No personal diaries of female religious survive, but traces of the paths taken and the obstacles negotiated by nunnery superiors can be discerned in many of the records, particularly those surviving in housekeeping accounts and episcopal registers. In the latter sources, misdeeds or errors of judgement are highlighted and praiseworthy efforts virtually ignored. As in the context of financial management, the picture of leadership has often been skewed by the weight of one particular class of evidence used to address the question.

Bishops' visitation reports, though rich in detail, must be viewed with caution. They are not only tainted by the misogyny of the times, but hide the full circumstances of the visitation setting and environment. Nuns were questioned individually by the bishop or his representative. The women were free, in principle, to speak openly and express either their satisfaction about life in the convent or their concern about any aspect of their experience. In practice, there were limits placed on the kind of information collected. This was because the interview focused on a number of pre-set questions aimed solely at detecting faults, and also because the nuns' freedom to answer honestly was determined by their perception of the possible consequences after the departure of the ordinary concerned.

There is evidence that the superior of Catesby ‘whipped’ some of her nuns for disclosing certain information to the bishop in 1442. During the same period, nuns from Gracedieu reported that they were ‘reviled’ by their prioress for revealing sensitive information to the bishop on the last episcopal; and at Legbourne, the prioress reputedly tried to forestall any complaints to the visitor.