A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



in honour of St. Mary Magdalene ' and St. Helen 

 for the health of the soul of her husband, 

 Herbert St. Quintin, and for the souls of Walter 

 and Robert, her sons, and those of her parents 

 and friends.' 



Agnes, the prioress, and the convent of 

 Keeling in June 1299 covenanted to celebrate 

 every year the obit of Master William de 

 Haxby, canon of Beverley. They also under- 

 took to malt 3 bushels of good wheat yearly 

 against the anniversary, so that each nun on 

 that day might have a gallon of ale w^ell worth 

 a penny, and pittance of the same value.* 



In 1 28 1 -2' Archbishop Wickwane wrote to 

 the convent of Nunkeeling forbidding them to 

 receive anyone as nun or sister, or to admit 

 anybody to live in the nunnery without his 

 special licence, and in 1294° his successor. 

 Archbishop Romanus, appealed to the Bishops of 

 Winchester and Lincoln, collectors of the tenth, 

 on behalf of the nuns of ' Killing,' whose poverty 

 was so great that the means of their house 

 scarce sufficed for their food and raiment. On 

 15 July 13 10' Archbishop Greenfield wrote 

 to the prioress and convent that in consequence 

 of what had been revealed to his commissaries 

 they were within three days of the receipt of 

 his letter to remove Isabella de St. Quintin from 

 the office of cellarer in the presence of the whole 

 convent. She was not to be appointed to any 

 other office, and was to keep convent, quire, &c., 

 and not go outside the house. Two secular 

 women in the house, Beatrice and Nella Scot, 

 were to be removed. 



In I 314' the same archbishop held a visitation 

 of the priory, and issued a decretum. No nun 

 was to be absent from divine service on account 

 of her being occupied with silk work [propter 

 occupacionem opens de serico). The keys of the 

 cloister were to be in custody of the sub-prioress 

 and another worthy nun, and the sub-prioress 

 and her colleague were to be studiously careful 

 in the matter of locking the doors. The prior- 

 ess and sub-prioress were to inquire diligently, 

 and see who the persons were by whom the 

 alrns of the house had been pilfered and dimin- 

 ished, and if they found that the elemosinaria 

 had committed fraud or been negligent, she was 

 to be removed from office. 



No young nun concerning whom sinister 

 suspicion might arise was to have her meals with 

 the brothers or other persons, either religious or 

 secular, in the hall of the hospitium^ or elsewhere 

 outside the inner cloister, neither was a nun to 

 tarry for any length of time in those places 



' Baildon, Mon. Notes, i, 163, no. 3. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. iv, 186. 



' Poulson, Hist, and Ant'iq. ofHoldemess, i, 377. 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 20, 175 d. 



^ Ibid. Romanus, fol. 67 d. 



' Ibid. Greenfield, i, fol. 1 24. 



° Ibid, ii, fol. 1233. 



with such persons, or converse with them, except 

 in the presence of a nun of mature age. No 

 nuns were to make themselves remarkable as 

 regards their girdles or shoes, or wear anything 

 unsuitable to religion. 



The prioress was not to allow the nuns to go 

 out except on the business of the house, or to 

 visit friends and relations, and then such a nun 

 was to have another as companion, and was not 

 to be away longer than fifteen days. All the 

 money due to the house was to be received by 

 two bursars, elected by the convent. 



The prioress was to keep convent in quire at 

 divine service, she was to have her meals in the 

 refectory and sleep in the dormitory, unless 

 hindered by entertaining notable guests, or other 

 lawful causes. In important business she was 

 to take counsel with her sisters, and all were 

 forbidden to lease manors, sell corrodies, or 

 receive to the habit of a nun, a sister, or a 

 conversus, any person, or to take boarders, or to 

 retain girls in the house after they were twelve 

 years old. 



On 23 July 1316,° the see of York being 

 vacant, the commissioners of the dean and 

 chapter visited the nunnery, and on 1 1 August 

 Avice de la More, the prioress, resigned her 

 office into the hands of the dean in the chapter- 

 house at York. The new prioress then elected 

 was Isabella de St. Quintin,^" who a few years 

 before had been deprived of the office of cellarer 

 for misconduct and pronounced ineligible for 

 office in the house. The dean and chapter 

 quashed the election as canonically defective in 

 procedure, but appointed her to the vacant 

 office on 19 August, and on 21 September*^ the 

 dean and chapter wrote to the new prioress and 

 the convent, making provision for Avice de la 

 More, who for a long period had laudably and 

 usefully superintended the house. She was to 

 have a chamber for herself in their monastery, 

 and a nun of the house assigned her by the 

 prioress as a companion. She was to receive for 

 her sustenance bread, ale, cooked food and 

 victuals daily as two nuns of the same house, 

 and her nun associate as one nun. 



On 27 July 1318^^ Avice de la More, on 

 account of her conspiracies, rebellions, and dis- 

 obedience to her prioress, had to be warned 

 to desist, or she would be deprived of the pro- 

 vision made for her when she ceded the office 

 of prioress. But besides warning her the arch- 

 bishop ordered her each Friday to say the seven 

 penitential psalms with the litany, humbly and 

 devoutly, and on those days she was to receive 

 a discipline in chapter, and to fast on bread, ale, 

 and vegetables, with one service of fish. 



Dionisia Dareyns, for her disobedience and 

 other things, was not to go out of the precincts 

 except in worthy company. Each Friday she 



' Ibid. sed. vac. fol. 95^. »» Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. 96. " Ibid. Melton, fol. 269^. 



120 



