Runaway religious in medieval England, c. 1240-1540

the long version

Runaway religious were monks, canons and friars who had taken vows of religion and who, with benefit of neither permission nor dispensation, fled their monasteries and returned to a life in the world. This book is the first to tell their story. Not only the normal tugs of the world drew them away: other less obvious yet equally human motives, such as boredom, led to a return to the world. No legal exit for the discontented was permitted - religious vows were like marriage vows in this respect - until the financial crisis caused by the Great Schism created a market in dispensations for priests in religious orders to leave, take benefices and live as secular priests. The church therefore pursued runaways with her severest penalty, excommunication, in the express hope that penalties would lead to the return of the straying sheep. The secular arm, at the behest of religious superiors, sent out hundreds of writs to royal officials to effect the arrest and return of runaway religious. Once back, whether by free choice or force, the runaway was received not with a feast for a prodigal but, in a rite of stark severity, with the imposition of penalties deemed suitable for a sinner. The story ends only when the religious houses, great and small, were emptied of their inhabitants in the sixteenth century.