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Most nuns were in convents for their own benefit, whether it was because they were devout, or because they wanted security. Some of them did not want to put up with husbands and some were sent to convents by families that wanted to be rid of them for one reason or another.

The nuns did provide services, however. Some provided educational services, particularly for girls. There is the case of Matilda of England, whose education was important for a political question, and so was recorded for history. Women of high birth were often, or perhaps usually, educated so they could stand in for their husbands from time to time.

Nuns provided medical support and ran the equivalent of hospitals.

Nuns provided choral music in cathedrals, and appeared in processions, such as funerals and coronations.

Their convents were places where women could find sanctuary from people who might otherwise pursue them. There was more than one queen who got away from their husbands this way. In much of Europe for much of the Middle Ages, this sort of sanctuary had to be respected, even by the king.

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15y ago

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