Lives of Spirit: English Carmelite Self-Writing of The Early Modern Period

310 Pages·2007·0.81 MB·English

by  Nicky Hallett

LIVES OF SPIRIT
In proud and loving memory of my parents:
Herbert William John Hallett (1907–2004)
Dorothy Lucy Cecilia Hallett (née Maiden) (1922–1998)
Lives of Spirit
English Carmelite Self-Writing of the
Early Modern Period
NICKY HALLETT
University of Kent, UK
© Nicky Hallett 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Nicky Hallett has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Gower House Suite 420
Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405
Hampshire GU11 3HR USA
England
Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lives of spirit : an edition of English Carmelite auto/biographies of the early modern period.
– (The early modern Englishwoman, 1500-1750. Contemporary editions)
1. Carmelites – Biography – Early works to 1800 2. Nuns – Belgium – Antwerp –
Biography – Early works to 1800 3. English – Belgium – Antwerp – Biography – Early
works to 1800
I. Hallett, Nicky
271.9’71’0092242

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lives of spirit : an edition of English Carmelite auto/biographies of the early modern period
/ Nicky Hallett.
p. cm. — (The early modern Englishwoman, 1500-1750. Contemporary editions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-0675-8 (alk. paper)
1. Discalced Carmelite nuns—Biography. 2. Carmelites—Biography. 3. Monastic and
religious life of women. 4. Monasticism and religious orders for women—Biography.
5. Church history—17th century. 6. Church history—18th century. I. Hallett, Nicky.
BX4308.Z7L58 2007
271’.971023210492—dc22
2006036044
ISBN-13: 9-780-7546-0675-8
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.
Contents
General Editors’ Preface viii
Acknowledgements ix
General Introduction 1
Editorial Note 30
Sources and Abbreviations 33
1 The Inspiration to Compose: Burial in Oblivion and the Miraculous
Discovery of an Incorrupt Body 35
2 Anne of the Ascension, First Prioress at Antwerp 39
3 Teresa of Jesus Maria, Sister of Anne of the Ascension: Her Career and
Remarkable Death 57
4 Margaret of St Francis: The Holy Simplicity of a Lay Sister at Antwerp
and Lierre 61
5 Anne of St Bartholomew: Her Sight of the Infant Jesus Handing
out Sugar-plums, and the Remarkable Discovery of Her
Uncorrupted Body 63
6 Catherine of the Blessed Sacrament: The Vocation of a ‘Poor Imperfect
Religious’ who Relished Patched Clothing 67
7 Anne of St Teresa: Her Career at Various Convents, Her Terror about an
Apparition and Her Instructions for the Enclosure of a Convent 73
8 Agnes of St Albert: Her Overwhelming Sense of Vocation that Led Her
to Break into the Convent 79
9 Clare of the Annunciation and Delphina of St Joseph: Two Religious
Linked by Marvellous Events 83
10 Anne of St Maria and Tecla of St Paul: Childhood Friends in Religion,
One a Favourite of the King 85
11 Anne of the Angels: Her Grand Entrance and Clothing 87
12 Paula of St Joseph and Alexia of St Winefrid, Two of Anne Somerset’s
Entourage: A Sudden Death whilst Whitewashing and the Life of a
Little Mouse 89
13 Anne of St Bartholomew and Mary Teresa of Jesus: Their Entries at an
Advanced Age 93
vi Lives of Spirit
14 Francisca of the Blessed Sacrament: Her Near Abduction as a Child and
Her Later Seduction by Witchcraft 95
15 Mary Frances of St Teresa: The Instigator of the Antwerp Lives, a
Treasure of the Community, Drawn to Her Vocation by Reading 97
16 Teresa Joseph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Her Father, Like a Jealous
Lover, Resists her Teresian Vocation 101
17 Clare Joseph of Jesus Maria: Her Dreams and Spiritual Favours; and
Her Appearance to Another Religious in a Vision 105
18 Mary Margaret of the Angels: Her Conversion from Protestantism by
