuscript.
75. Van Dijk, Sources, p. 239.
76. The sisters do not participate in the washing of altars at Syon but the broth-
ers do take part in that ritual. Aungier, History and Antiquities, pp. 348–49.
77. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 346.
78. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 347.
79. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 348.
80. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 346.
81. In his note on this ritual, Tolhurst (Ordinale, pp. 375–76) questions whether
or not nunneries usually carried out the Maundy of the poor. His doubts
seem to have been raised by the lack of such a service in the Chester pro-
cessional. As we have seen, it is certainly possible that the nuns at Wilton
did participate and also that Syon marked the giving to the poor in some
way. In the absence of injunctions against such a Maundy, I would assume
that the nuns did observe it.
82. The Chester Processional is strangely silent on the whole triduum including
Easter. It moves directly from the Thursday mandatum to the mandatum on
the Saturday after Easter. Legg makes no mention of this. It is certainly pos-
sible that these rituals were incorporated into another liturgical manuscript.
83. Aungier, History and Antiquities, pp. 349–50.
84. The seven penitential psalms are said as a group on many occasions both in
communal worship and in private devotions. Using the Vulgate numbering
of the psalms, these are nos. 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142. In most
English language bibles, this would be 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143.
85. Tolhurst, Ordinale, pp. 96–101.
86. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 376. The description of the adoratio is found on pages
98–100.
 NOTES 283

87. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 100.

88. Sheingorn, Easter Sepulchre, p. 33–45.
89. Symons, Regularis Concordia, p. 44–45.
90. Symons, Regularis Concordia, p. 44–45.
91. I have filled out the texts using the CURSUS online database at
http://www.cursus.uea.ac.uk/ (accessed February 19, 2005).When there
are multiple readings, I have chosen the version best represented in English
sources.
92. There are multiple options for the verse here and I have no way of telling
which one Barking would use so I have not included the verse.
93. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 100.
94. Reads “noster” in the original.
95. Wilton Processional, f. 49v–50v.
96. See Nancy Cotton, “Katherine of Sutton: The First English Woman
Playwright,” Educational Theatre Journal 30(1978):475–81 for a discussion of
dramatic elements at Barking. I would not go so far as to call Katherine of
Sutton a playwright because I think it is likely that other nuns actually
arranged the dramatic elements.
97. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 107.
98. Karl Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1951; original 1933), I:167. The complete passage reads: “Nota quod
secundum antiquam consuetudinem ecclesiasticam, resurexio dominica cel-
ebrata fuerit ante matutinas et ante aliquam campane pulsacionem in die
pasche, et quam populorum concursus temporibus illis uidebatur deuocione
frigessere. et torpor humanus maxime accrescens. uenerabilis domina
Domina Katerina de Suttone, tunc pastoralis cure gerens uicem. desiderans
dictum torporem penitus exstirpare. et fidelium deuocionem ad tam
celibem celebracionem magis excitare: unanimi consororum consensu insti-
tuit. ut statim post tercium responsorium matutinarum die pasche fieret
dominice resurexionis celebracio, et hoc modo statuetur processio” [Note
that according to ancient ecclesiastical custom, the Lord’s resurrection was
celebrated before matins and before any tolling of the bell on Easter day and
[note] how the mass of people seemed to have grown cold in devotion in
those days. As this human torpor greatly increased, the venerable Lady
Dame Katherine of Sutton, who was then responsible for pastoral care,
sought to extirpate it completely and to stimulate among the faithful more
devotion to so chaste a celebration [so] with the unanimous consent of her
sisters, she decreed that the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection should
take place immediately after the third response of matins on Easter day; and
the procession is to be carried out in this way] (Translation by Jesse Mann).
Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 107.
99. Ann Faulkner, “The Harrowing of Hell at Barking Abbey and in
Modern Production,” in The Iconography of Hell, ed. Clifford Davidson and
Thomas H. Seiler (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992),
p. 141–57.
284 NOTES

100. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1978) s.v. “limbo.” “In Latin theology the abode of souls excluded
from the full blessedness of the beatific vision, but not condemned to any
other punishment. There are distinguished (1) the limbus patrum, in which
the saints of the Old Covenant remained until Christ’s coming and
redemption of the world;”
101. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 108.
102. Faulkner, “Harrowing of Hell,” 150. Faulkner argues for a return proces-
sion in the form of a dance. There is nothing in the manuscript itself that
indicates this.
103. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 108. Also Young, Drama, I:166.
104. Susan Rankin, The Music of the Medieval Liturgical Drama in France and
England, 2 vols. (New York: Garland Publishing, 1989) and Susan Rankin,
“The Mary Magdalene Scene in the ‘Visitatio Sepulchri’ Ceremonies,” in
Early Music History 1: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music, ed. Iain
Fenlon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 227–55.
105. For a discussion of the production aspects of medieval drama, see Dunbar H.
Ogden, The Staging of Drama in the Medieval Church (Newark: University of
Delaware Press, 2002). Ogden’s fifth chapter on “Acting” contains a thor-
ough discussion of the role of women in medieval liturgical drama.
106. David A. Bjork, “On the Dissemination of Quem quaeritis and the Visitatio
sepulchri and the Chronology of their Early Sources,” Comparative Drama
14:1(Spring 1980):55.
107. Despite the fact that the Regularis was written for monks and nuns, all of
the rubrics presuppose monks.
108. Symons, Regularis Concordia, pp. 49–50 contains the relevant passage.
109. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 108.
110. Ogden, Staging of Drama, p. 144. The other convents are French—at
Origny and Troyes.
111. See Ogden, Staging of Drama, pp. 156–58 for a listing of specific rubrics
relating to the characteristics of the voice.
112. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 108.
113. Diane Dolan, Le drame liturgique de Pâques en Normandie et en Angleterre au
Moyen-Age, Publications de l’Université de Poitiers, Lettres et sciences
humaines, 16 (Paris: Presses universitaires de Frances, 1975), p. 133. “Ce
qui suit est semblable à ce qui se faisait à Rouen. Marie Madeleine voit un
autre ange représenté par un prêtre qui lui dit: Mulier, quid ploras? . . . et
elle répond: Quia tulerunt . . . Après un bref planctus, le Christ apparaît au
côté gauche de l’autel. Puis apres la scène de l’apparition, comme à
Rouen, le Christ reparaît à la droite de l’autel, disant: Avete, nolite
timere. . . .” [That which follows is similar to that whch happens at Rouen.
Mary Magdelene sees another angel, represented by a priest, who says to
her, “Woman why do you weep ?” and she answers, “Because they have
carried him away.” After a brief laent, Christ appears on the left side of the
altar. Then after the scene of the supernatural appearance, as at Rouen,
Christ reappears to the right of the altar saying, “Hail! Do not be afraid.”]
 NOTES 285

114. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 109.

115. See below for a discussion of the rogation days. The term “parochiani”—
parishioners—is used on the Feast of the Dedication of the Church.
116. Woodburn O. Ross, Middle English Sermons Edited from British Museum MS
Royal 18 B. xxiii, Early English Text Society, o. s. 209 (London: Oxford
University Press, 1940), p. 137. For a detailed discussion of preaching in
this period, see H. Leith Spencer, English Preaching in the Late Middle Ages
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993). See pages 308–311 for a discussion of
the compilation of hymns found in the Ross edition cited earlier. This
compilation seems to be quite eclectic, drawing on several different
medieval sources.
117. C. Clifford Flanigan, “The Roman Rite and the Origins of the Liturgical
Drama,” University of Toronto Quarterly 43:3(Spring 1974):265.
118. Rankin, Music of the Medieval, I:147–48.
119. Rankin, “Mary Magdalene,” pp. 228–29.
120. Rankin, Music of the Medieval, I:131.
121. Rankin, Music of the Medieval, I:144–45.
122. Rankin, “Mary Magdalene,” p. 255.
123. Wilton Processional, f. 64v.
124. Ogden suggests that it would have been the abbess who created these ver-
sions: “When we come upon an unusual rendering of the Visitatio Sepulchri
from a convent, it is quite likely that an Abbess was the one who made it
for her nuns to perform, annealing existing music and texts with fresh
compositions, perhaps even her own.” But I see no basis in fact to support
the claim that the abbess, herself, would have been the compiler. It is
equally likely that other talented nuns contributed through their composi-
tional prowess and that the role of the abbess was to suggest and support.
125. See the description of Rogation Day processions in Terence Bailey, The
Processions of Sarum and the Western Church (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, 1971), pp. 93–98 and of Rogation antiphons including
a complete study of their melodies and musical characteristics Bailey,
Processions of Sarum and the Western Church, pp. 120–62.
126. Bedingfield, Dramatic Liturgy, p. 200.
127. T.C.B. Timmins, ed., The Register of John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury
1388–1395, vol. 80 Canterbury and York Society (Suffolk: Boydell Press,
1994), p. 15. The edition gives English synopses of the original mandates.
At that time England was suffering with a heat wave.
128. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 219.
129. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 354.
130. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 125.

