Musings of a Medieval Abbess: Book I of the Cumbrian Chronicles

Life is difficult in the borderlands between Scotland and England in the turbulent mid-1400s. The Yorks and Lancasters have begun the War of the Roses, the Catholic Church is ruled by Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) and the Scots are stirring the pot with border raids. Written as the journal of a middle-aged Augustinian nun, Isentrude Clifford, Musings of a Medieval Abbess documents the final three years of her tenure as the abbess of Lambley Abbey, an Augustinian convent. The Augustinian Order is a teaching and healing order, active in service to the surrounding community and renowned for its scholars, men and women who translate and copy the writings of the ancients. Sister Isentrude and her friend, Sister Eawynn, are nuns by circumstance, not by choice. Their relationship becomes the enduring love story of two women who grew to love to each other more than life. Isentrude’s journal recounts and reflects upon the daily challenges and events in a world that is ruled jointly by the Catholic Church and absolute monarchies, a world in which women have little power. She often questions the stories and parables of the Bible as well as the grandiose splendor of the Church and its hierarchy of bishops and archbishops who do little to serve their communities. When tragedy strikes, their world is turned upset down.