Reading Books of Controversy; and Her Death from Gangrene 107
19 Winifred of St Teresa: Her Miraculous Recovery as a Child; Her Life
and Death as a Lay Sister 109
20 Anne Maria Joseph of St Xaveria: The Widowed Sister of Catherine
Burton 13
21 Mary Joseph of St Teresa: The Life and Death of the First Compiler,
who Knew Her Vocation at a Country Dance and who Left Loving
Instructions for her Sisters 115
22 Teresa de Jesus and Ann Joseph of the Ascension: Two Lives of Mutual
Care 19
23 Mary Magdalen of St Joseph: Her Dramatic Journey from Maryland,
Her Teresian Vocation, and Her Cure from Rheumatism 123
24 Mary Xaveria of the Angels: Her Mental Affl iction in which She
Fancied Herself to be a Priest and Excommunicated the Bells 127
25 Mary of St Barbara: The Life of an Oblate from the Coffee-house 129
26 Angela Maria of St Joseph: Her Early Life in which She Almost Dies
of Malnutrition; and Her Seduction to Become a Carmelite after which
She Once Drank her Own Urine in an Act of Misplaced Obedience 131
27 Mary Margaret of the Angels: Her Journey from Maryland in which
She Almost Falls in Love with a Young Gentleman; Her Burial as the
Convent is Threatened by Imperial Edict 133
28 Mary Xaveria of the Angels: Her Illness, Miraculous Cure and Her
Spiritual Favours Before and After Death 135
29 Mary Margaret of the Angels: The Discovery of her Incorrupt Body and
the Writing of her Life 163
Contents vi
30 Margaret of St Teresa, the First Prioress at Lierre: Her Early Sense of
Vocation and Progress towards a Religious Life; Her Skill in Resolving
Confl icts; Her Devotion to Anne of the Ascension and her Death in
which She is No Longer Wrinkled or Crooked 171
31 The Lives of the Mostyn Family 179
32 The Lives of the Bedingfi eld Family 197
33 Mary Gertrude of the Annunciation: An Impediment in Her Head, Her
Early Vocation and Subsequent Affl ictions 211
34 Mary Magdalen of Jesus and Agnes Maria of St Joseph: Their Double
Deaths and Burial 215
35 Mary Terease of Jesus: Her Vision of Her Mother, All in White, on Her
Way to Heaven 221
36 Anne Teresa of Jesus: A Colonel’s Daughter, Scrupulous in Saving
Time when She Met with her Brother; Mortifi ed in Sleepiness, and a
Lover of Poverty after whose Death from Leprosy Singing was Heard 225
37 Marie Teresa of St Albert: A Lay Sister of Extraordinary Strength,
a Lover of Solitude who Sat in the Trees 229
38 Teresa Maria of Jesus, Mary of St Joseph and Elizabeth Ursula of
the Visitation: Three Religious of Extraordinary Humility – Who Ate
Scraps, were Sparing in their Use of Candle and Pen, and who did
Servants’ Work 231
39 Anne Therese of the Presentation, Anna Maria of St Joseph and Joseph
Teresa of the Purifi cation: Three Lay Sisters who Learned the English
Manner of Cooking 233
40 Mary Rose of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: her dramatic journey from
Maryland and Her Death, after which She Continued to Sweat 237
Appendices
1 The Constitutions and Rule of St Albert 241
2 How the Prioress is to Exercise the Religious in Mortifi cations 261
3A A Letter to Anne of the Ascension, Warning her of Indiscretion and
Promising New Novices 263
3B Anne of the Ascension’s Letter to Catherine of the Blessed Sacrament 265
3C Anne of the Ascension: ‘A Scappuler of our Most Deare and Rd Mother
… for Sister Catharine of the Bd Sacrament’ 267
Bibliography 269
Index 281
The Early Modern Englishwoman
1500–1750:
Contemporary Editions
General Editors’ Preface
Foregrounding women and gender has created a genuine revolution in the way we
construct the early-modern period, and the aim of ‘Contemporary Editions’ (like its
sister series, ‘The Early-Modern Englishwoman, 1500–1750: A Facsimile Library of
Essential Works’) is to encourage and perpetuate this revolution by making available
the texts that in so many ways have generated it.