Chapter 6 The Consecration of Nuns

1. Barbara Newman, From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval
Religion and Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1995), pp. 44–45.
286 NOTES

2. Pamela Sheingorn, “The Virtues of Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum; or, It Was a

Woman’s World,” in The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical
Studies, ed. Audrey Ekdahl Davidson, Early Drama, Art, and Music
Monograph Series 18 (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications,
1992), pp. 43–62. See especially pages 52–58.
3. Nancy Bradley Warren, Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later
Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001),
pp. 4–6. Warren cites several other authors who work in this area as well.
4. W. G. Henderson, ed., Liber Pontificalis Chr. Bainbridge Archiepiscopi
Eboracensis, Surtees Society, vol. 61 (Durham: Andrews, 1875),
pp. 208–209.
5. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis, pp. 246–47.
6. The Common of Virgins is the liturgy used for virgins whose feasts are not
important enough to merit an entire liturgy in their honor. The Common
of Virgins thus represents a rather generic approach to the benefits of vir-
ginity.
7. Nathalie Henry, “A New Insight into the Growth of Ascetic Society in the
Fourth Century AD: The Public Consecration of Virgins as a Means of
Integration and Promotion of the Female Ascetic Movement,” in Studia
Patristica 35 (1999), ed. M.F. Wiles and E.J. Yarnold (Leuven: Peeters,
2001):109.
8. Virginia Burrus, “Reading Agnes: The Rhetoric of Gender in Ambrose and
Prudentius,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 3:1(1995):30.
9. Nathalie Henry, “The Song of Songs and the Liturgy of the Velatio in the
Fourth Century: From Literary Metaphor to Liturgical Reality,” in
Continuity and Change in Christian Worship: Papers Read at the 1997 Summer
Meeting and the 1998 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, ed.
R.N. Swanson (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1999), pp. 18–28. In this article
Henry discusses the effects of the Song of Songs on the liturgy, noting some
similar imagery in the prayer of consecration, the Song of Songs, and the
writings of Ambrose and Jerome.
10. Frere’s discussion of the corresponding service for monks indicates that the
three primary actions in that ritual are (1) the promise of obedience, (2) the
change of clothing, and (3) the blessing of the new monk. While the nun’s
change of clothing is connected with her role as the bride of Christ, the
monk’s change is viewed in light of St. Paul’s injunction to put on the
clothes of the new man in Christ. According to Frere, the service remained
very simple and essentially unchanged throughout the Middle Ages. Walter
Howard Frere, Pontifical Services Illustrated from Miniatures of the XVth and
XVIth Centuries, Alcuin Club Collections, 3 (London: Longmans, Green,
1901), pp. 55–56.
11. René Metz has studied the development of the service in the Roman pon-
tifical in his thorough book La Consécration des vierges dans l’église romaine:
Étude d’historie de la liturgie (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1954).
On occasion an abbot could perform the service.
 NOTES 287

12. The most comprehensive discussion and listing of English pontificals is still
found in the preface to Henderson’s edition of the Bainbridge Pontifical.
He lists and briefly describes thirty-one extant English and Scottish pon-
tificals. J. Brückmann’s article “Latin Manuscript Pontificals and
Benedictionals in England and Wales,” Traditio 29(1973):391–458 updates
the works some but uses different selection criteria. Bruckmann includes
volumes in British libraries now rather than volumes of British provenance
in the Middle Ages. Three sources that are absent in Henderson are British
Library Cotton Vespasian D.I, Additional 28188, and Lansdowne 388.
13. See Metz, Consécration, chapter 4 for a very detailed study of the sources for
Le Pontifical Romano-Germanique. He suggests that the chants drawn from
the Passio for St. Agnes may well have been incorporated into the
Consecration service before they became embedded in the Office of St.
Agnes. “L’antienne du Pontifical romano-germanique reproduit les derniers
termes de ce passage de la Passio; mais les premiers mots de l’antienne: Ipsi
sum desponsata, ne figurent pas dans la Passio. L’antienne est donc de forme
composite. Nous ne savons pas où le compilateur du Pontifical romano-
germanique a trouvé l’antienne sous la forme qu’elle présente dans son
recueil, à moins qu’il n’en soit, lui-même, l’auteur” [The antiphon of the
Romano-German Pontifical reproduces the last words of the passage of the
Passion [of St. Agnes]; but the first words of the antiphon: “I am married”
are not included in the Passion. The antiphon is thus a composite form. We
do not know where the compiler of the Roman-Germanic Pontifical found
the antiphon in the form in which it is presented in his collection, but
at least it is possible that he himself might be the author]. See Metz,
Consécration, 189–90n.
14. Metz studies these changes in detail in Consécration.
15. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis, p. xi.
16. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis, p. 106.
17. See, e.g., the Pontifical of the Bishop of Exeter from the fifteenth century
as printed in Ralph Barnes, ed., Liber Pontificalis of Edmund Lacy, Bishop of
Exeter: A Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Exeter: William Roberts,
1847), pp. 120–21.
18. Brückmann, “Latin Manuscript,” p. 406.
19. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 163, p. 257.
20. In the following selection from the “Epistola” I have indicated the texts that
appear in the liturgy for the Consecration service in italic type. This portion
forms the readings for the second and third lessons of matins on the Feast
of St. Agnes. “Ad haec beata Agnes tale fertur juveni dedisse responsum:
Discede a me, fomes peccati, nutrimentum facinoris pabulum mortis: discede
a me; quia iam ab alio amatore praeventa sum, qui mihi satis meliora obtulit
ornamenta, et annulo fidei suae subarrhavit me, longe te nobilior et genere et
dignitate. Ornavit inaestimabili dextrocherio dexteram meam, et collum
meum cinxit lapidibus pretiosis. Tradidit auribus meis inaestimabiles margar-
itas, et circumdedit me vernantibus atque coruscantibus gemmis. Posuit
288 NOTES

signum in faciem meam, ut nullum praeter ipsum amatorem admittam. Induit me cyl-
cade auro texta, et immensis monilibus ornavit me. Ostendit mihi thesauros
incomparabiles, quos mihi se daturum repromisit, si in ejus perseveravero
amore. Non ergo potero ad contumeliam prioris amatoris vel aspicere alium
et illum relinquere, cum quo sum charitate devincta; cujus est generositas
celsior, possibilitas fortior, aspectus pulchrior, amor suavior, et omni gratia
elegantior. A quo mihi jam thalamus collocatus est cujus mihi organa modulatis
vocibus resonant, cujus mihi virgines justissimis vocibus cantant. Jam mel et lac
ex ore ejus suscepi, jam amplexibus ejus castis astricta sum, jam corpus ejus cor-
pori meo sociatum est, et sanguis ejus ornavit genas meas. Cujus mater virgo est,
cujus pater feminam nescit; cui angeli serviunt, cujus pulchritudinem sol et luna miran-
tur, cujus odore reviviscunt mortui, cujus tactu confortantur infirmi, cujus
opes numquam deficiunt, cujusque divitiae numquam decrescunt. Ipsi soli
servo fidem meam, ipsi me tota devotione committo. Quem cum amavero,
casta sum: cum tetigero, munda sum: cum accepero, virgo sum. Nec deerunt post
nuptias filii, ubi partus sine dolore succedit, et fecunditas quotidiana cumu-
latur.” Patrologia Latina 17: Col 0736A-0736C. The text incipit for the first
lesson at matins on the Feast of St. Agnes at Barking Abbey is “Diem fes-
tum,” the beginning of this Passio (Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 182). [Regarding
these things, St. Agnes is said to have given the young man this reply: Be
gone from me, you spark of sin; begone from me you sustenance of crime,
you food of death; for I am already taken by another lover, far nobler in class
and rank than you, who has given me better adornments and has made me
his betrothed with the ring of faith. He has adorned my right arm with a
priceless bangle and has encircled my neck with precious stones. He has
placed priceless pearls on my ears and bestowed upon me glittering and bril-
liant gems. He has placed a sign on my face that I should have no other lover
beside himself. He has clothed me in a cloak woven with gold and has
adorned me with innumerable jewels. He has shown me incomparable trea-
sures which he has promised to give me if I remain in his love. Therefore, I
am unable to insult my love by even looking at another or to leave him to
whom I am bound by love, whose generosity is greater, whose power to act
is stronger, whose appearance is more beautiful, whose love is sweeter, and
who is more refined in every grace. He has prepared for me a bedroom
where instruments resound for me with musical tones and where his virgins
sing for me with most perfect voices. Milk and honey have I received from
his mouth; in his chaste embraces I have been taken; his body has been
united with my body and his blood has adorned my cheeks. His mother was
a virgin; his father knew not a woman. The angels serve him, and the sun
and moon admire his beauty. His scent revives the dead; the sick are com-
forted by his touch. His wealth never fails and his riches never diminish. To
him alone am I faithful; to him I commit myself with complete devotion.
Although I have loved him, I am chaste; although I have touched him, I am
pure; although I have received him, I am a virgin. We will not lack for chil-
dren after marriage, and their birth will occur without pain and fecundity
will increase daily]. (Translation by Jesse Mann).
 NOTES 289

