English Convents in Catholic Europe, c.1600–1800

Abstract

In early December 1563, at its twenty-fifth session, the Council of Trent turned its attention to reform of both male and female religious orders. The resulting chapter five of the Council's decrees stipulated that all communities of female religious should be strictly enclosed. Pointing out that it was renewing the constitution of Pope Boniface VIII, passed in 1298 and known as Periculoso, the Council commanded 'all bishops' to ensure that 'the enclosure of nuns be restored wherever it has been violated and that it be preserved where it has not been violated'.The bishops were told to press ahead with these measures regardless of any opposition, 'even summoning for this purpose, if need be, the aid of the secular arm.' Putting it bluntly, the Council fathers declared that 'no nun shall after her profession be permitted to go out of the monastery, even for a brief period under any pretext whatever, except for a lawful reason to be approved by the bishop … Neither shall anyone, of whatever birth or condition, sex or age, be permitted, under penalty of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto, to enter the enclosure of the monastery without the written permission of the bishop or the superior.' 1 These decrees were affirmed by Pope Pius V's bull, Circa Pastoralis, three years later. 2 It was under these censures that the new convents founded in exile operated. After a postulant's arrival at the convent as discussed in the previous chapter, it was this enclosed environment that defined their new life. Following a few months as a postulant, the community, usually in the form of a chapter meeting, would then decide whether to accept the candidate as a novice. As prescribed by the Council of Trent, the individual would also be interviewed by a representative of the local ordinary to establish their identity and origins, as well to ascertain the credibility of their vocation, plus that it had in no way been coerced. If successful, the candidate would be clothed and take a new name in religion. After their novitiate, which usually lasted a year, the same process of internal convent discussion and external interview took place before an individual proceeded to their final vows and profession as a nun. 3 With their new surroundings defined 1

“For as we all differ in face, so do we differ in the manner of our exercises that are interior” Gertrude More's, Catherine Gascoigne's and Barbara Constable's religious writings through a feminist perspective on religious women’s agency and mysticism

“…From: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100015829 [last accessed: 18 July 2022]. 28 See Kelly (2012).…”