A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



More than eighty charters, confirmations, and 

 other royal deeds in favour of Selby Abbey are 

 recorded in the Coucher Book,' and the grants 

 of land and other property from different donors 

 were enormous. They are epitomized by Bur- 

 ton alphabetically according to the places them- 

 selves, on sixteen folio pages of his work.' 



A dispute as to the extent of the province of 

 Canterbury arose in 1067, when Remigius 

 moved his see from Dorchester in Oxfordshire to 

 Lincoln. The Archbishops of York had always 

 claimed that Lindsey belonged to their diocese 

 and province, and eventually William Rufus 

 settled the matter by giving Lindsey to the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, and Selby Abbey and 

 the priory of St. Oswald at Gloucester to the 

 Archbishop of York. His charter states ' that 

 he had given to Archbishop Thomas and his 

 successors the abbey of St. German ' sicut 

 archiepiscopus Cantuariensis habet episcopatum 

 Rofensem.' It seems that Gundulf recognized 

 the archbishop as patron of the see of Rochester, 

 so that what the king gave was probably the 

 patronage of Selby. The archbishop apparently 

 regranted their privileges to the monks not long 

 after, and they afterwards elected their abbots by 

 licence from the crown.' 



On I April 1233 Archbishop Gray held a 

 visitation of the abbey of Selby,' and the injunc- 

 tions he gave on that occasion are among the 

 earliest examples extant of anything of the kind. 

 First, he enjoined the abbot to apply the highest 

 care as to the observance of the discipline of the 

 order and rule. He was to arrange the business 

 of the house, according to the rule of the blessed 

 Benedict, with the advice of four of the more 

 skilful of the house, chosen by himself and the 

 convent. With their advice he was to appoint two 

 cellarers, one within the house, and the other 

 for external affairs. The abbot, by the advice 

 of his four associate monks, was to appoint two 

 bursars who were to receive all the money coming 

 to the monastery, which was to be expended for 

 the common utility of the house, according to 

 the decision of the abbot and other officers. 



The refectory, kitchen, infirmary, and camera 

 were to be competently provided for, lest by 

 defect of necessaries the servants of God should 

 murmur, or should procure things less honest 

 outside. Diligent and fit officials were to be 

 appointed to e\ery office. The proper number 

 of monks was to be made up.^" The archbishop 



' Fowler, Couck-r Bk. of Selby, \, 11-102, where 

 they are printed in cxtcmo. 



^ Burton, Men. Ebcr. 388-404. 



' Coucher Bk. of Selby, i, p. ix, n., where it is re- 

 printed in full from Fasti Eb:r. i, 151 n. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. iii, 485. Numerous records 

 of the issue of a conge if hire are extant on the Patent 

 Rolls. 



' J'-chbp. Gr.:fs Reg. (Sart. Soc), Add. 327. 



'" What that number was does not appear. 



96 



ordered that his scriptum was to be recited three 

 times in the current year by the abbot in the 

 presence of the convent, at appropriate terms, 

 lest aught be neglected through forgetfulncss. 

 He reserved, however, to himself power to 

 interpret, relax, or correct, or do anything else, 

 which might seem to him to be good for the 

 utility of the monastery. 



On 31 May 1256" Pope Alexander IV 

 granted a faculty to the Abbot of Selby to use 

 the ring, mitre, pastoral staff, tunic, dalmatic, 

 gloves and sandals, and to bless altar-cloths and 

 other church ornaments, and to give the first 

 tonsure. This faculty appears to have fallen 

 into disuse not long after it was granted, for on 

 II April 1308 Archbishop Greenfield sent a 

 formal letter to the abbot and convent, saying that 

 he had inspected the Apostolic Letters, and, with 

 consent of the dean and chapter, he granted that 

 the abbot might use the foresaid insignia,** 

 which per aliqua tempora the abbot of the monas- 

 tery had omitted to use. 



When Archbishop Giffard visited the mon- 

 astery and its dependent cell of Snaith, by 

 commission, in 1275*' several of the monks 

 were charged with loose living, including the 

 abbot, and many of the complaints referred 

 to misconduct with married women. The 

 abbot at that time was Thomas de Whalley, 

 who had previously held the abbacy and been 

 deprived.'* Things did not mend, and on 

 8 January 1279-80" Archbishop Wickwane 

 made a visitation of the abbey in person, when it 

 was found that the abbot did not observe the 

 rule, did not sing mass {missam non cantat), did 

 not preach or teach, and seldom attended chapter, 

 he did not correct as he was bound to do, rarely 

 took his meals in the refectory, never slept in the 

 dormitory, rarely entered the quire, rarely heard 

 matins out of bed, did not visit the sick, publicly 

 ate flesh meat before laymen in his manors and 

 elsewhere outside the precincts of his monastery, 

 and even in the monastery on Wednesdays 

 indiscriminately, was haughty and malicious 

 (injurloius) towards his brethren, quarrelsome, and 

 a disturber in the convent, despised and neglected 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 331. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, fol. 70^. In 

 the Monastkon (iii, 485) and elsewhere this grant is 

 wrongly ascribed to Pope Alexander II in 1076. 

 Pope Alexander II died 21 April 1073, three years 

 before the supposed grant, which was really made by 

 Alexander IV, nearly 200 years later. 



" Archbp. Gffard's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 325. 



"He had been abbot 1254-66, when he was 

 deprived. In 1270, on the death of Abbot David, 

 he was again elected, but the archbishop quashed the 

 election on account of defects of procedure ; he how- 

 ever appointed Thomas de Whalley to the abbacy, and 

 notified the king of the appointment on 4 July 1270 

 ifijffard's Reg. 217-20). 



York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 105. 



