A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



prioress, who had been placed in charge of the 

 house, and Isabella Couvel was joined with her 

 in the care of the conventual property. This 

 was followed on 30 August '' by a letter to 

 Mr. Walter de Bebiry, Dean of Ainsty, direct- 

 ing him to go to Arthington and inquire as to 

 Isabella de Berghby and Margaret de Tang, 

 nuns of the house, who had left it. He was to 

 find out with whom they had gone, and where 

 they were living. It is clear that Isabella de 

 Berghby had resented having another nun asso- 

 ciated with her in the management of the aflfairs 

 of the nunnery, and had cast oflF her habit and 

 gone abroad into the world. As to her com- 

 panion nun, who seems to have been a less 

 worthy person, we hear more afterwards. Al- 

 though Isabella de Berghby had gone off in this 

 fashion, she does not seem to have formally 

 quitted the post of prioress ; and no successor 

 seems to have been elected or appointed till she 

 took steps to return. On 19 September 1312" 

 (eighteen months after her departure) Maud de 

 Batheley, a nun of the house, was confirmed in 

 office, and four days later the archbishop wrote 

 to the new prioress and her convent that Isabella 

 de Berghby had come to him in the spirit of 

 humility, and he had absolved her from the sen- 

 tence of the greater excommunication which she 

 had incurred by leaving her house, and that he 

 sent her to them. They were to receive her 

 back, but she was to take the last place in quire, 

 cloister, dormitory, and refectory, and was not to 

 go outside the cloister. The archbishop also 

 imposed a penance on Margaret de Tang. On 

 18 September 1315" Archbishop Greenfield 

 visited Arthington, and issued a series of injunc- 

 tions to the nuns. An account of all the goods of 

 the house was to be made up by all the officers 

 every year before the feast of St. Andrew, and 

 shown to the prioress and three or four of the 

 more discreet nuns. The sick were to be pro- 

 perly tended in the infirmary according to their 

 needs, and as the means of the house allowed ; 

 silence was to be duly kept, and all who could 

 were to be present at the services. The arch- 

 bishop further enjoined that no woman who was 

 received as a sister of the house should be allowed 

 to accept or wear the black veil." The prioress 

 and sub-prioress were not to allow boys or any 

 secular persons to sleep in the dormitory. In 

 future, when the prioress or sub-prioress allowed 

 any of the nuns to \ isit their parents or friends, 

 a limit of fifteen days was to be fixed for them 

 to return in. If they did not return then, or if 

 they were late, without a legitimate cause, they 



''York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, ii, fol. 57 

 l^lbid. fol. 57^. 'Mbid. fol.58^ 



The archbishop had, in l 3 i i-i 2, issued a general 

 order that nuns only and not sisters were to use the 

 black veil in his diocese (ibid. foj. 24). The disuse of 

 the black veil was often part of the penance imposed 

 on nuns guilty of serious offences. 



188 



were to be punished in chapter. Leave to go out 

 was only to be granted once or twice in the year. 

 In 1318* Archbishop Melton held a visita- 

 tion of Arthington, and issued a long scries of 

 injunctions, many of which were repetitions of 

 those of his predecessor. He exhorted that unity 

 and true concord, without which there is no 

 true religion, should be nurtured, and that no 

 quarrels should prevail among the nuns. There 

 are the usual directions as to the due performance 

 of divine service, and the proper observance of 

 silence. All the nuns were to be assiduous in 

 their attendance at divine service, and those who 

 were remiss in this were to be punished by the 

 prioress and sub-prioress, and if that did not 

 suffice, their names were to be sent to the arch- 

 bishop, and he would see that they were so 

 chastised that the punishment of one should be a 

 warning to the other nuns. The sick were to 

 be duly tended, &c., and no outside secular 

 persons whosoever were to be allowed to 

 frequent the cloister, infirmary, or other private 

 place. As the archbishop found the house 

 burdened with various debts he enjoined all 

 possible economy. The old consuetudines of the 

 house were to be kept, and the dormitory, 

 refectory, and other buildings, which were 

 defective in their roofs, were to be repaired 

 without delay. The then prioress, and all her 

 successors, were enjoined that in sales of wool, 

 and all other important business matters, the 

 convent, or at least the greater and wiser portion, 

 should be consulted. A carucate of land at 

 ' Burghdon,' belonging to the house, was to be 

 cultivated and sown, if it were unanimously 

 found that this would benefit the nunnery. 



The prioress, and three or four more mature 

 and discreet nuns, were to have an account of all 

 the goods drawn up, showing also the debts and 

 credit of the house, and the corrodies, pensions, 

 and other obligations in full, under the convent 

 seal, for the archbishop. The injunction as to 

 the non-use of the black veil by the lay sisters 

 was repeated, as well as the direction that boys 

 and secular persons were not to sleep in the 

 dormitory with the nuns. The prioress and 

 sub-prioress were to eat with the nuns in 

 the refectory. The directions of Archbishop 

 Greenfield as to visiting friends were repeated, 

 with the addition that each nun to whom such 

 leave was given was to have another nun of 

 good report with her. The prioress was to keep 

 convent in quire, cloister, refectory, and 

 dormitory, unless lawfully hindered, and under 

 pain of deposition she was ordered not to grant 

 corrodies, pensions, or liveries, or lease for undue 

 length of time any manors or granges, and 

 further was to make no alienation of the 

 immovable goods of the house, nor to take any 

 sister, or conversus, or to have any secular 

 as boarders, without the archbishop's 

 "York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 132. 



nun 

 women 



