New research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has revealed that the sister of a Gunpowder plotter and a royal heir were among 4,000 women who risked life and liberty to join English Catholic convents exiled in Europe between 1600 and 1800.
The findings were made by a team of academics working on the ‘Who Were the Nuns?’ project, based in the School of History, Queen Mary, University of London.
The project’s aim is not only to profile individual nuns, but also to understand how the convents managed to recruit and survive against a backdrop of war, plague, and political unrest in mainland Europe and England.
“We have undertaken a comprehensive study of the thousands of Catholic women who broke the laws of the land to continue practising their faith in English-led convents overseas," explains Dr Caroline Bowden, project manager and research fellow at Queen Mary.
"They would have been very brave and committed to make the treacherous journey overseas; it was extremely rare for women to travel in those days, and a criminal offence for English women to become nuns after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s.”
Researchers gained unprecedented access to thousands of rare manuscripts, revealing testimonies and other written records in England, Belgium and France that had remained largely hidden in archives and convents over the centuries.
These sources were originally produced by the nuns to record details of their members, daily devotional and domestic pursuits, and offer uniquely female perspectives on wider issues of the day such as literature, finance, national identity and the nature of exile.
The painstaking efforts of the research team have resulted in an extensive survey of all 22 English convents abroad together with their surviving sources. The project has since identified and profiled a wealth of fascinating women from disparate backgrounds, who joined the English convents in exile.
Where possible these sources have been edited and made accessible on the project website, and linked to their author’s profiles on a new online register of convent members. Manuscripts are being transcribed for a six-volume collection to be published by Pickering and Chatto in 2012-2013.
“Our database provides a detailed picture of a nun’s life and work and is an invaluable tool for religious and social historians or those studying women’s intellectual history of this period,” Dr Bowden says.
Biographical information on each nun, including their immediate family, their admission dates, size and currency of their dowry, promotions, and obituaries are stored on the database.
Records of why a trainee nun succeeded or failed to pass probation and why nuns left the convent are also logged wherever possible.
Social network analysis undertaken for the project has also revealed much about the web of supporters, agents and families that kept the convents alive for 200 years.
Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan, a history researcher from the University of Oxford, who is on the project team, has constructed a collection of family trees of the most prominent families involved. These are being made accessible online.
http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/wwtn/index.html
Project Manager on BBC Radio 4 - Dr Caroline Bowden was on BBC Radio 4's Making History programme on 23 August 2011. Visiting the English convent in Bruges, Dr Bowden was joined by the convent's archivist, Sr Mary Aline, and the prioress, Sr Teresa Joseph, to talk about the convents in exile. To listen, click here and go to 10 mins 30 secs.
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AHRC Media contact: Jake Gilmore, Communications Manager, 01793 416021; j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
Notes to Editors:
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.