‘Contemporary Editions’ shares with the facsimile series a desire to recover
neglected or unknown texts as well as to make more readily available texts that the
feminist rereading of the period has now brought to light. Apart from the inherent
differences in editorial methodology between the two series, the format of the new
series permits a fuller response to the wide range of writings of and about women.
‘Contemporary Editions’ is designed to provide distinguished editions, in both
modernized and old-spelling format, of writings not only by but also for and about
early-modern women. Volumes include long, interpretive essays and range widely in
format from anthologies to single texts.

We hope that this series will capture the energy of the many scholars who are
engaged in the reinterpretation of the early modern period, and that ‘Contemporary
Editions’ will in time become, like its sister project, ‘a library of essential works’ for
the study of early modern women and gender.
Acknowledgements
I wish to express affectionate gratitude to the Carmelite communities at Lanherne
(now joined with St Helens) and Darlington for permission to produce editions of
these manuscripts and for allowing me generous access to their archives. In particular
I would like to thank their Prioresses – Reverend Mother Margaret Mary, of Lanherne;
Reverend Mother Teresa, of St Helen’s; the late Sister Margaret, of Darlington, and
her successor, Sister Frances Thérèse. The warmth of their welcome and support has
made this a journey of pleasure.
Mother Margaret Mary’s enthusiasm for this project was based on the words of her
seventeenth-century predecessor, Mary Frances Birkbeck, the Prioress at Antwerp who
wrote of her incentive ‘to collect … the many remarkable things which [otherwise]
by … neglect will ever be buryed in oblivion’. It has been an inspiration to uncover
these ‘remarkable things’, and to work now with her successors.
In addition, I wish to thank the University of Kent for allowing me Study Leave
to pursue this work, and the AHRB for funding Research Leave to advance it more
quickly. Special tribute should go to Peter Brown, Andrew Butcher, Lyn Innes, Jan
Montefi ore, and other staff and students of the School of English and the Centre for
Medieval and Tudor Studies for their continuing inspiration.
I should also like to thank Johan Bergström-Allen of the Carmelite Projects
offi ce in York, and Father Antony Lester, Prior Provincial of the British Province of
Carmelites for inviting me to take part in the Cum Nulla symposium and celebration
in York in May 2003 and for their discussion of my work.
Caroline Bowden and Elizabeth Clarke, through their invitations to speak at
conferences on women religious at St Mary’s College, London, and the Perdita
symposium at St Hilda’s, Oxford, both in 2002, gave me the opportunity to air ideas
at an early stage; and Liz Stanley’s invitation to a colloquium at the University of
Manchester in 2003 enabled me to present work on testimony and witness. Along
with Derek Pearsall and Felicity Riddy, they have all generously discussed or read
work in progress at various stages.
Thanks, too, to Sister Winefride and to Margaret Harcourt-Williams, the meticulous
archivists at the Darlington convent; to Sister Constance Fitzgerald of the Carmelite
Convent in Baltimore; to library staff at the British Library, London, and at the
Universities of Kent and Sheffi eld; to Pat FitzGerald for her expertise in preparing
camera-ready copy; and, most especially, to the General Editors of this series, Betty
S. Travitsky, Patrick Cullen and Anne Lake Prescott whose wise interventions and
timely advice improved and informed the fi nal text. Erika Gaffney at Ashgate has
guided this project throughout, with insight, tact and refreshing directness: the best
of commissioning editors.
Not least, huge personal thanks, as ever, must go to Rosie Valerio.