RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Although details of the visitations of Guis- 

 borough, with the exception of that of 1280 by 

 Archbishop Wickwane, are not entered in the 

 registers, there are many allusions to visitations of 

 the house. In 1308 Archbishop Greenfield held 

 a visitation, and as a result two of the canons 

 were sent, Hugh de Croft to Bridlington, and 

 Geoffrey de Caldebek to Kirkham, there to 

 undergo penances imposed upon them for mis- 

 behaviour, the character of which is not speci- 

 fied, although the penances are detailed. 



Hugh de Croft was to keep convent in 

 quire, cloister, refectory, and dormitory. He 

 was to say two psalters weekly, and to be the 

 last among the priests, and for three months was 

 to abstain from saying mass. He was to keep 

 silence during the common colloquy, and say the 

 seven penitential psalms with the litany by him- 

 self in the cloister. He was not to attend chap- 

 ter or receive or send out letters, nor was he to 

 speak to any secular or religious person except 

 in the presence of the president, and on no 

 account was he to go outside the precincts of 

 the monastery. Each Friday he was to have 

 bread, ale, and vegetables only, and on each vigil 

 of the Blessed Virgin to fast on bread and water. 



The penance of Geoffrey de Caldebek was 

 much the same, but he seems not to have been a 

 priest, and there is no inhibition in his case for- 

 bidding him to say mass, but he was not to be 

 promoted to higher orders without the arch- 

 bishop's special licence. 



In 1309^^ the prior and convent had to 

 receive a certain canon of Bridlington, Simon 

 le Constable, whose offence is named in the 

 account of that house, and it was with evident 

 disgust and reluctance that the Prior of Guis- 

 borough yielded to the archbishop's order and 

 admitted him. 



In 1327^' the archbishop had to deal with 

 the case of Stephen de Aukeland, a canon of the 

 house, who had befoi'e taking orders, or entering 

 the Augustinian Order, been technically guilty 

 of the crime of usury, in conjunction with his 

 mother, by lending ten shillings in usury. He 

 applied to his prior for leave to go to obtain 

 absolution of the pope. This being refused, he 

 cast aside his canon's habit and went to Avignon, 

 whence he brought back to the archbishop an 

 absolution from John de Wrotham, the papal 

 penitentiary. The archbishop sent him back to 

 Guisborough, imposing upon him, for hidden sins 

 confessed to the archbishop, a severe penance. 

 He was to keep convent in all things, and was 

 to hold no claustral office, nor was he to go out- 

 side the precincts of the convent without the 

 archbishop's special licence. Each Wednesday 

 and Friday he was to fast, to receive a discipline 

 from the president in chapter and, prostrate 

 before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, to say the 



' Guisborough Chartul. 379. 



'Ibid. 385. 



seven penitential psalms with the litany, humbly 

 imploring divine grace and the help of the saints. 

 He was to abstain from celebrating and all 

 ministration of the altar and be last in the con- 

 vent. In 1315^* two commissions were issued 

 to correct the defects, crimes, and excesses dis- 

 covered at the visitation. 



The canons of Guisborough in 1319^' 

 utterly refused to admit one of the Templars, 

 Robert de Langton, who had been sent first to 

 Bridlington on the dispersion of the order, and 

 had been transferred by the pope to Guisborough. 

 The canons were only induced to obey under 

 threat of excommunication. 



About this time the priory seems to have 

 been reduced to great straits. On 23 April 

 1323^° Archbishop Melton was constrained to 

 allow the convent to sell two or three corrodies, 

 and to let to farm for a year their church of 

 Kirkburn. Again, on 27 March, they had to ask 

 for further licence to sell more corrodies and to 

 let the church of Kirkburn for two years. 



In 1 380- 1 the convent consisted of a prior, 

 twenty-five canons, and two conversi?' 



On 19 October 1523^' James Cokerell, the 

 prior, was instituted to the rectory of Lythe near 

 Whitby, which for some time he held in com- 

 mendam. A very strange and simoniacal ar- 

 rangement was entered into with the previous 

 rector, who resigned on condition that the prior 

 and convent paid him £'2.00 on the feast of 

 St. Mark next ensuing, and bound themselves to 

 give him a yearly pension of ;^44 during his life, 

 hj even portions half-yearly, on the feast of 

 St. Mark and St. Martin in winter, to be 

 delivered to him 'at the founte situate in the 

 body of the cathedrall church of Saynte Paule 

 of London betwene the howores of eght and 

 eleven of the clok before none on every of the 

 saide festes.' This agreement bears date 

 4 November 1523.^' 



^* Ibid. 391, 392. "' Ibid. Introd. p. Ivii ; 392. 



'^ Ibid. 398. 



" Subs. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 63, no. 12. 



'' York Archiepis. Reg. Wolsey, fol. 107. 



" Ibid. fol. 108^. This use of the font in St. Paul's 

 is mentioned in another grant by the Prior and con- 

 vent of Guisborough, dated 14 June 29 Hen. VIII 

 (1537), where they granted to Ralph Sadleyra yearly- 

 rent of £\.o, to be paid in quarterly portions ' in 

 ecclesia cathedrali sancti Pauli London super petram 

 infra ecclesiam predictam existentem vocatam the 

 fFontstone' ; Conventual Leases, Yorks. no. 213. It 

 also occurs in an annual pension of £6 granted 

 I June 1530 by the Abbot and convent of Whitby to 

 Ralph Belfield, which was to be paid ' in ecclesia 

 cathedrali Sancti Pauli London super fontem baptis- 

 malem inter horas octavam et undecimam ante meri- 

 diem' (ibid. no. 993). Mention is also made of an 

 annual rent of j^i 1 8 to be paid ' uppon the fFountstone 

 in the Temple Church, London,' 3 Jas. I ; Torks. Arch. 

 Joum. xix, 474. As to ' The Old Fount Stone ' on 

 which money was paid in Christ Church, Dublin, 



211 



