ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



;had encamped in Pannal Church and burned it on departing. A detachment 

 ■of their army had lain in Fountains Abbey ; its granges and outbuildings were 

 so ruined by fire and pillage that its goods were insufficient to maintain 

 the monks. Nidderdale, Airedale, and Wharfedale, with AUertonshire, were 

 plundered, and their churches depreciated in value. °* In 1320 Bolton 

 Priory, which had shared the disaster, was brought to extremities by a mur- 

 rain, as in 1292 ; the canons were temporarily dispersed among other 

 Augustinian houses.'^ In 1322 Northallerton Church was burned by the 

 Scots,'* who ravaged the North Riding.''' The canons of Marton, the nuns 

 ■of Rosedale and Moxby, were dispersed and quartered in other convents.'* 

 In 1328 the commissioners for taxing the goods of Egglestone Abbey found 

 nothing to tax." Clerks were carried off by the invaders, and forced to take 

 full orders at the hands of excommunicated Scottish prelates. ^^ Meanwhile 

 the king demanded subsidies to pursue the war,^ and in 1333, for example, 

 Edward III ordered five abbots and the Prior of Bridlington to send him 

 a stout cart, well bound with iron, and five horses for the campaign of 

 Halidon HiU.^ 



The Scottish war loosened the tie which bound Melton to one of his 

 suffragans, the Bishop of Whithorn,* and a dispute with Bishop Beaumont of 

 Durham led to litigation and acts of violence on both sides.* Controversies 

 arose about the archbishop's jurisdiction at Hull.^ At Beverley his right of 

 assize of bread and ale was questioned, and his bailiffs assaulted ° ; at Ripon 

 (1337) his prison for condemned clerks was broken open, and the gates of his 

 manor broken down.'' York was disturbed by quarrels between the Abbot of 

 St. Mary's and the citizens over the jurisdiction of Bootham.* In 1328 the 

 dean and chapter claimed protection from the king against the archbishop, 

 with whom they were at variance.' 



Melton's public life did not hinder his work in his diocese. He held 

 regular ordinations and confirmations, visited the sick willingly and absolved 

 the bodies of all dead persons which were brought to him." There was no 

 decrease in the number of non-residents and foreigners instituted to rich 

 benefices." Appropriations to monastic houses and prebends went on at the 

 usual rate and, in 1323, Melton obtained temporary leave from John XXII 

 to appropriate the church of Bolton Percy to his table.^^ But at least 

 twenty-six ordinations of vicarages are recorded in his time. Among these 



" Melton to the Treasury {Lett. N. Reg. [Rolls Ser.], 279 seq). 



" Lett. N. Reg. (Rolls Sen), 306 seq. ^ Cal. Pat. 132 1-4, p. 344. 



'' Lett. N. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 315, 316, mentions especially the Scottish inroads on the archdeaconry of 

 Richmond. 



°' Ibid. 318 seq. "' Ibic". 352 seq. See also Ca/. Pat. 1330-4, p. 463. 



"" Lett. N. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 330, 331 ; ibid. 317, 318. 



' Ibid. 344 seq. ' Cal. Pat. 1330-4, p. 446. 



' See note 79 above, p. 1 5, for references. 



* Graystanes, cap. xlii {Hist. Dunelm. Script. Ires. [Surt. Soc], 105, 106) ; Lett. N. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 

 358> 359> contains the archbishop's complaint to John XXII. The spirituality of AUertonshire was the 

 main ground of dispute. 



' Ca/. Pat. 1330-4, p. 200. • Ibid. pp. 575, 576. 



' Ibid. 1334-7, p. 511. ° Ibid. pp. 27, 28 ; ibid. pp. 15 seq. 



' Ibid. 1327-30, p. 336. '» Stubbs, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 416. 



" See e.g. two Gascon prebendaries mentioned, Cal. Pat. 1324-7, p. 43 ; Gaucelin, cardinal priest of 

 SS. Marcellinus and Peter, prebendary of Driffield and parson of Hemingbrough (ibid. p. 44) ; and two 

 cardinals, claiming in succession the treasurership of York against Walter of Bedwin (ibid. p. 151 ; ibid. 

 1330-4, p. 186). " Lawton, op. cit. 54. 



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