Order, Order!

Determining Order in English Nunneries

Linda Rasmussen

Abstract

Establishing the order of a monastic community is often an important question in modern scholarship, despite a great degree of uncertainty in contemporary sources regarding this issue, especially concerning nunneries. Most of the time the Stamford nuns seem to have been satisfied with being recognized as holy women. It will be argued here that order was important to medieval nuns in certain specific contexts, and that these instances demonstrate the nuns' distinguished negotiation skills and their considerable understanding of contemporary society.

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Material for Our Medieval Heritage, published by Merton Priory Press ©2002. Web site from the Arts Faculty of the Australian National University.