Expansion throughout Britain: the nunneries

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Illuminated antiphonary (c1290) showing St Bernard flanked by nuns © Walters Arts Museum
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The White Monks attracted great interest and enthusiasm from female religious in Britain, and a growing number of nuns claimed to follow the Cistercian way of life. The Order did not, however, officially recognise these nuns until 1213, and soon thereafter backtracked, maintaining a rather ambivalent attitude towards the incorporation of women.

Whilst some twenty-seven nunneries in Britain called themselves Cistercian, it is impossible to know just how many of these were formally acknowledged by the Order and subject to the jurisdiction of the General Chapter, and how many simply followed Cistercian customs. What is clear is the profound impact that the Cistercians had on female religious life in Britain.
[Read more about Cistercian nunneries]

The Cistercians had a notable influence on the only English religious order, the Gilbertines / Order of Sempringham, which was founded for women by a Lincolnshireman, Gilbert of Sempringham, c. 1131. The Gilbertines incorporated Cistercian features such as the inclusion of lay-brothers, a general chapter and visitation of the houses. A swell in numbers incited Gilbert to travel to the General Chapter at Cîteaux in 1147, seeking the absorption of his order. Whilst his request was refused, Gilbert received encouragement and advice from Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx; in fact it was Aelred who was called upon in the 1160s to investigate the claim that Divine intervention had relieved a rather wayward Gilbertine nun of her pregnancy.(7)

A twelfth-century nun of the Gilbertine priory of Watton, fell in love with a lay-brother of the community. The girl soon fell pregnant and there were gruesome consequences ....