A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



king's clerk, was appointed by Edward I to the 

 custody of the abbey, to apply the revenues to 

 ' the relief of the impoverished condition into 

 which it had fallen.'''' And that no additional 

 debt might be incurred, ' no sheriff, bailiff or 

 other minister or other person whatsoever was to 

 lodge in the abbey or its granges during the said 

 custody.' *' The monks suffered considerably 

 through the invasions of the Scots,™ so much 

 so that on 25 November 1319 the king exempted 

 them from taxation." 



In the year 1 3 1 7 some of the abbey granges 

 were in a ruinous condition,^^ and frequent 

 invasions were made by the Scots. Edward III 

 therefore in 1327 issued a mandate to the abbot 

 ordering him and other abbots to stay at home 

 and give their attention to the custody of their 

 respective abbeys, inasmuch as the Scots, 'our 

 foes and rebels,' were making attacks on the 

 kingdom, ' perpetrating murders, robberies, fires, 

 and other inhuman evils.' " 



In 1 344 certain ' satellites of Satan, unmindful 

 of their salvation,' had irreverently invaded the 

 granges, manors, and other properties of the 

 abbey, and on 26 August the chapter of York 

 in the dean's absence issued a mandate to excom 

 municate all such felonious intruders into the 

 monastic possessions.^* 



In the year 1363, a petition sent to the abbey 

 of Clairvaux, asking that the brethren at 

 Fountains might convert many of their ruined 

 granges into ' vills ' and farm them out to secular 

 persons, was granted. These granges, now 



* perished, burnt and reduced to nothing ' by the 



* wars of the Scotch and English,' were at 

 Aldborough, Sleningford, Sutton, Cowton, 

 Cayton, Bramley, Bradley, Kilnsea, and Thorpe.*' 



On the deathof Abbot Robert Burley, in 1410, 

 Roger Frank, one of the monks, was appointed 

 on 30 July as his successor.*^ There was a 

 great disturbance in consequence, Frank being 

 expelled and John Ripon *' elected abbot. 

 Ripon petitioned Parliament in 14 14 that the 

 expelled abbot should be made to restore certain 

 properties of great value which he had appro- 

 priated. But he was informed that sufficient 

 remedy was to be obtained from the common 



" Pat. 19 Edw. I, m. 13. " Ibid. 



'° So much damage was done by destruction, fire, 

 and robbery that the whole communa of the abbey did 

 not suffice for the daily sustentation of the brethren. 

 York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 129 (under date 

 26 July 13 18). 



" Rymer, Foedera, iii, 802. 



" Surt. Soc. Pub!. Ixvii, p. vii. 



'' Scotch R. I Edw. Ill, m. 3 d. 



" Surt. Soc. Publ. xlii, 1 99, 200. 



" Ibid. 203, 204, quoting the original licence at 

 Studley Royal. 



'^ Ibid. Ixvii, p. vii ; York Archiepis. Reg. Bowett, 

 fol. 265. 



" Abbot of Meaux : Surt. Soc. Publ. xlii, 211. 



law. Then Frank petitioned Parliament ^king 

 for restoration to his abbacy, declaring that Ripon 

 had been appointed by a bull purchased from the 

 pope by means of which he himself had been 

 ousted.'^ In the end the king referred the matter 

 to his ambassadors at the council of Constance, 

 but their decision is not known, though Frank 

 was certainly not restored, Ripon retaining the 

 abbacy till his death in 1434." Sometime 

 (1410— 15) during the great papal schism the 

 anti-pope John XXIII granted an indult to the 

 Abbot John and his successors at Fountains to 

 use the mitre and ring and pastoral staff and all 

 other episcopal insignia., and to give in the monas- 

 tery and in the churches of its daughter monas- 

 teries, &c., solemn benediction after mass, vespers 

 and matins, provided that no bishop or papal 

 legate were then present ; to consecrate altars, 

 vessels, chalices, corporals, &c. ; to promote 

 monks of the order to all minor orders, &c., to 

 rehabilitate the monks, &c. This indult, how- 

 ever, was annulled on 5 May 1428 by Pope 

 Martin V.^" But the privilege must have been 

 renewed subsequently, for certainly the Abbots 

 of Fountains wore the mitre, and in the inven- 

 tory of church goods made just before the 

 Dissolution the mitre figures more than once. 

 One mitre had ' edges of silver and gilt and set 

 with round pieces of silver, white like pearl, and 

 flower'd of silver, and gilt in midward.' It 

 weighed 12 oz. and was valued at ^2 12s. 

 Another mitre was of silver gilt and set with 

 pearl and stone. Its weight was 70 oz. and it 

 was valued at ^ 1 5 3X. ^.d. The pastoral staff 

 and ring and the other ' episcopal insignia ' are 

 also found in the inventory,'^ and are clear 

 evidence that the head of Fountains, in later 

 times at all events, was a * mitred abbot.' 



In 1443 ^''' Jo^^" Neville was charged before 

 the Privy Council, on pain of ^^1,000, to bring 

 the men who had been lately making a riot at 

 the abbey. He pleaded ignorance of the parties, 

 but promised to have them brought, and he was 

 charged to keep the peace with regard to the 

 house, ' so that by him, nother by his, nother by 

 their abettement, nother procuring, any harme 

 in body, nother in goods, be done to the saide 

 Abbot, convent, nother to their servantz, nother 

 welwillcrs.' *^ A commission was issued the 

 next year by Archbishop Kemp against certain 

 anonymous * sons of iniquity ' who had infringed 

 the liberties of the house ; they were to be warned 

 that within three months they must make resti- 

 tution under pain of the greater excommuni- 

 cation."^ 



''Ibid. 212. 

 Baildon, Mon. 



288. 



Notei ; Dugdale, Mo». Jngl. \, 



™ Cal. of Papal Letters, vii, 144. 

 " Burton, Mon. Ebor. 144. 

 " Surt. Soc. Publ. xlii, 222, 223. 

 " Ibid. 223-5. 



136 



