ABSTRACT
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw a substantial increase in the opportunities for women to live a religious life. The life of the nun had long been the main option for unmarried girls and women as well as for widows, but women of the later Middle Ages could also join communities of beguines, tertiaries or penitents, or live a religious life in the world. The reform of existing houses often entailed drastic change in the way of life. The nunneries' dependence on men for spiritual and temporal services posed major problems. Women were not admitted into the orders of the Church and always needed men as chaplains, confessors and priests to celebrate Mass. The will of Gauffrid de Tarare of the Lyonnais, dating from the first half of the fourteenth century, reveals that he had two daughters who were nuns, and he wanted three others to take up the religious life, although he gave them the option to choose.