21. The rubrics vary widely in indicating which chants should be sung by nuns
singly and which as a group. Often the pontifical rubrics are given in the
singular form anyway so it is hard to tell what is intended. Some manu-
scripts do make a distinction between chants that are sung communally and
ones that are sung individually.
22. John Alcock, (Spousage of a Virgin to Christ): An Exhortacyon Made to
Relygyous Systers (1486; repr., Norwood, NJ: Walter J. Johnson, 1974), no
page numbers.
23. The bishop quotes liberally from the church “fathers” and from the scrip-
tures throughout the sermon.
24. The term cheironomic indicates the probable origin of such symbols in the
hand signals of the leader of the choir.
25. Two other eleventh-century pontificals (London, B.L. Claudius A.iii and
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 44) include the responsory chant Audi
filia et vide which does not appear in any other English sources for this ser-
vice despite the close connection between the text (Psalm 44:11–12) and
the imagery of the nun as bride of Christ. (The chant is part of several
Marian services as well as the liturgies for other female saints.) It is cited at
the opening of Part III of the Speculum Virginum and Morgan Powell argues
that it originally opened the entire work. As he states in the article abstract,
“The commentary on these verses highlights the importance of auditory
and visual means of communication. This pedagogically innovative treatise
offered a new way by which spiritual directors could present traditional
teaching, providing women with alternative access to and participation in
the revelation of religious truth.” Morgan Powell, “The Speculum Virginum
and the Audio-Visual Poetics of Women’s Religious Instruction,” in Listen,
Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and the Formation of Religious Women in
the Middle Ages, ed. Constant J. Mews (New York: Palgrave Press, 2001),
p. 111. Later consecration services seem, instead, to have used a formulation
that stresses the action of the nuns in approaching the bishop as well as lis-
tening: “Venite, venite, venite filie audite me timorem domini docebo vos”
(Come, come, come daughters listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the
Lord).
26. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 163, p. 257.
27. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 163, p. 257.
28. I have not noticed this rubric in any other manuscript. Some of my col-
leagues in the North American Academy of Liturgy suggested that this may
mean “standing around” rather than “standing in a circle.”
29. The earlier rubric about specific feast days is often expanded to include all
“solemn” days. For example, in the Pontifical of Bishop Lacy the rubric begins
“Ordo consecrationis virginum, qui die sollempni est facienda, fiat hoc modo”
(Let the Order of the Consecration of Virgins, which should be celebrated on
a solemn day, be done in this manner). Barnes, Liber Pontificalis, p. 114.
30. See note 20 above for the full text from Ambrose.
31. The text for this chant first appears in the English sources for the consecra-
tion service in three twelfth-century pontificals: Cambridge University
290 NOTES

Library Ee.ii.3, Cambridge Trinity College 249, and British Library

Tiberius B.viii. It is a regular feature in later English versions of the service
although I believe it was never introduced into the Roman pontifical.
32. The chant also exists in a slightly different version in Reigate, Parish
Church, Cranston Library 2322, f. 158r-v. The responsory chant is notated
beginning on a and is similar although not exactly the same as other elabo-
rate versions. The v. text however is different: Iam corpus eius corpori meo
sociatum est sanguis eius ornavit genas meas cuius mater virgo est cuius feminam
nescit. The chant is found in the “Ordo faciendum in professione sororis” of
the manuscript. The volume belonged to the Franciscan nuns in London. I
am indebted to Hilary Ely of the library for her generous assistance in pro-
viding me with digital images of several portions of the manuscript.
33. Two sources notate it beginning on the low D and one on G with a B-flat
indicated. The Franciscan source mentioned in the previous note starts it
on A.
34. In its capacity in the services for St. Agnes, the chant appears in the Sarum
Antiphonal (Walter Howard Frere, ed., Antiphonale Sarisburiense [London:
n.p., 1901], p. 374) beginning on the low D and in the Worcester Antiphonal
(André Mocquereau, ed., Antiphonaire monastique XIIIe siècle, Codex F. 160
de la Bibliothèque de la Cathédrale de Worcester, Paléographie Musicale, 12
[1922; repr., Berne: Herbert Land, 1971], p. 254) beginning on G with a B-
flat notated.
35. See, e.g., the exchange in Cambridge UL Mm.iii.3 as found in W. Maskell,
Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesia Anglicana, 1st ed., 2 vols. (London: William
Pickering, 1846), 2:313–15.
36. Joseph Gajard, Le Codex VI.34 de la Bibliothèque Capitulaire de Bénévent
(XI–XIIe siècle). Graduel de Bénévent avec Prosaire et Tropaire, Paléographie
Musicale 15 (Tournay, Belgium: Deselee, 1937), f. 250v.
37. Cambridge UL Ee.ii.3, f. 98.
38. According to the Catholic Encyclodpedia s.v. “Banns of Marriage,” the cus-
tom of announcing marriage banns developed in France in the late twelfth
and early thirteenth centuries. Since this manuscript is from the twelfth cen-
tury, it may be that the procedure in consecration ceremonies preceded that
in secular marriages.
39. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis, p. xxxix.
40. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C. 425, f. 89v.
41. This gospel story is also a very popular text for preaching when bishops visit
nunneries.
42. For an edition of the chants from Cambridge UL Mm.iii.3 see Anne
Bagnall Yardley, “The Marriage of Heaven and Earth: A Late Medieval
Source of the Consecratio Virginum,” in Studies in Medieval Music: Festschrift for
Ernest H. Sanders, ed. Peter M. Lefferts and Brian Seirup Current Musicology
45–47(1990):305–324.
43. Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, 2:308–309.
44. Neither manuscript actually preserves the music for the chant although
there are lines for it. The Cambridge UL Mm.iii.3 manuscript text is
 NOTES 291

published in Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, 2:308–331. The scriptural refer-

ence is to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25)—a pas-
sage that is read regularly in the liturgy for the feasts of virgins.
45. See Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, pp. 313–15 for the entire text in a late
medieval service, Cambridge UL Mm.iii.3.
46. Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, p. 317.
47. Walter W. Skeat, Aelfric’s Lives of Saints, being a Set of Sermons on Saints’ Days
formerly observed by the English Church, Early English Text Society, o.s. 76
(London: N. Trübner, 1881), p. 199, lines 39–52.
48. Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, p. 329.
49. See Bruce Holsinger’s chapter “Sine Tactu Viri: The Musical Somatics of
Hildegard of Bingen,” in his Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture:
Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
2001) for a fascinating discussion of homoeroticism in the music of
Hildegard as well as the importance of pain and its representation in music.

Chapter 7 A Case Study in Benedictine

Practices: Barking Abbey
1. Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, eds., Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of
the English People, book IV, chapter 6 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969),
pp. 354, 356.
2. Colgrave and Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, pp. 355, 357.
3. Thomas Symons, trans. and ed., Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis
Monachorum Sanctimonialiumque (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1953),
“Introduction,” pp. ix–xxviii.
4. Susan K. Rankin, “The Mary Magdalene Scene in the ‘Visitatio Sepulchri’
Ceremonies,” in Early Music History I: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern
Music, ed. Iain Fenlon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 249.
5. For an interesting discussion of the intersection of patronage and politics
during the twelfth century, see Emily Mitchell, “Patrons and Politics at 12th
Century Barking Abbey,” Revue Bénédictine 113:2(2003):347–64. Mitchell
concludes, “Barking Abbey had been subject to political interventions from
successive royal houses for a hundred years, and by the end of the twelfth
century was the subject of explicit royal interference. The nunnery was
being involved in political events in ways outside its control, but the
abbesses were evidently aware of what was happening, and made the best of
it that they could; . . . The assumption that one became separated from the
world on entry into a religious community was clearly not true; these
women gained access to channels of power which were mostly denied to
them in the secular world, and found new ways in which to express them-
selves,” p. 364.
6. David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English
Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 1995), pp. 107–120.
292 NOTES

7. Corrodiers or corrodians were boarders who paid a lump sum of money to

the nunnery in exchange for perpetual board and room. Nunneries make
such arrangements to improve the cash flow, although it often has a long-
term effect of impoverishing the house. See Eileen Power, Medieval English
Nunneries c. 1275–1535 (1922; repr., New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1964),
206fn.
8. Victoria County History, A History of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, vol. 2
(London: Published for the University of London Institute of Historical
Research, reprinted by Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1973), p. 124.
9. See Power, Medieval English Nunneries. The discussion of education in nun-
neries is found on pages 260–84; the appendix containing all of the appro-
priate sections from bishops’ records is found on pages 568–581.
10. For careful studies of the role of children in other monastic institutions, see
Susan Boynton, “The Liturgical Role of Children in Monastic Customaries
from the Central Middle Ages,” Studia Liturgica 28(1998):194–209 and the
forthcoming article by Susan Boynton and Isabelle Cochelin, “The
Sociomusical Role of Child Oblates at the Abbey of Cluny in the Eleventh
Century,” in Susan Boynton and Roe-Min Kok, Different Childhoods: Music
and the Cultures of Youth. (Wesleyan University Press, 2006).
11. J.B.L. Tolhurst, ed., The Ordinale and Customary of the Benedictine Nuns of
Barking Abbey, Henry Bradshaw Society, vols. 65–66 (London: Harrison
and Sons, 1927), p. 369.
12. See, e.g., the injunction to Kedholme Priory on May 12, 1319 in David
Robinson, ed., The Register of William Melton Archbishop of York 1317–1340,
vol. 2, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 71 (Torquay: Devonshire Press,
1978), p. 50, item no. 26.
13. There were other feasts during Christmastide that also included role rever-
sals and some degree of humor. The Feast of Fools, usually fell on January 1
(Feast of the Circumcision). It was usually celebrated by subdeacons. It was
not celebrated at Barking. See New Catholic Encylopedia s.v. “Feast of Fools.”
14. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 33.
15. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 34.
16. Charles Trice Martin, ed., Registrum Epistolarum Fratris Johannis Peckham
Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis (London: Longman, 1882), I:82–83.
17. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 34.
18. See the discussion of materials from Wherwell Abbey in chapter 3 for infor-
mation on vocal exercises and the Guidonian hand.
19. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 127.
20. Ernst A. Kock, ed., Three Middle-English Versions of the Rule of St. Benet and
Two Contemporary Rituals for the Ordination of Nuns, Early English Text
Society, o.s. 120 (1902; Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1972), p. 31. This
is Chapter 45 of the Benedictine Rule on “Mistakes in the Oratory.”
21. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 15.
22. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 98.
23. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 99.
24. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 14.
 NOTES 293

