Eileen Power’s Medieval English Nunneries, c. 1275 to 1535 is a celebrated study of the convents of late medieval England and the women who lived in them. Drawing on bishops’ visitation records and other sources, Power examines the recruitment, economy, daily routine, discipline, and decline of the nunneries from the late thirteenth century to the Dissolution. With wit and deep learning, she brings to life the realities of religious women’s experience in the Middle Ages.
A pioneering work of social and economic history, the book reveals both the ideals and the human failings of convent life, from financial struggles to lapses of discipline. Power’s vivid and sympathetic portrait remains a classic of medieval scholarship and women’s history. Readers interested in monasticism, the medieval Church, or the lives of medieval women will find it indispensable. This free EPUB edition makes Eileen Power’s enduring study widely available once more.