More new translations: women in medieval Rochester

A twelfth-century depiction of an abbess praying. The Shaftesbury Psalter. © British Library Board. BL, London, MS Lansdowne 383 (England, 2nd quarter of the 12th century), f. 14v. Image free from copyright restrictions. Click on image to go to the source.

Blessed ones,

Dr Monk has been a busy bee! He's released his next set of new translations of Textus Roffensis, Britain's 'greatest hidden treasure'.

This time we have two charters concerning women living in the Rochester diocese. The first relates the swearing of an oath of fidelity and subjection by Avice, first abbess of Malling, whose life transected the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Find out to whom she swore subjection.

The second is about the agreement the Rochester monks made with an unamed widow (she is referred to as the wife of Robert Latimer), who lived around the same time. Find out what she got in return for granting her bequeathed property to the monks of St Andrew's Priory.

And, blessed ones, I would love to hear what you think about these medieval women, whether you are surprised in any way, or if it's all pretty much what you expected. So be courageous and leave me a comment.

Click on the buttons below to go directly to the translations, published lovingly by Rochester Cathedral Research Guild.

Update 16 Sept 2022. My older translations of texts from Textus Roffensis for Rochester Cathedral have now been reformatted, so they are no longer available as PDFs but are in webpage format. This means they now have new web addresses. Please bear with me as I correct the links. Please check out the Rochester Cathedral Textus Roffensis page for both my older and newer translations.

The 'Avice, Abbess of Malling' entry now has an excellent discussion by Bishop's Chaplain Lindsay LLewellyn-MacDuff. So it's bonus time!

Avice, abbess of Malling

The widow of Robert Latimer

P.S. More translations on their way in a few days.

Twelfth-century depiction of a widow (centre in black) from Bede's Prose Life of St Cuthbert. © British Library Board. London, BL, MS Yates Rhmpson 26 (Durham, last quarter of 12th century), f. 55v. Image free of copyright restrictions. Click on image to go to the source.