Given that nunneries were comparatively numerous in the East Riding, although all except Swine and Watton (see later) were small, it is worth dwelling on this issue for a while. The maintenance of a nunnery presented considerable logistical problems and Thompson (s.p.b.s) tries to address some of these. Given that the Cistercian Order defined what women could, or more importantly couldn’t do, one wonders how they functioned day-to-day.
The primary function of sisterhood (being a nun) was to follow the daily devotions ordained by the Roman Catholic Church of Christendom across Europe (before the Reformation), these being; matins (2am), Prime (6 or 7 am), tierce, sext, none (followed by lunch in a communal refectory), vesters (supper), compline (7pm in winter 8pm in summer) then to bed in communal dorter. The Cistercian nuns were not expected to engage in manual work to the extent of their brothers and there seems to have been no great tradition of study or writing, indeed critics sometimes characterised nuns as idle, given to gossip (although speaking was strictly regulated) and sloth.
Nunneries were established by the will of barons on land that they endowed, which was the case at Swine, so location was thus determined. In reality nunneries needed men for them to function on a daily basis. First and foremost they needed a chaplain to take mass (women not allowed to). At a nunnery like Swine he would probably have been resident in the gatehouse, physically separate from the nuns, and almost certainly would usually have been a monk of Meaux. As lands endowed increased a well endowed nunnery, like Swine, would need to establish granges (s.p.b.s) these probably overseen by a male bailiff and work on the land done by paid day-labourers or lay brothers from Meaux. As regards building programmes one nun would be allowed to discuss the plans with a contractor but any on-site workers would not be allowed to speak to, or socialise, with the nuns.
The image above is an interesting one for the history of Swine church itself and will be used again in the next blog and explained.
(to be continued, but I am taking a week of to catch-up on other history projects and on the allotment)