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In 1648, a nun named Margaret Smulders died inside the convent in the Spanish Netherlands (the area roughly corresponding to modern Belgium) where she had lived since 1604. She was 65 at the time of her death, which followed a long illness, and there was little remarkable about her life, except for the body of letters that she left, detailing the minutiae of her life inside the convent and her struggle to influence the way the convent was run, in line with the wider issues of the Reformation. The life of a sister in a cloistered order in the 17th century was far removed from the experience of nuns today. Although many, like Margaret were drawn to religious life because they wanted to serve God, rich women simply bought their way into the convent, where their money would ensure that they enjoyed undue privilege. As Margaret's letters to the church bureaucracy complain, a system of favouritism was prevalent, and the women whom Mater Adriana Truis liked and trusted most exerted undue influence and encouraged lax practices. Ranged against the Mater and her allies were Margaret, the Vicaress Catharina Rijkeboer and other sisters who felt that the convent should be devoted far less to showy display, gossip and feasting and rather to the service of God. To the modern eye, the comparatively easy and decadent lifestyle of some of the nuns is surprising. Margaret writes disapprovingly of the recreation days on which her colleagues would sit at the refectory table late into the night, 'howling and banging the table like drunkards on a beer bench'. She describes undue attention paid to men who visited the convent sisters who would use the convent's money to buy gifts for their relatives; and festival days where the nuns would dress up in costumes and play the fool, shrieking and laughing so that their noise could be heard far beyond the convent walls. Needless to say, Margaret's piety and her correspondence with Archbishop Boonen, who as a result began to institute some changes in the running of the convent, won her few friends. She was expelled from the convent twice during her life - the second time for a period of twelve years - ostensibly because she was supposed to have suffered from demonic possession. However, it is probable that she was sexually assaulted by a powerful male priest at about the time of the alleged possession, adding to her misery. As with all good history books, this brings vividly to life the characters involved, provides a unique insight into another age and manages to entertain without compromising the author's academic integrity. (Kirkus UK)

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