WOMEN IN THE CHURCH
A man’s world?
Medieval women may not have been able to join the clergy as they do today. But, says Professor Nicholas Orme, their influence upon religious life was certainly felt in other ways
Describing Church history can give the impression that it is a history of men. Kings, popes, bishops and clergy dominate it, while the roles of women are less apparent. But this is mostly due to surviving records than real circumstances; women made up half of the Church’s membership and they were a large and active part of its life.
Anglo-Saxon abbess Saint Hilda of Whitby
True, they could not be ordained. The chief full-time religious vocation they could follow was as nuns. There were nearly 150 nunneries in England in the 1200s, housing over 3,000 nuns: far fewer than the 14,000 monks and friars. Most nunneries, moreover, were poorer than monasteries. Social convention limited what nuns could do; they could live a life of prayer, but medical and social care were barred to them.
Women had more influence in the everyday world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the wealthy among them used their resources to fund church activities. Some Anglo-Saxon women of high birth founded abbeys, like Hilda at Whitby and Etheldreda at Ely. This continued during the expansion of monasteries that followed the Norman Conquest. Judith, countess of Huntingdon, founded the abbey of Elstow in Bedfordshire. Maud, the wife of King Stephen, assisted him in doing so at Coggeshall and Faversham, while Lady Gundreda helped to establish the Cistercians at Byland in Yorkshire.
Chantries and colleges
The influence of women upon the Church is also apparent among those of knightly and gentry status. Some were patrons of parish churches, with power to appoint the clergy. If they were married this was formally done by their husbands, but we should not rule out their influence. If they were widowed, they had full power to do so. Coming to church they sat in the chancel with their families, enjoying the deference of clergy and congregation.
Some founded chantries, employing priests to pray for their families. Lady Katherine Berkeley’s chantry and grammar school at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, endowed in 1384, became a model for the many small-town schools created in England over the next 300 years. At a higher level, several university colleges owe their existence to women, notably Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, at Christ’s and St John’s, Cambridge.
Parish churches were ostensibly run by men: the clergyman and the churchwardens. However, being a warden went by rotation round the farmers of the parish, and the occasional widow filled the office when it was her farm’s turn. Many parishes had organisations of maidens and of wives, holding activities and raising funds. And, as far as services were concerned, women may have been better attenders than men, especially on weekdays.
Finally, we should not forget the Christian role of women in homes, little though we know about it. Manor houses, and sometimes merchant houses, had private chapels in which women and their families could pray. Mothers shared with their husbands the duty of bringing up their children to know the basic prayers and how to behave in church. The Church could not have endured without the unseen support of women – whether at home or sitting in the pews.
Nicholas Orme is emeritus professor of history at the University of Exeter. His latest book is Going to Church in Medieval England (Yale University Press, 2021)