25. Compare with the Wintney Version of the Benedictine Rule where the
priest reads the gospel and begins Te decet laus, chapter 1.
26. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 25.
27. Alejandro Enrique Planchart, The Repertory of Tropes at Winchester, 2 vols.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), II:300.
28. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 25.
29. Planchart includes the Kyrie genitor rex (#7), Kyrie lux et origo lucis (#12) and
Kyrie rex genitor (#8). Repertory, II:241–264.
30. See David Hiley, Western Plainchant: A Handbook (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1993), p. 155. Kyrie melodies are catalogued in Margaretha Landwehr-
Melnicki, Das Einstimmige Kyrie des Lateinischen Mittelalters (Regensburg,
Forschungsbeiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 1, 1955). See also David Hiley,
“Ordinary of Mass Chants in English, North French, and Sicilian
Manuscripts,” Journal of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society 9(1986):
1–56, 57–128.
31. Planchart includes Quem cives caelestem (#15) and Te unum deum (#20).
Repertory, II: 264–316.
32. Hiley, Western Plainchant, p. 161.
33. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 138.
34. For example, Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 278.
35. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 140.
36. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 310.
37. Hiley, Western Plainchant, p. 172.
38. For a definitive study of the Parisian sequence, see Margot Fassler’s work,
especially Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-
Century Paris (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
39. Hiley, Western Plainchant, pp. 194–95.
40. Feasts of this rank were “lower” than principal and double feasts as well as
those of twelve lessons. McLachlan notes that there are a dozen saints of the
rank “cum sequentia,” Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 382. Most of the occasions that
were higher in liturgical rank also included a sequence for the feast day.
41. David Hiley, “Post-Pentecost Alleluias in Medieval British Liturgies,” in
Music in the Medieval English Liturgy: Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society
Centennial Essays, ed. Susan Rankin and David Hiley (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1993), pp. 165–66.
42. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., s.v. “Prosula”
(Washington, DC: Grove’s Dictionary of Music, c. 1980). Ruth Steiner’s
extensive work on this repertory includes “The Responsories and Prosa for
St. Stephen’s Day at Salisbury,” Musical Quarterly 56(1970):162–82 and
“Some Melismas for Office Responsories,” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 26(1973):108–131 as well as the article in the New
Grove. Thomas Kelly has also contributed several works in this area of chant
research including “New Music from Old: The Structuring of Responsory
Proses,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 30(1977):366–90.
43. Hiley, Western Plainchant, p. 207.
44. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 167.
294 NOTES

45. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 323.

46. Hiley, Western Plainchant, p. 205.
47. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 55. “Ad primam” through page 58 “Ad Primam.”
48. Inge B. Milfull, The Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church: A Study and Edition
of the “Durham Hymnal” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
This volume includes an edition and translation into English of the Latin
hymns as well as the interlinear Anglo-Saxon gloss where appropriate.
49. Gernot R. Wieland, The Canterbury Hymnal: Edited from British Library
MS. Additional 37517 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, c.
1982).
50. Guido Maria Dreves, Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, vol. 9, Sequentiae
Ineditae. Liturgische Prosen des Mittelalters (1890; repr., New York: Johnson
Reprint Corporation, 1961), nos. 204, 206, 207, 208.
51. Anne Bagnall Yardley, “Was Anonymous a Woman?” in Women Composers:
Music Through the Ages, ed. Martha Furman Schleifer and Sylvia Glickman,
vol. 1, Composers Born Before 1599 (New York: G.K. Hall, 1996), pp.
69–72.
52. For an edition of the portions of Jocelyn’s works that relate to Barking
Abbey, see Marvin L. Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn of Canterbury which
Relate to the History of Barking Abbey,” Studia Monastica 7:2(1965):
383–460.
53. Hic relictum librum missalem, quem memorabilis Vulfruna scripserat, pres-
biter, raptorum comes, clam abstulit et in suam parrochiam trans mare
asportauit (This priest, an associate of a thief, secretly carried off and trans-
ported across the sea to his church the forsaken book pertaining to the mass,
which the memorable Vulfruna had written.). Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn,”
p. 416.
54. Notes to the author in an email correspondence. I am indebted to her
expertise on this matter.
55. I am especially indebted to Dr. Jesse Mann for his help in translating these
three hymn texts about Ethelburga.
56. That is, this abbey (hoc septum).
57. See Jocelyn, Chapter 17, in Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn,” p. 415. One of the
women went to the shrine of Ethelburga, one to Hildelith, and one to
Wulfhilda.
58. Dreves, Analecta Hymnica, 9: #206.
59. See Jocelyn, chapter 13 for the way in which the lion, the bear, and the wolf
helped to turn away the Danes when they attacked Barking. See Colker,
“Texts of Jocelyn,” pp. 412–13. Chapter 18 tells of the cure of the young
girl. See Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn,” pp. 415.
60. Dreves, Analecta Hymnica, 9: #207. There is a fifth verse with a standard
doxology.
61. An explicit prayer to Ethelburga is given in Jocelyn, Chapter 20: “O sanctis-
sima uirgo Athelburga, recognosco et confiteor meam iniquitatem, sicut
uideo in me grassari hanc tempestatem et fraudatorem eclesiae tuae redarguere
et spolium quod abstuli districtione loetali exigere. Sed nunc, domina, non
 NOTES 295

solum impunitatem uerum etiam adiutorium tuum presumo quatenus in

portum salutis deducar interuentu tuo benignissimo. Promitto enim ex
animo me monasterium tuum reuisurum et hoc debitum cum satisfactione
redditurum” [O most holy virgin, Ethelburga, I recognize and confess my
sin, as I look upon this storm advancing on me, both to refute a cheater of
your church and to expel the booty that was snatched away by deadly force.
But now, lady, I presume upon not only true safety but also your aid to lead
me into the harbor of salvation by your most favorable intervention. I
promise indeed from my soul to revisit your monastery and to pay back this
debt with satsifaction]. Colker, “Texts of Jocelyn,” p. 417.
62. Dreves, Analecta Hymnica, 9: #208. This hymn also has a fifth verse with a
standard doxology.
63. Or possibly “It.” According to Jesse Mann, “the subject of jactat is uncer-
tain. It could be lumen (from the preceding stanza) or it could be
Ethelburga. I lean towards Ethelburga.”
64. Hebrews 12:1.
65. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 382. In these notes McLachlan also discusses
St. Tortith, St. Esica, and St. Edith.
66. The calendar is found in Tolhurst, Ordinale, I:1–12.
67. This is an unusual indication on the calendar: “This day the bier of
St. Ethelburga is put away. Mass is at her altar.” Ethelburga was buried with
Hildelith and Wulfilde and as McLachlan notes their shrine was a major pil-
grimage place in England: “The shrine in which she and her companion-
saints rested was placed to the east of the high altar, and was a centre of
pilgrimage and devotion in Catholic England,” Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 382.
Despite the mention in the calendar, the ordinal does not indicate any place
else that this should happen.
68. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 149.
69. See hymn for vespers above.
70. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 320.
71. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 382 (Dame Laurentia McLachlan, O.S.B., is the
author of the notes in the Tolhurst edition).
72. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 320.
73. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 320.
74. Tolhurst, Ordinale p. 372.
75. Tolhurst, Ordinale, p. 35.

Chapter 8 The Bridgettine Nuns of Syon Abbey

1. The catalogue from the library of the Syon brothers is extant and has been
published by Vincent Gillespie, Syon Abbey, vol. 9, Corpus of British Medieval
Library Catalogues (London: British Library, 2001). Since this volume does
not contain any of the manuscripts especially ascribed to the nuns, it is
not especially germane to our study. Gillespie does, however, offer a nice
statement about the role of the Syon Brothers that helps to put them in
296 NOTES

context: “Perhaps because the order was brought to England as part of a

campaign to uphold rigour and orthodoxy against heterodox thought and
teaching, it may have been that the brethren deliberately played safe with
the materials they produced, especially those that might circulate outside
the enclosure—or played safer still by not producing any materials of that
kind at all. Their caution might have been reinforced by the threats of neo-
Lollardy and Lutheranism . . . .While otheres engaged in disputational
pyrotechnics, Syon stood for stability and sound doctrine, plainly taught by
men of integrity,” p. lx. He also suggests that the men had a reputation “for
previous secular academic brilliance rather than mystical or spiritual excel-
lence,” p. lxi. The nuns seem to have had more intellectual interchanges
with the Carthusian monks at Sheen.
2. The authorship of this volume has been the subject of much scholarly
debate. In the preface to Blunt’s edition he suggests that Thomas Gascoigne
of Merton College Oxford wrote the volume. See John Henry Blunt, ed.,
The Myroure of oure Ladye Containing a Devotional Treatise on Divine Service,
with a Translation of the Offices Used by the Sisters of the Brigittine Monastery of
Sion at Isleworth, During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Early English
Text Society, e.s. 19. (1873; repr., Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1973, p.
ix). Collins argues that the author must certainly have been a member of the
order himself and suggests that the first confessor-general of the men,
Thomas Fishbourne, is the most likely candidate. See A. Jefferies Collins,
The Bridgettine Breviary of Syon Abbey from the MS with English Rubrics F.4.11
at Magdalene College Cambridge (Worcester: Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1969),
p. xxxvii–xl. Bell also deals with these questions briefly in his listing of man-
uscripts from Syon. See David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries
in Medieval English Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo,
MI.: Cistercian Publications, 1995), p. 175.
3. Much of the material in this section comes from the author’s article
“Bridgettine Spirituality and Musical Practices at Syon Abbey,” James Hogg,
ed., Studies in St. Birgitta and the Brigittine Order, vol. 2, Analecta Cartusiana
35:19 (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993):199–214. For a discussion of
the foundation of the Abbey, see David Knowles, The Religious Orders in
England, vol. II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957), pp.
175–81. Collins offers a good summary of the history of the Bridgettines as
well in his introduction.
4. Collins, Bridgettine Breviary, xiii. See also Neil Beckett, “St. Bridget, Henry
V and Syon Abbey,” in Hogg, Studies, p. 125–50.
5. George James Aungier, The History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, the
Parish of Isleworth, and the Chapelry of Hounslow Compiled from public records,
ancient manuscripts, ecclesiastical and other authentic documents (London: J. B.
Nichols and Sons, 1840), p. 324. Also see James Hogg, The Rewyll of Seynt
Sauioure, vol. 4 (Salzburger Studien zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Bd. 6;
Salzburg, 1980), p. 107.
6. These readings are available in Sten Eklund, ed., Sancta Birgitta, Opera
Minora II: Sermo Angelicvs (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1972). They are
 NOTES 297

