A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



in a brief hour {hora hrevt) had consumed more 

 than would have maintained their house for a 

 considerable period. This led to a mandate from 

 Innocent III (i 198-1216), protecting the canons 

 from undue exactions from archbishops, bishops, 

 archdeacons, and their officers, and restricting the 

 equipages of those persons to what the eleventh 

 Lateran Council had permitted, which only 

 allowed an archdeacon to travel with seven horses 

 on such occasions.' 



On 30 January 1279-80^ Archbishop Wick- 

 wane held a visitation of Bridlington and issued 

 a number of injunctions. First he ordered that 

 the monastic aims were not to be put to any 

 illicit uses, but were to be duly distributed. No 

 one, without reasonable cause, was to go into the 

 infirmary, or pretend that he was not able to 

 attend the service of God. The prior was not 

 to give leave to any brother to wander about the 

 country, or to visit friends or relations, without 

 need ; and in giving leave to go out, the prior was 

 to be careful that scandal was not brought on the 

 monastery. Suspected boxes with locks were 

 forbidden.' The prior was to see to the repair 

 of the roof of the dormitory without delay. No 

 canon was to dwell alone in any manor, or else- 

 where, particularly not at Blouberhous,' to the 

 injury of his reputation. Under pain of ana- 

 thema, any persons who were professed, and had 

 appropriated anything, were to restore it at once 

 to the prior for the common use of the house. The 

 prior was to direct his convent with zeal, and to 

 follow the counsel of the elders, and not that of 

 the young members of the house, and was not to 

 be an acceptor of persons. A worthy and in- 

 dustrious sub-prior was to be appointed (ordinari) ' 

 without delay. The canons and conveni were 

 not to keep the sporting dogs or horses of other 

 persons. Odo, the brother of Thomas de Aune- 

 wycke, was not to remain longer in the office of 

 granetarius, unless it pleased the convent other- 

 wise. The prior was to see that the office of 

 sacrist was more diligently fulfilled than hitherto, 

 and that useless and mean person^;, who con- 

 sumed the goods of the monastery, were ex- 

 pelled. 



'Burton, M'rj. Ekr. 212. From King John, in 

 1200, the prior and canons obtained licence for a 

 yearly fair of two days on the eve and festival of the 

 Assumption (14 and 15 Aug.), as well as a weekly 

 market in Bridlington ; Prickett, Priory CA. of Brid- 

 lingtci, 12. 



° York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. iiy^. The 

 heading is arrecciones facte apud BrideRngtone, from 

 which it may be inferred that these injunctions were 

 to correct abuses revealed at the visitation, and not 

 cautions only for the better rule of the house. 



' The objection was that things might be given to 

 individual canons, and be irregularly reuined by them 

 as private property. 



' i.e. Blubberhouses, in the parish of Fewston. 



• From the use of the word ordinari it seems as if 

 the intention was to create a new office. 



Following on this the archbishop, on i March 

 1279-80,*° sent Reynold de Thyrnum, one of 

 the canons, to Nostell, to undergo the due 

 rigour of regular discipline ; he was not to be 

 permitted, either in the prior's chamber, or else- 

 where in private places, as had been his wont, to 

 lead an easy life, unless sickness or other neces- 

 sity existed. 



Six months later (i September 1280)" Arch- 

 bishop Wickwane wrote to the prior and convent 

 that having regard to the slender state of their 

 monastery, and the restricted space of their dor- 

 mitory, &c., they were to take no one as canon 

 or conversus before the next visitation, without 

 his special licence. No corrodies, meanwhile, 

 were to be granted, and all their canons living 

 outside in manors were to be immediately recalled 

 unless their fidelity, and also their absence, was 

 unanimously approved by all. In April 1286" 

 Archbishop Romanus visited Bridlington, and 

 formulated the following (among other) in- 

 junctions. The cloister, in which the regular 

 life flourished, was to be well kept from the going 

 to and fro of secular persons, and no mean, but 

 worthy persons only, were to take their food 

 there, according to the judgement of the superior. 

 The sick were to be better tended. Nuns, or 

 secular women, were not to be received within 

 the precincts of the monastery, great ladies alone 

 excepted, who could not be refused without grave 

 inconvenience. The almoner was to be more 

 careful. No one was to receive presents with- 

 out the leave of the president. The old clothes 

 of the canons were to be given to the poor, and 

 no liveries, corrodies, or annual pensions were to 

 be sold without the archbishop's special leave. 

 Drinking after compline was forbidden. The 

 superfluous and suspected exits towards the new 

 cloister of the vivarium were to be speedily closed. 

 Useless servants of the house (and especially the 

 useless servants in the infirmary and hostelry) 

 were to be removed. Jews were not to be 

 admitted to the hospice of the monastery. 

 This the archbishop deemed to be senseless and 

 absurd (absonum et ahsurdum). The convent was 

 not to eat meat on Wednesdays, as that was 

 inhonestum. A reader {lector) was to be provided 

 for the canons, who would instruct and teach 

 them in the Sacred Page. 



Buffoons were to be repelled, who raised 

 laughter to the injury of silence. Serfs were not 

 to have manumission, nor were lands to be sold 

 without the archbishop's knowledge. 



No canon or conversus was to have horses, or a 

 horse in turn, without the expressed assignment 

 of the prior. No woman was to approach the 

 place of the canons in the quire ; and the minor 

 or young canons were to exhibit reverence and 

 obedience to the older ones. The prior was to 

 keep convent, be present at chapters, and sleep in 



'• York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 8. 



" Ibid. fol. 1 19J. " Ibid. Romanus, fol. 61. 



200 



