RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



eration in food, drink, and other matters was 

 enjoined. The revenues of their church of 

 Great Ayton in Cleveland, by unanimous con- 

 sent, were assigned for the relief of their debts. 



Then follow the usual directions forbidding 

 the revealing of chapter secrets, inordinate going 

 to and fro of seculars in the cloister, infirmary, 

 and private parts of the monastery, and an order 

 that none but mature and respectable persons 

 were to dine in the refectory. The sick monks 

 were to be duly cared for, &c. 



All the monks were to be uniform as to their 

 habit, according to the old ordinances, and were 

 to avoid novelties of dress. They were not, in 

 future, to accept money to get clothes, but were 

 to receive them from the vestry, giving back 

 their old clothes for the new ones. The monas- 

 tic alms were to be duly distributed by the 

 almoner and his servants, and were not to be 

 given to workpeople, &c. The archbishop 

 forbade all the monks, under pain of suspen- 

 sion from divine rights, to go out of the monastery 

 with bows and arrows. In the matter of 

 recreation, the abbot was to grant most relaxa- 

 tion to those who most needed it. The prior 

 was to keep convent in church, refectory, dor- 

 mitory, and cloister, unless engaged in attending 

 on notable guests, or hindered by sickness, or 

 the needful affairs of the house, or some other 

 legitimate reason. The abbot was to consult 

 the older and more prudent members of the 

 convent in the difficult affairs of the house. He 

 was to allow no monk to reside in the family or 

 be in the service of any secular person without 

 the archbishop's special licence. All money 

 coming to the house was to be delivered to two 

 resident bursars, who were to spend the money 

 as seemed best on the needs of the house. A 

 cellarer was to be appointed to mind the outside 

 affairs, and to his office was to pertain all that had 

 hitherto been the duty of the bursars, except the 

 receipt and expenditure of the money. The 

 abbot, on receipt of the decretum, was with five 

 or six mature and discreet monks to audit an 

 account of the goods of the house made by the offi- 

 cials, and make the state of the monastery known 

 to the whole convent in chapter. No attendant 

 or manservant who was burdensome to the house, 

 or who was defamed of the vice of incontinence 

 or any other grievous crime, was to be retained. 

 The abbot, prior and monks were not to keep 

 their own or other people's hunting dogs in the 

 monastery, nor were they to admit any, except 

 those needed for the house, and the cloister doors 

 were to be so guarded that they could not get in. 

 If any dog did get in, such dog was to be caught, 

 et rigide castigetur. 



An earlier entry ^' relates to William de 

 Wadworth, a monk of Monk Bretton, whom 

 Archbishop Romanus sent to Whitby in 1293 



York Archiepis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 34^. 



to undergo a penance. He was to be last in 

 quire, cloister, dormitory and refectory, and on 

 Wednesdays and Fridays was to fast on bread, 

 ale and vegetables. He was to keep convent 

 continuously, and to abstain from the celebration 

 of divine service. His offence is not definitely 

 stated. Two monks of Selby were also sent by 

 Archbishop Greenfield to Whitby for penances.^' 



Abbot Thomas de Malton resigned in 1322,^* 

 when, in recognition of his faithful labours as 

 abbot, provision was made for him during the 

 remainder of his life. He was to have a chamber 

 called ' Camera Astini ' with all that pertained 

 to it, kept in order by the abbot and convent ; 

 also daily for himself and a monk-associate food 

 and ale to the same amount as that given to 

 three monks. He was also to have daily provi- 

 sion for a valet, a cook, and a man-servant 

 {garcione), whom he should choose to serve him. 

 Further, he was to receive yearly 12 marks of 

 silver, and decent clothing. For his valet and 

 man-servant two coats (robas) of the abbot's 

 livery {de liberatione abbatis), or 255. He was to 

 have the profit of the manor of Eskdale, &c., and 

 the forester appointed by the abbot was to find 

 him, at the abbot's cost, necessaries for keeping 

 up the buildings and repairing the ploughs, &c., 

 and reasonable amount of firebote for burning at 

 the abbey, and at Eskdale. He was, in addition, 

 to receive fifteen cartloads of turves yearly at 

 Whitby, and from the sacrist 3 lb. of wax at the 

 feast of St. Michael, and also, from the abbot's 

 chamber, for lights for himself, 10 lb. of Paris 

 wax at All Saints. Besides these benefits, he 

 was to have a competent equipage for riding to 

 and from Whitby and Eskdale when he desired, 

 and when entertaining guests, what was needed 

 from the cellar and kitchen as the abbot had. 



Thomas de Haukesgarth (Hawsker) ^' was 

 elected abbot in Thomas de Malton's place, and the 

 archbishop (as was often the case with the larger 

 monasteries), claimed the right to demand on the 

 creation of a new head of the house the payment 

 of a pension to a person nominated by himself,^® 

 in this instance William de Cliffe. 



In 1328 Edward IIP^ directed the archbishop 

 to appoint trustworthy men to survey the 

 benefices pertaining to Whitby Abbey destroyed 



" JVhitby Chartul. 629, 630. 



"York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 238, &c. ; 

 Whitby Chartul. 636. 



" He must not be confused with a later Thomas 

 de Haukesgarth, monk, who in 1374 was sent by 

 Archbishop Thoresby for a two years' sojourn in Selby 

 Abbey (York Archiepis. Reg. Thoresby, fol. i%zb), 

 and who again appears in 1393, when Prior of Mid- 

 dlesbrough, as voting at the election of Peter de 

 Hertilpoole as abbot. (Young, op. cit. 391 n.) 



^^ York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 240^ ; IVhitby 

 Chartul. 647. 



" Close, 2 Edw. Ill, m. 28 ; York Archiepis. Reg. 

 Melton, fol. 249. 



103 



