RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



altogether the statutes of the archbishops, and, in 

 short, was negligent and ill-disposed in all that 

 pertained to divine affairs and regular discipline, 

 and was altogether incorrigible. More than this, 

 he had alienated, without consent of his convent, 

 lands, manors, tithes, corrodies, &c. The lands 

 were specified, including the manor of Chellow 

 near Bradford, and that of Stainton in Craven. 



He had given three estates, which are specified, 

 to his brother John, who in 1275 had been 

 charged with immorality. He had given a pen- 

 sion of 4 marks to his nephew Thomas. The 

 tithes of Driffield, and the money he had 

 received from alienations he had made, he had 

 spent as he liked. Owing to his neglect he had 

 lost the rent and tithe of various places, which 

 are named. In the liberty of Snaith he had 

 handed over the manors to be kept by his 

 relatives, garcionibus et rybaldis, and when he 

 received anything from them for corn and other 

 things sold, he spent it as he liked, without ren- 

 dering an account. He appointed obedienti- 

 aries according to his will, who were favourable 

 to him, and from whom he got money and other 

 goods of the house. He cut down and sold 

 groves, and spent the money as he liked. 

 Worse still was proved against him. He was 

 found guilty of incontinence with the lady of 

 Whenby [domina de Queneby) and with a girl, 

 Bodeman, living at the monastery gate, who, as 

 reported, had borne him offspring. He was 

 perjured, too, for he swore before his last installa- 

 tion that he would restore the charters of Stal- 

 lingborough as soon as he was installed, and 

 hitherto had not done so. He was excommuni- 

 cate, both because he had not paid the pope's 

 tithe and had turned to other uses the tithes of 

 the chapel of Wheatley assigned for alms, as also 

 for despising the statutes of Archbishop Gray, 

 and because he had laid violent hands on Brother 

 Robert de Eboraco to the effusion of blood, and 

 also on William de Stormeworthe, dragging him 

 from the quire. He had also laid hands on 

 Thomas de Snayth, clerk, drawing blood from 

 him, whom he had appointed to recover certain 

 tithes at Snaith. He was further charged with 

 incantation and sorcery, in procuring Elyas 

 Fauvelle to seek for the body of his brother, who 

 had been drowned in the River Ouse, and on 

 this he spent a large sum of money. Thus for 

 these reasons he was excommunicate, but had 

 taken part in divine affairs in spite of it. This 

 string of misdeeds of all sorts having been proved 

 against the unworthy abbot, the archbishop 

 pronounced formal sentence of deposition, and 

 transferred the deposed abbot to the monastery 

 of Durham, there to undergo a penance ap- 

 pointed for the good of his soul. On Tuesday 

 before the feast of the Epiphany Thomas de 

 Whalley formally confessed himself to have been 

 duly amoved by the archbishop, and submitted 

 himself to the sentence passed upon him. 



In 1306" Archbishop Greenfield held a 

 visitation of Selby, when it was again apparent 

 that matters were seriously amiss. One of the 

 monks, Henry de Belton, for his enormities was 

 handed over to the Abbot of St. Mary's, York, to 

 be sent to their far-off cell of Rumburgh, in 

 Suffolk, at an annual charge of 4 marks, to be 

 paid by Selby ; but from a subsequent letter of 

 the archbishop it would seem that he was being 

 detained at St. Mary's, and the archbishop then 

 directed the abbot to dispatch him, with a safe 

 convoy, to St. Bees. Another monk, Thomas 

 de Wilmerley, was sent at the same time and 

 at the same costs to Whitby ; both had prescribed 

 penances appointed them, and the archbishop 

 further commissioned his official to inquire into 

 the miserable condition of another monk, Thomas 

 de Eyton." 



On 20 March 1 31 5 " the dean and chapter, Wi? 

 vacante^-wrote to the Abbot and convent of Whitby 

 in regard to Robert de Brune, a monk of Selby, 

 whom the archbishop had transferred there to 

 undergo a penance. The Abbot and convent 

 of Whitby had reported well concerning him, 

 and for the future he was to hold among them 

 locum sua statu competentem, and on Wednesday 

 to have the same food as the rest, but on Fridays 

 he was to have only bread, ale, vegetables and 

 one kind of fish, until his case should merit 

 further favourable consideration. 



On 9 April 1322 ^' Abbot John de WystowII 

 sent to Archbishop Melton a full account of the 

 status of the monastery on the feast of St. Stephen, 

 1 320, when his predecessor Simon de Scarborough 

 died. The monastery was still in debt to the 

 amount of ^^551 8^., and was then burdened by 

 pensions and fees amounting to ;^44 i6i. 8(/. 

 yearly, also fifteen corrodies of food and drink 

 to fifteen persons daily during their lives, of 

 whom eight were receiving daily food for them- 

 selves and their servants [garcionibus) and seven 

 food for themselves only, eleven of them also 

 receiving clothes (robas) yearly. Besides this, 

 the grain of the monastery was deficient. The 

 revenues and rents, which the abbot's predecessor 

 and the cellarer of the house were accustomed 

 to receive in different places, had, at the time of 

 his decease, depreciated by more than loo marks 

 a year. 



Archbishop Melton held a visitation of Selby 

 on 10 July 1324,^" when he found the house 

 heavily in debt and burdened by pensions. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, fol. 59. 



" On 26 Nov. Archbishop Greenfield addressed 

 a letter to the presidents of the Benedictine chapters 

 to recall Thomas de Shyrburn, monk of Selby, who 

 two years previously had left his monastery without 

 leave and was wandering about the country ; York 

 Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, ii, fol. 59. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. sed. vac. fol. gib. 



'' Ibid. Melton, fol. 153. »» Ibid. fol. 164. 



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