f
the clergy from secular jurisdiction was productive of much personal
depravity. They had to fear their abbot only, and he was frequently
a mild censor of their morals. At a time when any profligate woman of
position might retire to a convent and, by elevation or appointment,
become abbess, it is not strange that the moral tone of the convent
was not determined by the rules of the order, but by the standards
which were actually established.

Yet, in spite of many instances of reprehensible conduct, the nuns as
a class did not break the vows that bound them to chastity, and within
the convent walls were found many examples of women of illustrious
character. In the Anglo-Saxon times, women of the most admirable
traits are found in charge of convents; the names of some of the
abbesses of the seventh century, and earlier, are notable as those
of women of high rank as well as of high character. Saint Werburga
of Ely, the daughter of Wulfere, King of Mercia, was made ruler over
all the female religious houses, and became the founder of several
convents of note. Her qualities and character were set forth in the
following lines:

"In beaute amyable she was equall to Rachell,
Comparable to Sara in fyrme fidelyte,
In sadness and wysedom lyke to Abygaell:
Replete as Deibora with grace of prophecy,
AEqyvalent to Ruth she was in humylyte,
In purchrytude Rebecca, lyke Hester in Colynesse,
Lyke Judyth in vertue and proued holynesse."

But such examples of high worth among the abbesses, while not
exceptional in the early Middle Ages, are not frequently met with in
the closing centuries of the period.

The position of the abbess was not one of honor only, but of
privilege; the cloister rule was relaxed for her--she might go and
come as she pleased, and see anyone whom she wished to see. In the
early times, she is even found taking part in synods. Thus, in 649,
the abbesses were summoned to the council at Becanceld, in Kent, and
the names of five of them were subscribed to the constitutions which
were there made, while the name of not a single abbot appears on the
document. Coming down to much later times, abbesses were summoned
to attend or to send proxies to the king's council which was held
to grant "an aid on the knighting the Prince of Wales." Also, they
were required to furnish military service by proxy. While they were
more amenable to the clergy than were the monks, the abbesses were
nevertheless tenacious