‘I am in a Cloister I trow [believe], and closed up we are in one little pretty store on the first floor joining on the Grot where they bury, and the deceased Saints lie. Our habitation is the place of the despaired of the sick; we did as it seems displace one that is every moment a-dying; she hath been sick these three years, and hath spit up all her lungs; where sometimes we fry and sometimes we freeze, and there do all that we have to do. 2 little windows close walled up, our door chained, and double-locked, and never opened but [except] the only entrance of our 2 keepers and the Lady Abbess, who is our chief Guardian; we were conducted in by the 3 came with us, and 2 Franciscans, who spoke Italian, and the night, or rather hour we came, were placed beds near to our door, where night and day 4 nuns keep guard. Mass and sacraments are not feasts for us to frequent, and for all this the place or chamber we inhabit hath all in it could be wished; indeed I say true and marvel at it, but our Lord and Master is also our Father and gives no more than Lady like, and what is most easy to be borne.’
From Source Texts Vol. III, Doc. 1144)
