A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



No nun was to leave the cloister to talk or sit 

 at night time with such brothers. Secular 

 persons were forbidden to enter the cloister at 

 unlawful times, except for honest and urgent 

 causes, lest their going to and fro should interfere 

 with the quiet and devotion of the nuns. Not 

 more than two or three nuns from one family 

 were to be admitted into the house without 

 special licence for fear of discord arising.^^ 



The archbishop straitly enjoined all the nuns 

 not to leave their monastery by reason of any 

 vows of pilgrimage which any of them might 

 have taken. If any had taken such vows, then 

 such a one was to say as many psalters as it 

 would have taken days to perform the pilgrimage 

 so rashly vowed. 



In 1320 ^^ Elizabeth de Holbeck, the prioress, 

 resigned owing to her old age and bodily weak- 

 ness, having, as the archbishop wrote to the nuns, 

 laboured with efficacy while her strength lasted. 

 She was succeeded by Isabella Kormanvill. On 

 21 April 1335''' the archbishop granted licence 

 to the convent to relax the penance imposed on 

 Joan de Scardeburg, one of the nuns, but does 

 not say for what offence it had been imposed. 



Archbishop Zouch issued (February 1346)^ a 

 series of injunctions, as a result of a visitation. 

 Many are in general terms, and like others of 

 the kind. He began by reproving the prioress 

 for grave neglect of duty, to the scandal 

 of her house, and the nuns were admon- 

 ished to lay aside every trace of pride and 

 arrogancy, and in the spirit of humility to obey 

 their superiors. In regard to Katherine de 

 Hugate, one of the nuns, who, miserably defiled 

 by a carnal lapse, had retired from the house in 

 a sute of pregnancy, the archbishop ordered that 

 if she returned, she was to be very severely 

 punished, according to the appointed penance of 

 their order, and her penance, or any like penance 

 imposed on a nun or sister for a similar offence, 

 was not to be mitigated in any degree, except by 

 special licence of the archbishop. Margaret, a 

 sister of the house, who had retired in a similar 

 state, was on no account to be taken back, as the 

 archbishop had found that in the past she had on 

 successive occasions relapsed, and become preg- 

 nant. The infirmary was too limited in capacity, 

 and the archbishop directed that certain chambers 

 on the west part of the church, beyond the 

 locutorium, or parlour, in which certain of the 

 nuns, contrary to the honesty of religion, were 

 abiding, were to be pulled down within a year, 

 so that the infirmary might be extended. The 

 doors of the church, cloister, and locutorium for 

 long time past had been negligently guarded ; 

 this was to be corrected, and no secular womari 



" From the formation, no doubt, of cliques in the 

 house. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 142. 



" Ibid. fol. 199;^. « Ibid. Zouch, fol. 14^. 



172 



of any description was to sleep or pass the night 

 in the dormitory. The guests who flocked 

 {hospites confluentes) to the house were to be 

 admitted to the hostelry constructed for that 

 purpose. The internal officers in charge of the 

 food and drink had done their work badly, to the 

 loss of the house, and the nuns were to substitute 

 efficient servants in place of those who were 

 useless, who were to be discharged. Lest the 

 nuns might overstep the means of their house, no 

 one was to be received as nun or sister, without 

 special licence. 



In 1489^" Archbishop Rotherham issued a 

 series of injunctions for the nuns of much the 

 usual character, but being in English it may be 

 conveniently quoted in full. They reveal no 

 serious offences, the worst being that of visiting 

 the ale-house. The nearness to the River Wharfe 

 was something in the nature of a temptation, 

 being a favourite resort, and also being near the 

 water highway between York, Selby, and Hull, 

 accounted for the hospites confluentes mentioned by 

 Archbishop Zouch in his decretum above quoted. 



First and principally we commaunde and injoyne, 

 yat divine service and ye rewles of your religion be 

 observed and kept accordyng to your ordour, yat ye 

 be professed to. 



Item yat ye cloistre dores be shett and spam " in 

 wyntre at vij, and in somer at viij of the clok at nyght, 

 and ye keys nyghtly to be delyvered to you Prioresse^ 

 and ye aftir ye said houres sufFre no persone to come 

 in or forth w'out a cause resonable. 



Item yat ye Prioresse sufFre no man loge undir the 

 dortir, nor oon the baksede, but if hit be such sad 

 persones by whome your howse may be holpyne and 

 secured w'out slaundir or suspicion. 



Item yat ye Prioresse and all your sistirs loge 

 nyghtly in ye dortour, savyng if ye or your sisters be 

 seke or deseasid, yen ye or yei so seke or deseased to 

 kepe a chambre. 



Item yat noon of your sistirs use ye ale house nor 

 ye watirside, wher concurse of straungers dayly 

 resortes. 



Item yat none of your sistirs have yeir service of 

 mete and drynke to yer chambre, but kepe ye fFrater 

 and ye hall accordyng to your religion, except any of 

 yaim be seke. 



Item yat none of your sistirs bring in, receyve, or 

 take any laie man, religiose, or secular into yer chambre 

 or any secrete place, daye or knyght, nor w' yaim in 

 such private places to commyne, ete, or drynke, w'out 

 lycence of you Prioresse. 



Item yat ye Prioresse lycence none of your sistirs to 

 go pilgremage or viset yer frcndes w'oute a grete 

 cause, and yen such a sistir so lycencyate by you to 

 have w' her oon of ye moste sadd and weU disposid 

 sistirs to she come home agayne. 



Item yat ye graunte or sell no corrodies nor lyvercs 

 of brede, nor ale, nor oyer vitell, to any person or 

 persones from hensforward w'out yauctorite and speciall 

 lycynce of us or our Vicar generall. 



"Ibid. Rotherham, i, fol. 245. It is printed but 

 with many errors ; Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 654, no. vii. 

 bparn, i.e. fastened by a spar or bar of wood. 



