RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



monastery of nuns might be established at 

 Coddenham, ' de congregacione et professione et 

 ordine sanctimonialium de Apeltuna.' It is 

 extremely doubtful whether any steps were 

 taken, beyond the making of this grant, towards 

 the foundation of this proposed cell, or nunnery. 

 At any rate Coddenham Church, given by its 

 patron Eustace de Merch, is mentioned in a 

 papal confirmation in 1 1 84 ' of the possessions 

 of the newly-founded priory of Royston in 

 Hertfordshire. On 17 February 1275-6* Arch- 

 bishop Giffiird wrote to the Prioress of Appleton, 

 in common with other Cistercian prioresses in 

 his diocese, that the Friars Minor were to hear 

 their confessions, as had been the custom, in spite 

 of the inhibition of the abbots of the order, who 

 possessed no jurisdiction, ordinary or delegated, 

 over the nuns. 



In 1281 ^ Archbishop Wickwane issued a 

 series of injunctions to Nun Appleton. The 

 prioress was to be more diligent in her duty than 

 heretofore. No nun was to appropriate for 

 herself any present of clothing or shoes, given 

 her by anyone, without the consent of the 

 prioress. All that the prioress received in money 

 or kind for the use of the monastery, she was 

 not to receive alone, but in the presence of two 

 or three of the older and wiser of the nuns and 

 at the end of the year she was to reckon up before 

 the seniors, chosen for that purpose, the receipts 

 and expenditure of the house. No one was to 

 be received as nun or sister of the house, or even 

 to live there, without the archbishop's special 

 licence, but honest hospitality for a day or night 

 was not meant to be forbidden, so that no occa- 

 sion of sin or scandal arose. Locks on forcers 

 and chests the archbishop forbade, unless the 

 prioress, very often inspecting the contents, 

 should make other honest order in this respect. 

 The refectory and cloister were to be better 

 guarded from strangers than was wont, lest the 

 good fame of the nuns should vanish hereafter 

 more than it had already done. 



One of the great troubles against which, from 

 the first, the archbishops had to contend was 

 that of the nuns receiving secular women to 

 board with them. It was constantly forbidden, 

 generally on the ground of expense, but probably 

 the presence of women of the world had a secu- 

 larizing effect, and did not conduce to the religious 

 life of the nuns. Writing from Cawood, on 

 5 March 1289-90,^° Archbishop Romanus for- 

 bade the nuns to take any women as boarders, or 

 to admit anyone to their habit, without his special 

 licence. Almost in exactly the same terms 

 Archbishop Corbridge wrote on 17 February 

 1302-3,^^ forbidding them also to allow anyone 



' B.M. Cott. MS. Aug. ii, 124. 



' Archbf. Giffard's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 295. 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 136 



" Ibid. Romanus, fol. 35^. 



" Ibid. Corbridge, fol. zo. 



to remain at the convent's expense, the house 

 being already heavily in debt. 



On 9 May 13061=' Archbishop Greenfield 

 appointed Roger de Saxton to the care of the 

 goods of the nunnery. The same archbishop 

 addressing the Prioress and convent of Appleton, 

 of the order of St. Benedict, on 4 January 1307-8," 

 directed them to send Maud de Bossail to Base- 

 dale " in Cleveland for a while, she having been 

 for many years unruly and disobedient, setting a 

 bad example to the other nuns. In the same 

 year the archbishop granted licence that Agnes 

 de Saxton" might be admitted a sister of the 

 house, and directed that the custos of the house 

 was to have his meals daily in the chamber 

 assigned to him, unless it happened that the 

 prioress was having her meals in her own chamber, 

 on account of entertaining strangers, in which 

 case, for the sake of company, the custos might 

 join them, A year later, 27 January 1308-9,^* 

 the prioress and convent were directed to re-admit 

 Maud de Bossall on her return from Basedale. 

 In September 1309" the archbishop appointed 

 his receiver, William de Jafford, to audit the 

 accounts of the convent, and also wrote to the 

 prioress and convent that Avice de Lyncolnia, 

 niece of William de Jafford, might remain for 

 four years in the monastery without prejudice to 

 their house. A letter from the archbishop 

 (12 November 1309)'' directed that Maud de 

 Ripon, a nun who had incurred the sentence of 

 the greater excommunication for apostasy, and 

 had been absolved, was to be re-admitted. The 

 trouble as to taking boarders seems to have come 

 to the fore again in 13 16," for on 5 November 

 in that year the dean and chapter, sede vacante, 

 forbade the nuns to take any kind of secular 

 women as boarders, without special licence. 



Archbishop Melton held a primary visitation 

 of Nun Appleton on 7 April 1318,^° on which 

 occasion he issued a long list of injunctions, 

 many of which are exhortations and commands 

 of a general character, or similar to those of his 

 predecessors. Among those which are not so is 

 an inhibition that no brothers of any order were 

 to be received ad hospitandum, unless, perchance, 

 they arrived so late that it was impossible not to 

 lodge them, and rather inconsequently it is added 

 that two sets were not to be received at the 

 same time, until the house was relieved of debt. 



" Ibid. Greenfield, i, fol. 56. 



" Ibid. fol. 6Sb. The nunnery was, of course, 

 Cistercian, but is spoken of in general terms as of the 

 order of St. Benedict. 



" ' Erden ' has been crossed out and Basedale 

 substituted. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, i, fol. 69. 

 Agnes, no doubt, was related to the ' custos ' appointed 

 in 1306. 



" Ibid. fol. 72. " Ibid. fol. 74^, 75. 



" Ibid. fol. 76. " Ibid. sed. vac. fol. 86. 



'" Ibid. Melton, fol. 131. 



171 



