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Medieval nun fakes death to escape convent and enjoy a life of carnal luxuria . Sounds like the basis for a juicy novel , but this really happened during the fourteenth century in England .
Archivist and historian Sarah Rees Jones discover the existent - life tale while enquire the Registers of the Archbishops of York , which recorded the business of archbishops from 1304 to 1405 , as part of a project to make the contents of the documents approachable online .
A letter from an archbishop of York details the actions of a nun who faked her own death to escape convent life.
In a letter ( in the registers ) dating to 1318 , Archbishop William Melton describes a " scandalous rumour " he get wind , detailing the blue behaviour of a nun named Joan to the Dean of Beverley , who was responsible for an area of Yorkshire some 40 miles ( 64 kilometers ) eastward of York , say Rees Jones , a medieval historiographer at the University of York and principal investigator on the project . [ Cracking Codices : 10 of the Most mystic Ancient Manuscripts ]
The letter requests the James Dean ’s help in find Joan and take that she bring back to her convent in York , Rees Jones told Live Science . " It is copy into the archbishop ' registers , which are the main focus of our undertaking , " she added .
To endeavor to get away with her escape , Joan seemingly created some kind of eubstance doubly that the other nuns would lay to rest as her own . " My speculation is that she used something like a shroud and satiate it with earth , hence its dummy - like appearance , " Rees Jones said . " People were commonlyburied in shrouds . "
Gary Brannan, archivist, and Sarah Rees Jones examine one of the registers of the Archbishops of York.
As for what Joan was turn tail to , delineate in the letter as her " carnal lust , " Rees Jones can only speculate .
" This may think of no more ( in mod term ) than enjoying the material pleasure of living in the profane macrocosm ( abandoning her vow of poorness ) , or it may mean enter into a sexual relationship ( desolate hervow of sexual abstention ) , " Rees Jones wrote in an electronic mail to Live Science . " We do know that other religious [ people ] abandoned their vocations either to marry or to take up an heritage of some kind . "
The cash register are trusted to incorporate other fascinating tales , according to a statement from the university . Not only have they been little analyze , but the registers chronicled the mean solar day - to - twenty-four hours activities of archbishops , who at the time had pretty interesting sprightliness .
" On the one handwriting , they pack out diplomatic work in Europe and Rome , and rubbed shoulders with the VIPs of the Middle Ages , " she said in a statement . " However , they were also on the ground resolving disputes between average people , inspecting priories and monastery and correcting wayward monastic and nuns . "
The heartfelt line also would have been a dangerous one , asthe Black Deathwas drag in through Europe at the prison term ( from 1347 to 1351 ) . And the priest were the ones who would visit the sick and administer last rites , she take down .
Rees Jones and her colleagues trust to receive out more on some of the most compelling archbishop , including Melton , who led an regular army of priests and quotidian resident in a battle defending the City of York from the Scots in 1319 . Another archbishop , Richard le Scrope join the so - name Northern arise against Henry IV , for which he was carry through in 1405 . The record , Rees Jones say , may discover his motivation for getting affect . [ Gallery : In Search of the Grave of Richard III ]
They might even bring out the repose of the storey of the escapee nun and whether she was returned to the convent .
The registers themselves , tuck into 16 great volumes , had what the university called a " perilous existence . " functionary of the chivalric archbishop would have carry the parchment volume on his travels . And after the English Civil War , in 1600s , they were stored in London , before being make for , in the 18th century , to the Diocesan Registry in York Minster .
The University of York undertaking to put the registers online will scarper for 33 months in partnership with The National Archives in the United Kingdom , and with the support of the Chapter of York Minster .
Originallypublished onLive scientific discipline .
