The Customs of Old England | Page 7

of
undyed wool, did not become a nun, but, on his advice, retained her
secular estate and ministered to the needs of the poor. But instances
occur in which vowesses retired from the world and its cares. Elfleda,
niece of King Athelstan, having resolved to pass the remainder of her
days in widowhood, fixed her abode in Glastonbury Abbey; and as late
as July 23, 1527, leave was granted to the Prioress of Dartford to
receive "any well-born matron widow, of good repute, to dwell
perpetually in the monastery without a habit according to the custom of
the monastery." Now and then a widow would completely embrace the
religious life, as is shown by an inscription on the brass of John
Goodrington, of Appleton, Berkshire, dated 1519, which states that his
widow "toke relygyon at y^e monastery of Sion."
The position of vowesses in the eyes of the Church may be illustrated

in various ways. For example, the homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Ælfric
testify to a triple division of the people of God. "There are," says he,
"three states which bear witness of Christ; that is, maidenhood, and
widowhood, and lawful matrimony." And with the quaintness of
mediæval symbolists, he affirms that the house of Cana in Galilee had
three floors--the lowest occupied by believing married laymen, the next
by reputable widows, and the uppermost by virgins. Emphasis is given
to the order of comparative merit thus defined by the application to it of
one of our Lord's parables, for the first are to receive the thirty-fold, the
second the sixty-fold, and the third and highest division the
hundred-fold reward. Similarly, a hymn in the Sarum Missal for the
festival of Holy Women asserts:
Fruit thirty-fold she yielded, While yet a wedded wife; But sixty-fold
she rendered, When in a widowed life.
And a Good Friday prayer in the same missal is introduced with the
words: "Let us also pray for all bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons,
acolytes, exorcists, readers, door-keepers, confessors, virgins, widows,
and all the holy people of God."
In the pontifical of Bishop Lacy of Exeter may be found the office of
the Benediction of a Widow. The ceremony was performed during
mass, and prefixed to the office is a rubric directing that it shall take
place on a solemn day or at least upon a Sunday. Between the epistle
and gospel the bishop, seated in his chair, turned towards the people,
asked the kneeling widow if she desired to be the spouse of Christ.
Thereupon she made her profession in the vulgar tongue, and the
bishop, rising, gave her his blessing. Then followed four prayers, in one
of which the bishop blessed the habit, after which he kneeled, began the
hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus," and at the close bestowed upon the
vowess the mantle, the veil, and the ring. More prayers were said,
wherein the bishop besought God to be the widow's solace in trouble,
counsel in perplexity, defence under injury, patience in tribulation,
abundance in poverty, food in fasting, and medicine in sickness; and
the rite ended with a renewed commendation of the widow to the
merciful care of God.

It is worthy of note that in these supplications mention is made of the
sixty-fold reward which the widow is to receive for her victory over her
old enemy the Devil; and also, that the postulant is believed to have
made her vow with her hands joined within those of the bishop, as if
swearing allegiance.
Several witnesses were necessary on the occasion. When, for instance,
the widow of Simon de Shardlowe made her profession before the
Bishop of Norwich, as she did in 1369, the deed in which the vow was
registered, and upon which she made the sign of the cross in token of
consent, was witnessed by the Archdeacon of Norwich, Sir Simon de
Babingle, and William de Swinefleet. In the same way the Earl of
Warwick, the Lords Willoughby, Scales, and others, were present at the
profession of Isabella, Countess of Suffolk. This noble lady made her
vow in French, as did also Isabella Golafré, when she appeared for the
purpose on Sunday, October 18, 1379, before William of Wykeham,
Bishop of Winchester. Notwithstanding the direction in Bishop Lacy's
pontifical, the vow was sometimes spoken in Latin, an instance of
which is the case of "Domina Alicia Seynt Johan de Baggenet," whose
profession took place on April 9, 1398, in the chapel of the Lord of
Amberley, Sussex.
That the vow was restricted to the obligation of perpetual chastity, and
in no way curtailed the freedom and privileges which the vowess
shared with other ladies, is demonstrated by the contents of various
wills, like that of Katherine of Riplingham, dated February 8, 1473.
Therein she styles herself an "advowess"; but, having forfeited none of