also available in both Latin and in modern English translation on the inter-
net. (http://www.umilta.net/1syon.html) accessed December 27, 2005.
7. Bridget was undoubtedly influenced by the Marian offices popular in the
later Middle Ages, but the Cantus sororum includes much original material.
8. See Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 171–210. Bell’s listings incoporate much
useful information about the volumes and some editions of them.
Christopher de Hamel’s work Syon Abbey: The Library of the Bridgettine Nuns
and Their Peregrinations after the Reformation (London: Roxburghe Club,
1991) is an in-depth study of the library. See also Ann Hutchison, “What
the Nuns Read: Literary Evidence from the English Bridgettine House,
Syon Abbey,” Mediaeval Studies 57(1995):205–222.
9. Rebecca Krug, Reading Families: Women’s Literate Practice in Late Medieval
England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), p. 157. Chapter 4 of this
book is devoted to reading practices at Syon.
10. See C. Annette Grise, “ ‘In the blessid vyneerd of oure holy saueour’:
Female Religious Readers and Textual Reception in the Myroure of oure
Ladye and the Orcherd of Syon,” in The Medieval Mystical Tradition England,
Ireland and Wales Exeter Symposium VI, ed. Marion Glasscoe (Cambridge:
D.S. Brewer, 1999), pp. 193–211. Grise offers an interesting analysis of the
images and status of Syon nuns as upper class women in the “domesticated
space” of the nunnery (p. 203). She discusses the metaphor of the liturgy as
a coat for the queen of heaven and compares it to other instances of needle-
work as an image for women’s work (pp. 201–202). Many writers of the
late Middle Ages, including the author of Why I Can’t be a Nun, mock the
nunnery as lacking in spiritual graces and seem to seek its demise instead.
(ed. James Dean and available online at www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/
teams/nonunfrm.htm [accessed February 19, 2005]).
11. See discussions of this chapter of the Benedictine Rule in chapter 1 of this
book.
12. Blunt, Myroure, p. 32.
13. See Hutchison, “What the Nuns Read,” pp. 210–212 and Ann Hutchison,
“The Nuns of Syon Abbey in Choir: Spirituality and Influences,” in
Medieval Spirituality in Scandinavia and Europe: A collection of Essays in Honour
of Tore Nyberg, ed. Lars Bisgaard et al. (Odense: Odense University Press,
2001), pp. 269–70 for additional information on St. Maude (Mechtild of
Hackeborn) and her place in Myroure.
14. These seven items are enumerated and explicated on pages 32–35 of Blunt,
Myroure.
15. Alfred A. Tomatis is especially known for his work on the healing powers
of Gregorian chant in particular and music in general.
16. Blunt, Myroure, p. 49.
17. Blunt, Myroure, p. 50.
18. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 359; Hogg, Rewyll, p. 147.
19. Blunt, Myroure, pp. 39–40.
20. Ann M. Hutchison, “The Myroure of oure Ladye: A Medieval Guide for
Contemplatives,” in Hogg, Studies, p. 226.
298 NOTES

21. See Ann Hutchison, “The Nuns of Syon Abbey in Choir,” pp. 265–74, for
a perceptive examination of political as well as spiritual factors that impact
the English choice of Bridgettine communal worship for this fifteenth-
century house. This article deals with many of the issues that I deal with in
this section on Syon Abbey.
22. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 322; Hogg, Rewyll, p. 105.
23. St. Bridget, Reuelaciones Extrauagantes, ed. Lennart Hollman (Uppsala:
Almqvist and Wiksells Boktryckeri Av, 1956), p. 116. This is from
Chapter III.
24. Blunt, Myroure, p. 34–35.
25. Blunt, Myroure, p. 56.
26. Blunt, Myroure, p. 58.
27. See Blunt, Myroure, pp. 52–53 for skipping notes and pages 57–59 for pitch-
ing things too high.
28. Blunt, Myroure, pp. 59.
29. Blunt, Myroure, p. 59. For the original version, see St. Bridget, Reuelaciones
Extrauagantes, p. 118. Bridget calls upon the nuns to imitate the sound of the
Carthusians.
30. St. Bridget, Reuelaciones Extrauagantes, p. 118.
31. Frank Ll. Harrison writes, “The rule of the Brigittine nuns of Syon con-
tained a forthright prohibition of polyphony and of organs in their offices.
In the Hours services their singing was to be ‘sadde sober and sym-
ple . . . distyncte and open,’ ” Music in Medieval Britain, 2nd ed. (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964), p. 193. He then points out that an early
polyphonic setting for organ of the offertory “felix namque” is based on the
Brigittine version of the chant and offers the suggestion that it may have
come from the brothers at Syon Abbey.
32. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 320; Hogg, Rewyll, p. 102.
33. Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 359–61; Hogg, Rewyll, p. 147–50. See
appendix B which includes the entire description of the chantress’s duties.
34. See the description in the chapter on processions in which the nuns are told
to leave the appropriate space in the processions so that “eche may here
other and beware of discorde” (each may hear the other and be careful of
discord). See Aungier, History and Antiquities, p. 339; Hogg, Rewyll, p. 128.
35. Blunt, Myroure, p. 57.
36. The text is edited by A. Jefferies Collins. See table 8.1. The musical reper-
toire found on these folios includes the end of the Te Deum, the incipit for
the antiphon Domum tuam, a fragment of Psalm 92, the second half of the
antiphon Benedictus dominus deus Israel for Sunday lauds, the memorial
antiphon Gaude birgitta, two troped settings of the Benedicamus Domino, Ave
Maria, the hymn for the lesser hours on Sunday O veneranda trinitas, a por-
tion of the hymn for Saturday lauds, the antiphon for the Benedictus for
Saturday lauds Que est ista que ascendit, and the hymn for the lesser hours on
Saturday Virgo passentem.
37. Blunt, Myroure, p. 95.
 NOTES 299

38. Blunt, Myroure, p. 95.

39. A study of the relative lengths of the chants, for example shows that the
chants for the Benedictus average 157 notes per chant while the compline
antiphon has only 59. Similarly the ratio of notes to syllables is a very low
1.32 for the Nunc Dimittis antiphons but 1.72 for the Magnificat.
40. Viveca Servatius, Cantus Sororum: Musik-und liturgiegeschichtliche Studien zu
den Antiphonen des birgittinischen Eigenrepertoires Nebst 91 Transkriptionen, Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia musicologica Upsaliensia Nova Series 12,
distributor: Almqvist Wiksell International Stockholm, Sweden (Uppsala:
1990).
41. Tryggve Lundén, Den heliga Birgitta och den helige Petrus av Skänninge.
Officium parvum beate Marie Virginis, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studie
Historico Ecclesiastica Upsaliensia (1976) I:CXI.
42. Collins, Bridgettine Breviary, p. 31.
43. Blunt, Myroure, p. 163.
44. There is one extant hymnal from Syon Abbey, Manchester, Chetham’s
Library, 27907. David Bell lists it in his category of manuscripts
that could be either for the brothers or the sisters. He disagrees with
Ker’s assignation of the manuscript to the brothers. See Bell, What Nuns
Read, p. 205. However, the manuscript is clearly not for the nuns as it
contains virtually none of their hymn repertoire. Indeed the only two
hymns that are included are Ave maris stella and Quem terra pontus etherea,
two of the hymns that the nuns incorporate in their liturgy from preex-
isting sources.
45. Collins, Bridgettine Breviary, p. 15.
46. These chants are Gaude visceribus, Fit porta christi pervia, Quem terra pontus
etherea, Ave maris stella, O gloriosa domina, and O quam glorifica luce choruscas.
See Collins, Bridgettine Breviary, pp. xviii–xx for a discussion of Peter’s role.
See also the recent work of Ann-Marie Nilsson in On Liturgical Hymn
Melodies in Sweden During the Middle Ages (Göteborg: Musikvetenskapliga
insitutionen, 1991). Nilsson provides an English abstract of her chapter on
the hymns of the Cantus sororum (pp. 25–28 for abstract; pp. 91–120 for the
chapter in Swedish).
47. See Nilsson, On Liturgical, pp. 114–18 for information on the sources of
tunes.
48. Collins, Bridgettine Breviary, p. 25.
49. To my knowledge there is no modern musical edition of these chants in any
of the studies of the continental repertoire either.
50. Some antiphons are used as part of the processional liturgy as well, usually
upon the entrance into the choir.
51. These are given in both Latin and English in Cambridge, St. John’s MS 11.
52. Aungier, History and Antiquities, pp. 310–311. See Hogg, Rewyll, p. 92.
53. Krug, Reading Families, p. 162.
54. Matilda Newton served as Syon’s first abbess but was deposed in a contro-
versy. See Krug, Reading Families, p. 163.
300 NOTES

Appendix B: The Role of the Chantress

at Syon Abbey
1. All descriptions taken from George J. Aungier, The History and Antiquities of
Syon Monastery, the Parish of Isleworth, and the Chapelry of Hounslow. Compiled
from public records, ancient manuscripts, ecclesiastical and other authentic documents
(London: J.B. Nichols and Sons, 1840), “Of the Office of the Chantress,”
pp. 359–61; “Of the Office of the Subchantress,” pp. 361–62; Chapter
XXVI, pp. 334–36.
2. This word should read syngyng. See James Hogg, The Rewyll of Seynt
Sauioure (Salzburger Studien zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, vol. 6;
Salzburg, 1980), p. 148.
3. This parenthetical phrase is added in the margin.
4. This parenthetical phrase is also added in the margin.

