By a process of what I can only characterize as synchronicity,
minutes after sending a reply on this topic, I sat down to read
Sharon Farmer, "Persuasive Voices: Clerical Images of Medieval
Wives," Speculum, 61 (1986), 517-43, in which, on p. 520, she states
that "In 1210, Innocent III forbade abbesses to exercise the
'clerical' roles of preaching, blessing nuns and hearing
confessions." (Nova quaedam nuper, PL, 216: 356). She has further
references, but I don't know how directly they may address the
original query.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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