A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



mation of this order by the Priors and convents 

 of Cluny and La Chariti and the monks of 

 Bretton then at Cluny were to be set free and 

 return to Bretton. 



Either the Prior and convent of Pontefract 

 failed to leave Bretton to itself, or the monks of 

 the latter house decided that their independence 

 could only be secured by a total and complete 

 severance of their house from the Cluniac order. 

 For at a visitation of the English Cluniac houses 

 made in 1279° by order of the Abbot of Cluny 

 the visitors reported as follows, regarding Monk 

 Bretton : — 



On Monday preceding the feast of the Nativity of 

 the Blessed Virgin (8 September) we arrived at the 

 priory of Monk Bretton, accompanied by certain 

 officers of the sheriff . . . 



Knocking at the outer gate, we demanded admit- 

 tance in the name of our Lord Abbot, on whose 

 service we had come to carry out the visitation of the 

 house. To this we received no answer. Again and 

 again the knocking was repeated, but to our continued 

 demand for admission tlie portal-gate remained per- 

 sistently closed. A certain person, however, whose 

 name was William de Riole, seemed to be acting for 

 the prior and sub-prior and the rest of the convent, 

 on this occasion, and upon him, in presence of all, 

 we proceeded to pass sentence of excommunication ; 

 which being done publicly and in writing, we took 

 our departure. The same day we immediately re- 

 ported the matter to the king, and to the sheriff, and 

 in due cour-e received the following commands and 

 instructions : — By the king we were ordered to take 

 into custody the above William de Riole ; and the 

 sheriff directed us to force or make good our entrance 

 into the prior)-. As for myself, I quitted the spot, 

 but left the Prior of Montacute to await the necessary 

 warrants and summonses. On their arrival we returned 

 to Monk Bretton Priory, accompanied by the bailiff 

 and other sheriff's officers. On entering the priory, 

 he at once proceeded to the church, and knocked at 

 the door of the chapter-house. Certain of the 

 inmates, habited in the dress of the order, were there ; 

 some were sitting in the cloisters. The visiting 

 prior then entered the chapter-house, in order to 

 carry out the duties of his office, but not a single 

 monk appeared, and being asked the reason, the 

 fraternity affirmed, one and all, that tiicy had no 

 intention of attending ; their prior was away, and 

 they would not attend without him. Upon this 

 the Prior of Montacute, in presence of the entire 

 assemblage, preceded to pass sentence of excommuni- 

 cation upon the said William, the prior, the sub-prior 

 and the whole contumacious community, proclaiming 

 them so excommunicated on the part of the Abbot of 

 Cluny, and revoking at the same time the compact or 

 agreement which was in existence between the priories, 

 declaring it null and void. Upon this the Prior of 

 Pontefract withdrew at once, without either eating or 

 drinking or holding any further communication be- 

 tween them. It will be imperative to interfere very 

 seriously in this matter, and consider what measures 

 are to be adopted. 



' ]'oris. Arch. Journ. xii, 398, quoting Duckett, 

 f'isit. of Engl. Clunidc Houses. 



This revolt was followed up at the beginning 

 of the following year by the subjection of the 

 monks as Benedictines to Archbishop Wickwane. 

 It has hitherto escaped attention that within 

 just a century after its foundation the priory of 

 Monk Bretton ceased to be a Cluniac house, 

 and remained Benedictine, pure and simple, till 

 the Dissolution. Four months after the refusal 

 of the convent to respond to the demands of the 

 Prior of Montacute as Cluniac visitor, Archbishop 

 Wickwane visited the house, and on 4 January 

 1280-1,' was received by William de Richale, 

 the prior, and the ' whole concourse ' of the 

 convent in the chapter-house, where the prior, 

 sub-prior, and all the monks, individually, 

 promised canonical obedience to the archbishop 

 and embodied their vows in a deed, signed and 

 sealed by the prior with his seal, the seal of the 

 convent being also appended unanimi conventU nostr'i 

 assensu. The archbishop then proceeded with 

 his visitation, and those things which he found 

 worthy of correction he expounded 'vive vocis 

 oraculo eisdem, medicinaliter corrigenda.' 



From this time forward special emphasis seems 

 to be laid on the fact that Monk Bretton was a 

 Benedictine priory, both in the Papal Letters 

 and also in the Archiepiscopal Registers. An 

 attempt was, however, made to re-assert juris- 

 diction over the house for the Abbot of Cluny 

 in 1289-90,' which Archbishop Romanus 

 strenuously contested, with the result that after- 

 wards no more seems to have been done in the 

 way of trying to force Monk Bretton to continue 

 its connexion with the order of Cluny. The 

 house continued, however, to pay ^^i yearly to 

 the priory of Pontefract up to the time of the 

 dissolution of the latter.' Archbishop Romanus 

 wrote to Henry, Earl of Lincoln, that certain 

 persons of the Cluniac order were endeavouring 

 to hold vlsitacionem absurdatn in the monastery 

 of Monk Bretton which belonged to his juris- 

 diction, and in which he and his predecessors had 

 hitherto been in full and peaceable possession of 

 visiting and correcting.'" The archbishop called 

 upon the earl not in any way to aid the 

 Cluniacs on this occasion. This letter to the 

 Earl of Lincoln was accompanied by another " 

 to the Dean of Doncaster, and Mgr. William 

 de Stokes, vicar of Felkirk, enjoining them to 

 repair to Monk Bretton, and the doors of the 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 135^. 



° Ibid. Romanus, fol. 35. 



' Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com), v, 42, «de priore et 

 conventu de Monk Burton 1/.' 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 35. ' Nos 

 et predeoessores nostri.' This a distinct over-state- 

 ment of the case, as it was his immediate predecessor, 

 Wickwane who, as already recorded, was first re- 

 ceived by the prior and monks only nine years before, 

 and then in the face of the opposition of the repre- 

 sentatives of the Abbot of Cluny. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 35. 