Appendix D: The Visitatio from the

Wilton Processional
This transcription from the copy in Solesmes has been prepared by the author with
the assistance of Jesse Mann. I am grateful to the monks of Solesmes for permission
to publish the translation. Dr. Mann has done most of the work on the translation
as well. I am most appreciative of all of his help with this. I hope, in including this
transcription and translation, to make this version of the Visitatio available for per-
formance. Performing groups are welcome to make copies of this appendix as long
as appropriate credit is given to this publication. Dr. Mann and I are aware of the
work of Susan Rankin and her transcription of this work. Although we have con-
sulted it, our decisions have been made independently. The scribe who copied this
manuscript at the Abbey of Solesmes in the middle of the nineteenth century does
not appear to have been particularly adept at Latin grammar. Thus there are many
mistakes in this copy. For example, the plural of Maria is listed as Marias rather than
Mariae all the way through the manuscript. I have not noted each of these changes.
I note here other changes made in the text giving first the word in the edition fol-
lowed by the word in the Solesmes version.:
1a. restituant/restuant; levent/texant; ceu/seu; 1b. errant/erant; 1c. unguento/
unguentum; 1d. hostio/hostium; 1e. oblatum/obtatum; 7. revocat/revoc; 8. phila-
teria/philasia; que/qua; autem/aut; 9. ille/illi; 10. sepulchro/sepulchrum; 11. fem-
inas/feminans; 13. quod/qui; 15. sepulchro/sepulchrum; 17. percutiat/percutiet;
spiculo/spicula; monachae/monachas; dicens/dicant; 20. turbe/turba; fallaci/
vallaci; 21. dicat/dicatur; 22. nostri/nostre.
1. The Marys do not usually wear phylacteries. If anyone in the drama has one,
it is usually Jesus. As Dunbar H. Ogden writes, “In biblical usage phylacter-
ies were small cases with sacred texts written on them; they were attached to
forehead or arm, as a reminder to keep the Law. The phylactery in the play
may be different, perhaps an amulet containing relics. At Easter time special
attention was devoted to relics. They were often covered on Good Friday
 NOTES 301

and uncovered on Easter morning. In any case, if Christ does have a ‘costly
phylactery,’ it probably hangs from a head-band or headdress.” The Staging of
Drama in the Medieval Church (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2002),
p. 129.
2. Eia or Eya is an interjection in Latin. According to the Dictionary of
Ecclesiastical Latin, ed. Leo F. Stelten, the word means “Quick! Come then!
Well!” (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers), p. 84.
3. The Latin word here, textum, can refer to woven cloth. It is not clear
whether or not this is also supposed to refer to a grave cloth as the term sudar-
ium is used in the other rubrics.
4. This action would seem akin to the dubbing of a knight by the lord. I have
not found any other references to this ceremony in discussions of the
Visitatio.
5. Sudarium is usually translated as handkerchief or napkin. It was, however,
also the term used for the grave cloth that wrapped the head. According to
Ogden, in his description of an image, “this drawing shows us a single, open
sarcophagus, viewed from above so as to reveal here two parts of the grave-
cloths—the sudarium, for the head, and the linteamina, the winding-sheet.”
(Staging of Drama, p. 33). I have chosen to just retain the Latin word in this
translation.
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INDEX

abbess Ambrose (pseudo-), 162, 166, 169

acting as Christ at mandatum, Amesbury Abbey, 4, 5
130–39 Amo christum, 169
authority, 43, 49 Ancilla Christi sum, 172
bishop’s authority over, 80 Anna deo vigilavit, 132
blessing a nun, 149 Anne, Saint, 118, 132
Bridgettine, 204 antiphons
consecration of, 44–47, 45 performance in psalmody, 99
images, 48–50 placement in psalter, 97
liturgical leadership, 50–53, 157 Anulo suo, 165
musical responsibilities, 12 architecture
role of, 43, 44–53, 161 of nunneries, 93–94
Abbey of the Holy Ghost, The, relationship to processionals, 113–14
49–50, 55 Syon Abbey, 205–206
Additions to the Rule (Syon Abbey), Arundel’s Consitutions, 24, 78
121, 137, 157, 206, 212, 213, 225 asceticism, 161–62
adoration of the cross (Adoratio), Assit nobis maris amore, 193, 194–95
139–41 195
advent, weekday liturgy, 184 Athanasian Creed, 97
Aelfric, Lives of the Saints, 166, 175, 179 audience, for Visitatio sepulchri, 152
aesthetics, musical, at Syon Abbey, Audivi vocem de celo, 107, 173
212–16 Audley, Anne, 98
Aethelwold, Bishop, 24 Audley, Edmond, 98
Agatha, Saint, 159, 161, 172, 175, 199 Augustinian canonesses, 36–37
Agnes, Saint, 159, 161, 162–63 165, Augustinian rule, 35–36
166, 172, 176, 199
Alcock, John, 167 Barking Abbey, 179–202
Aldgate, The Minories, 17, 39, adoration of the cross, 140–41
102–103, 129, 129, 137 alleluia verses, 190
Alfred, king of England, 19, 97 altars, washing of, 130
alleluia verses, 190 books, distribution of, 74–75
Alnwick, Bishop, 81 Depositio, 141–43
altars, washing of, 130 Descensus, 145–46
Amarson, Anne, 123 Elevatio, 145–46
318 INDEX
Barking Abbey––continued
Feast of Holy Innocents, 182–84
hymns, 192–98
income, 5, 80
library, 180–81
mandatum, 133–34, 137
manuscripts, 78
mass, 187–90
music pedagogy, 184
Palm Sunday rituals, 127–28
participation in Regularis
Concordia, 4, 20
rogation days, 156–57
role of priests, 185–87
rule provided for Ethelburga, 18
small singing group, 50–51
veneration of saints, 198–201
Barking Hymnal, 192–98, 193
Barking Ordinal, 12
ebdomadaria, 67
instructions to cantrix, 55
Office of the Dead, 106–107
processions, 117, 119–21
selection of chants by cantrix, 59–60
Visitatio Sepulchri, 147–53
Beaufou, Olive, 54
Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 3, 18–19,
179–80, 194
Bedingfield, Edmund, 93
Belfeld, Anna, 76
bells
at death rituals, 105
for processions, 120
Benedicamus Domino, 222, 222
Benedicamus virginis filio, 222, 223
Benedictine Rule
abbess, comparison to Christ, 48–49
abbess, role of, 47–49
Anglo-Norman prose version, 17,
25–26, 75–76
Bishop Fox’s version, 17, 32–35
Caxton Abstract, 32
comparison of male/female versions,
20–21
effects of translation, 16, 30–31
liturgical matters, 20–22
Middle English translations, 12
musical practices, 12, 14
Northern Metrical Version, 28–32,
69–70
Northern Prose Version, 17, 26–28,
48–49
punishment for faults, 22
role of priest, 22–23
theology of music, 15, 21–22,
26–27, 30–31
translations, 23–35
Wintney Middle English Version,
17, 24–25
Benevento, gradual of, 170
bishops, see visitations by bishops
Black Death, 4–5, 81
Blanche, Queen of Navarre, 102
Book of Hours, 95–96
books in nunneries, 74–79
annual distribution, 74
necessary liturgical, 92
treatment of, 74–76
Botolff, Johanna, 89
bride of Christ, image of, 159–60, 162,
164, 165–66
Bridget of Sweden, Saint, 204, 205
Fifteen Oes, 97, 103
memorial office, 207
music for, 223–24
performance of liturgy, 212–13
processions for feast days, 119,
205–206, 207
Reuelaciones Extrauagantes,
214–15
Bridgettine Order
brief history, 204–207
liturgy, 203–204, 206, 216–26
see also Syon Abbey
Broadholme Priory, 37
Bruisyard Abbey, 42, 93, 96
Burnham Abbey, 54, 76–77, 110
Byrkenhed, Margery, 116
Caiphas, 128
calendar, liturgical, 6–8, 7, 88–89
Cambridge Hymnal, 192
 INDEX
Campsey Priory, 59
Cannington Priory, 109
Canonsleigh Abbey, 36
cantor, 53–54
cantrix, 12, 43, 53–66
chanting grace, 103
choice of chants, 59, 156–57
cooperation with sacristan, 70–71
maintenance of liturgical books,
58–59
oversight of liturgy, 55–58
processional role, 127
regulation of pitch and tempo, 215
terminology, 54–55
Cantus Sororum, Syon Abbey, 204,
206–207, 216–26
Carrow Priory, 83, 89
Catesby Priory, 86, 88
Catherine, Saint, processional chants,
118
Celo stella, 190
Chartres, processions, 126
Chastising of God’s Children, 78
Chaucer, depiction of prioress, 28
chaunteresse, see cantrix
cheironomic neumes, 101–102
Chester Processional, 65, 116, 126–27
136, 170, 171
Chester, Saint Mary’s Priory, see
Chester Processional
mandatum, 133, 137
washing of altars, 130–32, 131, 132
children, 76, 80, 88, 181
at Barking Abbey, 181–85
boys, 87–88
Palm Sunday processions, 125
choir stalls, nunneries, 93–94
Christe in tuas manus, 106
Christmas, liturgy at Barking Abbey,
186–87
Clemence of Barking, 180, 194
commendatio anime, 14, 102, 103,
104–106
common of virgins, 173, 199
confessor-general, at Syon Abbey, 204
consecration of nuns, 13, 159–77
319
dramatic effects, 174–75
multiple meanings, 176–77
at Syon Abbey, 225–26
Corpus Christi, Feast of, 89–90
Crux fidelis, 140, 143
Dartford Priory, 5, 38–39, 104, 117
death, anniversaries of, 105
death, rituals for, 103–109
de Martivall, Bishop of Salisbury, 161,
172
Deo gracias, polyphonic, 109
depositio (burial of the cross), 139,
140–43
descensus (harrowing of hell), 145–46
devotional literature, 77–78
dissolution of monasteries, 3
Dominican nuns, liturgical practices,
38
Dulci laude, 190
Dulcis ethelburga, 191
Dum fabricator mundi mortis, 143–44
Dunstan, Saint, 101–102
Durand, Guillaume, pontifical, 164
Dyngue, Anne, 123
Easebourne Priory, 36, 91–92, 93
Easter liturgy, see visitatio sepulchri,
elevatio, descensus
ebdomadaria (weekly cantrix), 12, 53,
66–69
Ecce lignum crucis, 143
Edgar, King, 4, 5, 19
Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, 102
Edward III, King, 117
Egbert, Archbishop of York, 164
elevatio (resurrection), 145, 146
Elstow Abbey, 57, 76, 85
Emit maria, 133, 134
enclosure, 16–18, 115
Erkenwald, Saint, hymn for, 192–194
Et exultavit spiritus, polyphony, 109
Ethelbert, 101–102
Ethelburga, Saint, 59, 191–92 198–201
hymns for, 192, 194–98
tropes, 188
320 INDEX

