Cats appear as corbels more often than anything else. probably because they were popular pets with the nuns.

The Ancren Riwle, or Nun’s Rule, was the English rule for nuns written in about 1300. At first it was a rule for hermits but was soon revised to apply to all nuns. It is quite a strict and rigid rule but in part 8, ‘On Domestic Matters’ we read:

‘You shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat.’       source:- http://www.all-creatures.org/ca/ark-209-2.html

So we see the Nun’s rule did permit the keeping of cats. It seems, though, the favoured pets of the nuns were dogs and other animals and it was this that caused problems to the visiting bishops. To quote Power:

’Monkeys, squirrels and rabbits were also kept but dogs and puppies abounded…partly because human affections will find an outlet under the most severe rules. The nuns clung to their small hounds and Archbishop Peckham had to forbid the Abbess of Romsey from keeping monkeys and a number of dogs in her own chamber.’

At Chatteris and at Ickleton in 1345 the nuns were forbidden from keeping fowls, dogs and small birds within the precincts of the convent. Evidently the nuns were bringing these animals into church with them and Power says, ‘Injunctions against bringing dogs and puppies into choir by the nuns is also found at Keldholme and Rosedale abbeys in the 14th century’.

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