Dominican Letters

Extract

The story of the exile and extinction of die Dominican nuns of Dartford has been told elsewhere. It will be enough here to recall that by the intercession of the Spanish ambassador at London they were allowed by Elizabeth I to leave England as a community. They numbered nine nuns and a postulant, together with two Dominican priests. They sailed for Antwerp with the Bridgettine nuns of Sion and the Carthusians of Sheen in June 1559. They were assigned a part of a ruinous monastery occupied by a small community of Dutch Dominican nuns at Leliendael on the island of Schouwen in Zeeland.

The plight of these exiled contemplatives aroused considerable compassion. They were granted pensions of twenty crowns each by Philip II of Spain, who was the ruler of the Netherlands. The trouble was that these pensions were paid only fitfully, as the money had to be raised by local taxation and the Flemings were already heavily over-taxed to provide money for the war against the Dutch Calvinists who were devastating the country. There was also an annual donation of five hundred crowns from Pius IV, and the nuns had their share in this. There was however much delay and uncertainty in the payment of the papal alms.

The Dominican nuns were the object of special compassion because one of them, Elizabeth White, was half-sister of Bishop John Fisher whose martyrdom twenty-five years before had sent a thrill of horror through Europe that was still remembered. At least something might be done for her.