Ethelburga mater, 198, 200 Holy Innocents, Feast of the,

Et nunc sequimur, 167, 169, 170, 171, 182–84
174 Holy Week rituals, 13, 113–58
see also Good Friday; liturgical
Felton, Sybil, abbess, 51–52 drama; Maundy Thursday;
Flemyng, Bishop, 85 Palm Sunday; visitatio sepulchri
Fox, Bishop, 174 Hours of the Virgin, 9, 38, 103
Franciscan friars, relationship to sisters, Hull, Eleanor, 109–10
40 Humbert of Romans, 38
Franciscans, see minoresses
processionals, 117 illuminations, Shaftesbury Psalter, 98–99
Frater erat mente, 116 In bello victus, 131
Frenell, Anne, 103 inclusive language, Caxton Abstract, 32
Induit me dominus, 166, 166, 172
Gaude birgitta, 223, 224 In pace in idipsum, 118, 141, 142
Gaude maria, 191, 191 In parasceue ad crucem adorandam, 98
Gloria laus, 124, 125, 127, 128, In tua iusticia, 99, 100
129 inventories, 91–92
Godstow Abbey, 57, 64 Ipsi sum desponsata, 165–67
Good Friday, novice ritual at Barking Isabella Rule, 39
Abbey, 184–85 Isidore of Seville, 130
Goring Priory, 66
Gracedieu Priory, 37, 52 James, Saint, antiphon, 131, 131
Gray, Bishop, 76 Job, readings for the Office of the
Guidonian hand, 61 Dead, 108
Guyzance Priory, 37, 38 Jocelyn of Canterbury, 194
John de Grandisson, 82
Habitabit in tabernaculo, 141, 142
Haec aulo Christo concinat, 194, 197, Katherine, Saint, antiphon, 131, 131
197 Kelk, Margaret, 86
handiwork, 87 Kilbourn Priory, 92
Harman, Margareta, 59 Kington Saint Michael Priory, 104,
Harrowing of Hell, see 107–108
descensus Knights Hospitaller, 127
Hec est dies, 65, 200
Helfta, 66 Lacock Abbey, 36
Henry V, King, 118, 203, 204 Lady Mass, Bridgettine, 204, 207,
Henry VIII, King, 3, 36, 92 224–25
hexachord, 61, 62 Lambley Priory, 81
Hilda, abbess of Hartlepool, 19 Lateran Council (1215), 35
Hildegard of Bingen, 1, 14, 160 Lay Folks Mass Book, 28
Hildelith, second abbess of Barking, leadership, musical, 43–72
18–19, 180, 189, 194–95 198, Legbourne Priory, 90
199, 201 Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), 166
Hilton, Walter, 78 libraria, 54, 74
 INDEX
Life of St. Katherine, 180, 194
limbo, representation in descensus,
145
Limebrook Priory, 37, 86
Little Marlow Priory, 72, 81, 110
Littlemore Priory, 96, 110
liturgical drama, 145–55, 161, 168
liturgical time, 6–9
Longchamp, 39
Longland, John, Bishop of Lincoln,
52, 83
Lucent Ethelburga mira, 196,
196
Lyminster Priory, 17, 26
Magdalenam sua criminam, 132
magistra scolarium (novice mistress), 60,
181–82, 184
Malet, Cecily, 86
mandatum (foot washing),
132–39
Mandatum novum da vobis, 132–33
manuscripts
Aberdeen, University Library 134: 208
Alnwick Castle, Duke of
Northumberland 505a: 208
Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery 90: 96
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
79: 163
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
163: 163, 165–66, 167–68
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum
2–1957: 103, 106, 108
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum
298: 45
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum
McClean 45: 96
Cambridge, Magdalene
College 11: 208
Cambridge, Magdalene
College 12: 208
Cambridge, Saint John’s
College 68: 96
Cambridge, Saint John’s College
139: 208
321
Cambridge, Saint John’s College
506 and T.9.1 AD 1516: 96
Cambridge, Trinity College B.11.5:
96
Cambridge, Trinity College 249:
163, 170, 170
Cambridge, Trinity College 1226:
192–98, 193
Cambridge, University Library AB
4.64: 17
Cambridge, University Library
Additional 7220: 96
Cambridge, University Library
Additional 7634: 208, 216,
219, 220–21, 222, 223, 224
Cambridge, University Library
Additional 8885: 123, 208
Cambridge, University Library Dd
8.2: 103, 107
Cambridge, University Library
Ee2.3: 163
Cambridge, University Library
Ff6.1: 163
Cambridge, University Library
Ff6.9: 163
Cambridge, University Library Kk
i.6: 109–10
Cambridge, University Library
Ll.ii.10: 172
Cambridge, University Library
Mm3.21: 163
Cambridge, University Library Mm
iii.3: 173
Dublin, Archbishop Marsh’s Library
Z.4.4.3: 208
Exeter Cathedral 3513: 163
Firle Park, Sussex, Lord Gage: 208
London, British Library 378: 36, 17
London, British Library Additional
27866: 63, 96, 99–101
see Wherwell Psalter
London, British Library Additional
39842: 46
London, British Library Additional
40675: 96
322 INDEX
manuscripts––continued
London, British Library Arundel
146: 208
London, British Library Cotton
App. Xiv: 208
London, British Library Cotton
Claudius D.iii: 17
London, British Library Cotton
Nero Aii: 101
London, British Library Cotton
Nero Civ: 96, 98,
see Winchester Psalter
London, British Library Cotton
Vespasian A. xxv: 17, 28–32
London, British Library Egerton
2104A: 109
London, British Library Harley 487:
208
London, British Library Harley 561:
163, 172
London, British Library Lansdowne
383: 96, 98, see Shaftesbury
Psalter
London, British Library Lansdowne
451: 163, 172
London, British Library Sloane
2400: 96
London, Lambeth Palace 3285:
96, 98
London, Private collection P. Getty
Jr: 96
London, Royal College of
Physicians 409: 96
London, Society of Antiquaries 713:
96
London, Society of Antiquaries
717: 38–39, 104, 107,
117, 129
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 6422:
96
Manchester, Chetham’s Library
6717: 96
Oakley Park, Earl of Plymouth: 208
Oxford, Bodleian Library Auct.
D.2.6: 96
Oxford, Bodleian Library Auct.
D.4.7: 208
Oxford, Bodleian Library Barlow
11: 173
Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley
255: 38
Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley
548: 110
Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley
585: 17, 39–42
Oxford, Bodleian Library Laud lat.
114: 96
Oxford, Bodleian Library Liturg.
Misc.: 96
Oxford, Bodleian Library Lyell
23: 96
Oxford, Bodleian Library Pr. Bk.
Arch. A.d.15: 17
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Rawlinson C.400: 163, 172
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Rawlinson C.425: 163, 172
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Rawlinson C.781: 208
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Rawlinson C.941: 208
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Rawlinson G.18: 110
Oxford, Bodleian Library
Rawlinson G.23: 96
Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 5:
163
Oxford, Saint John’s College 167:
208
Oxford, Saint John’s College 187:
208
Oxford, University College 169:
see Barking Ordinal
Reigate Parish Church, Cranston
Library 2322: 102–103,
117–18, 129 see also Aldgate
Horae
Reykjavik, National Museum and
National Library Fragments: 96
Romsey, Parish Church: 96
 INDEX
Salisbury Cathedral 150: 96, 97–8;
see also Salisbury Psalter
St. Petersburg Library, Russia,
Publ. Lib. Q.v.I, 62: 61, 62,
239–42
San Marino, California, Huntington
Library EL 34B.7: 96, 116,
131, 132, 135, 171
see also Chester Processional
San Marino, California, Huntington
Library EL 9H.17: 96
Stockholm, National Museum
NMB 2010: 96
Syon Abbey 1: 208
Syon Abbey 6: 208
Taunton, Somerset County Record
Office DD/SAS C/1193/68:
38–39
Washington, D.C., Library of
Congress 4: 17, 25–26, 75
