| It was heavily funded by Otto I, who gave the abbess of the monastery much power and privilege. |
| And when it came to details, he was known to be worse than a fussy abbess running a nunnery. |
| Like Whitby in Northumbria, several of the Kentish minsters had been double houses, comprising communities of nuns and monks ruled by an abbess. |
| Particularly in Germany, where Hildegard lived, being an abbess was a very commanding position. |
| This extract from Hildegard of Bingen, an abbess, is from a book of ecstatic visions. |
| She arrived at the doors of the convent while the abbess was praying in front of the church's crucifix. |