Wellington, New Zealand, Turnbull
Library: 96
manuscripts, medieval, types of,
95–96
Maria ergo, 133, 134
Maria mater gracie, 219–20
Marian devotion, at Syon Abbey, 124,
203
Marian feasts, 118, 191
Mark, Saint, Feast of, 118, 152, 156,
184
Marten, Anna, 83
Mary Magdalene
antiphon for, 132
in Barking Visitatio Sepulchri,
148–51
chants from feast used for Maundy,
134
in liturgy at Barking, 13
in Wilton Visitatio Sepulchri, 153–55
Mary, sister of St. Thomas of
Canterbury, 201
Mass
capitular, 8, 199
high, 8
323
musical portions, 187–89
role of priest, 18, 27–28, 185–87
Matilda, abbess of Wherwell, 61
Maundy Thursday, 116, 130–39
Mechtild of Hackeborn, 66
medieval liturgy
complexity, 201
dynamic nature, 60, 88–90
medieval religious life, lay
involvement, 78
Mellis stilla, maris stella, polyphony, 110
memorials, 6, 90
minoresses
Appendix to the Rule, 41–42
cantrix, 60, 64–65
choir sisters versus non-choir
sisters, 40
choral participation in mass, 41
confession and communion, 40
ebdomadaria in rule, 67
enclosure, 40
liturgical practices, 39–40
psalmody, 41–42
rule, 39–40
Minories, 39, 102
Missa in Gallicantu (Mass of the Cock’s
Crow), 186
Multone, Matilda, 90
Myroure of oure Ladye, The, 203,
208, 209–12, 213–14, 215–16,
226
Newcastle-on-Tyne Priory, 81
New Hymnal, 192
Nicke, Richard, Bishop, 59, 83, 89
Northern Homily Cycle, 78
novice mistress, see magistra scolarium
novices, at Barking Abbey, 157,
181–85
Nun Appleton Priory, 94
Nun Cotham Priory, 81–82, 83–84, 86
Nunnaminster, see Winchester, Saint
Mary’s Abbey
nunneries
hierarchy, 120
324
nunneries––continued
material culture, 91–94
silence, 80
nuns
composition of music, 194
creativity, 155
entry requirements, 76–77
identity, 179
proficiency in Latin, 77–78
O beate iacobe, Example 131
obedience, vow of, 171–72
Office of the Dead, 2, 8, 9, 13, 18, 38,
61, 95, 97, 99, 101, 104–109,
117, 229
responsory chants, 107–109
Office of the Virgin, 97
O inclite confessor christi, 101–102
O jucundissimam, 225
opus dei, 8, 42
Orcherd of Syon, The, 207, 226
Order of Saint Clare, see minoresses
Ordo consecratio virginum,
see consecration of nuns
Orford Priory, 37
organs, use of in nunneries, 92–93
Origny-Ste-Benoit Abbey, 147, 153
O ueneranda trinitas, 220, 220
Palm Sunday, 124–129
Paradisi porta, polyphony, 109
Peckham, John, 183
Pentecost, 55, 71, 169, 190
performance
carelessness in, 82–84, 212
in a circle, 168
communal, 104
definition of, 9–10
dramatic instructions, 149–50
effect on participants, 152–53
of piety through triduum, 155
polyphonic music, 109–11
rhythmic, 151
at Syon Abbey, 212–14, 215–16, 217
Peter of Skännige, 204, 206, 218,
219–20
INDEX
Philippa, Queen, 82
piety, 10–12
see also spirituality, communal
pilgrimage, 114
Polsloe Priory, 82, 89–90
polyphony, 109–111
Pontifical Romano-Germanique, 163, 165
pontificals, 163–64, 163
Porter, Agnes, 103
Posuit signum in faciem meam, 166,
167
poverty, 80–2
precentrix, 64
see also cantrix
Premonstratensian Order, 37–38
Prick of Conscience, 78
priests, 46, 50–51, 119–20, 185–87
processionals, English, 102–103
processions, 13, 113–58, 204
in consecration ritual, 168, 225
Nativity of Saint Bridget, 223–24
order, 115, 119–24
outside of cloister, 158
pacing, 122
Rogation Days, 156–58
royalty, 120–21
profession of vows, monks, 160
prosae, see prosulas, responsary
prosulas, responsory, 190–92, 191
psalms, division in psalter, 99
psalter, as penance, 86
psalters, 95–101, 96
Quem quaeritis, 147, 151, 153
Quia mirabilis fecit dominum, 100, 100
Redlingfield Priory, 93
refectory, 65, 102, 191, 200
Regnum mundi, 176, 225
Regularis Concordia, 4, 19–20, 118,
124–25, 130, 140–41 144, 147,
154, 180
relics, veneration of, 201
Reliquaries, Feast of, 89
Reuelaciones Extrauagantes, see
Bridget of Sweden, Saint
 INDEX
Revers, Agnes, 58
Rogation Days, 118, 123, 152, 156–58
184
Rolle, Richard, 78
Romsey Abbey, 4, 5, 20, 33, 54
Rouen, Visitatio tradition, 147, 150,
180
Russell, John, Bishop of Lincoln, 44
sacristan, 12, 43, 46, 58, 69–72
Saint Alban’s Abbey, 109–10
Sainte Abbaye, La, 46, 119
saints, veneration of, 192–201
Salisbury Psalter, 97
Salve festa dies, 52, 64, 121, 155, 199
Salve mater ethelburga, 190
Sancta Maria non est tibi similis,
polyphony, 109
Sancte Maria virgo intercede, 109
Sarum Antiphonal, 100, 100, 107
Sarum Processional, 126, 130, 135
Sarum rite, responsory sequence,
107–108
scolares, see novices at Barking Abbey
sepulcher, Easter, 140
Sepulto domino signatum, 118, 141,
142
sequence, 189–90
Sermo Angelicus, 206, 226
sermons, 123, 125–26 152, 167, 200
Shaftesbury Abbey, 4, 5, 20, 80
abbess bequest to cantrix, 106
Commendatio Anime, 104–106
Hours of the Virgin, 103–104
psalters of, 97–99
responsory sequence, 108
Shaftesbury Psalter, 98
Shelford, Elizabeth, 103
Sheppey Priory, 58
Song of Songs, 162, 163, 165
Sopwell Priory, 109
Sospitati, 191, 191
soundscape, 9, 115, 127–28, 139–40,
158, 202
spiritual gifts, invoked at consecration,
164
325
spirituality, communal, 1, 5, 9, 11, 71,
94, 108–109, 177, 198, 216
Spofford, Thomas, Bishop of Hereford,
37, 86
Sponse iungendo filio, 225
Stamford, Saint Michael’s Priory, 17
Steward, Margareta, 83
Stixwould Priory, 37, 85
Studley Priory, 52, 72, 110
subdeacons, role at Barking Abbey,
187
Subvenite sancti dei, 104, 105
Summi regis, 190
Sutton, Katherine, abbess of Barking
Abbey, 52, 145
Swine Priory, 94
Syon Abbey, 5, 203–27
Additions to the Rule, 14, 56–57, 58,
60, 137–38, 235–38
adoration of the cross, 139–40
antiphons, 217–19
begynners, 67–69
breviary, processions, 122–23
consecration of nuns, 225–26
devotional reading, 207
ebdomadaria, 67–69
hymns, 219–21
musical practices, 16, 64, 137–38
processionals, 118–19
processions, 121–23
responsories, 221, 221
spiritual formation of nuns, 209–12
translation of books into English, 78
troped chants, 222–23
tabula, 55, 56
Tanfield, Anicia, 58
Tarrant Abbey, income, 80
Tellus ac ethera, 135, 135, 136
Thetford Priory, 78
Thomas of Canterbury, Saint, Feast of,
89, 184, 201–202
translation, impact on meaning, 24,
27–28, 31, 34
triduum, rituals during, 130–55
tropes, 91–92, 186–89, 222–23
326
Ubi sorores in unum, 134
Urban IV, Pope, 39
Venite et videte locum, 147, 154
Venite, venite, venite, 169, 174
Victimae paschali laudes, 155
Vienne, Council of, 89–90
Virgo passentem, 220
Virtutis dei dextere, 224
visitations by bishops, 79–91
Visitatio Sepulchri, 13, 145, 146–55
Vulfruna (Judith) of Barking, 194
Vultem tristem, 154
Walter de Stapledon, 89–90
Waltham, John, 156
Warner, Agnes, 83
Westminster Abbey, 172
Wherwell Abbey, 4, 5, 13, 20, 70, 92,
96, 99–101, 104, 108, 109, 111
INDEX
music pedagogy, 60–64, 62, 63,
239–42
Wherwell Psalter, 99–101, 104, 107
Wilton Abbey, 4, 5, 20, 116–17
Holy Week rituals, 133, 134, 137,
143–44, 153–55, 243–54
Wilton Processional, 65, 116–17, 128,
134, 147, 148–49
Winchester Psalter, 98
Winchester, Saint Mary’s Abbey, 4, 6,
20, 54, 81, 87, 101–102, 181
Wintney Priory, 17
Wintney Rule, see Benedictine Rule
Wodall, Margarete, 66
Woodlock, Bishop, 87
Worcester Antiphonal, 107
Worldes Blis, polyphony, 110
Wulfhilda, 189, 191, 194, 195,
198, 199
Wycliffite Bible, 78