RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



buffoons, and tramps were firmly forbidden access 

 to the refectory. The sick were to be properly 

 tended. None of the canons were in future to 

 go to the infirmary to warm themselves. The 

 alms were to be given to the poor, and not to the 

 stipendiaries of the house, as had hitherto been 

 done. No eatables were to be transferred else- 

 where from the refectory. 



The prior was enjoined to correct the excesses 

 of his brethren more often and quickly. The 

 doors were to be better guarded from the access 

 of useless and unworthy persons. The canons 

 and conversi were to be distinguished according to 

 the due requirement of their grade, and juniors 

 were not to be placed over their betters. Be- 

 coming equality in necessary matters according 

 to the rule was to be observed towards every- 

 one. 



The servitors and attendants of the house were 

 not to burden the monastery with their children 

 or relations, but such were to be removed at once. 

 The archbishop forbade all strife and noise in 

 beginning proses and chants. The canons were 

 forbidden after compline, for the sake of drink- 

 ing, or under any pretext of unbecoming levity, 

 to visit guests or friends, or to go to them, ex- 

 cept they had a necessary or useful reason for 

 doing so, and then only with the leave of the 

 president." Drinking with guests or friends in 

 the absence of the prior was altogether prohibited. 

 The prior was to hear the confession of each at 

 least once in the year. The canons, moreover, were 

 not to visit the houses of nuns or other suspected 

 places. 



In 1314^^ Archbishop Greenfield issued a 

 series of injunctions as the sequel of a visitation 

 held on Wednesday after Trinity Sunday. The 

 defects in the chapter-house, dormitory, and 

 infirmary were to be repaired as soon as possible. 

 As certain of the secular servants of the house 

 did not show proper deference to the canons, the 

 prior was ordered to correct and chastise such 

 servants, and if any were incorrigible or rebel- 

 lious, they were to be discharged. 



As certain of the cellarers of the house claimed 

 to have a perpetuity in their office, the archbishop 

 ordered that no cellarer should hold office for more 

 than two years, and this on condition that he be- 

 haved well. If at the end of two years he was 

 found to have been useful and apt for his office, he 

 might be re-elected by the prior and five or six 

 of the seniors. When the prior found a cellarer 

 unfit for the office he was to be removed by the 

 prior and another appointed without delay. As 

 the monastery was heavily in debt, all were en- 

 joined to strict moderation. 



" There is a letter (23 July 1289) to the Bishop 

 of Norwich as to a canon of Kirkham who was a 

 fugitive from the house, and ' in vestra civitate depre- 

 hensum' ; Reg. Romanus, fol. 62b. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, ii, fol. 100. 



In 1 3 1 8 '' Archbishop Melton held a visitation 

 of Kirkham. He ordered Archbishop Green- 

 field's decretum and his own to be read weekly 

 every Wednesday and Friday. The injunctions 

 are of a general character, and the grave faults 

 the archbishop would deal with separately later. 

 They do not appear to be recorded. 



On 10 November 1321 '* John de Jarum 

 [or Yarm] was elected prior in succession to 

 Robert de Veteri Burgo, whohad died on Sunday 

 before the feast of SS. Simon and Jude (28 Oc- 

 tober 1321). According to an entry in the 

 Register headed Status Domus de Kirkham, the 

 monastery was then in debt to the amount of 

 ^^843 15X. <)\d. of borrowed money. It was 

 burdened at the same date with j^i2 a year in 

 pensions, there were also twenty-two corrodies, 

 two of which had been sold in the time of Prior 

 William, four in the time of Prior John, and 

 sixteen in the time of Prior Robert. 



The expenses of the house from the death of 

 Prior Robert to the installation of Prior John on 

 Wednesday the feast of St. Katherine (25 No- 

 vember) had amounted to £1^0 los., which had 

 been borrowed. Moreover, much would have 

 to be bought in the way of wheat, malt, peas, 

 oats, as well as provender for horses, and forty 

 oxen for ploughing would have to be purchased 

 at 13J. /^d. each, and thirty horses (at 205. each). 

 The total debts, in addition to the money for 

 the necessaries above mentioned, amounted to 

 ;^i,o89 12s. ^d., besides the twenty-two corro- 

 dies, estimated at ^^73 6s. Sd. a year. 



A memorandum is added, that in time of peace 

 the priory received i ,000 marks of silver annually 

 from its rents in Northumberland, but had 

 received nothing from that source for the past 

 seven years. 



In 1 33 1 ^' a serious charge was brought against 

 Prior John de Jarum that he had committed 

 adultery with Clemencia, wife of Thomas de 

 Boulton, kt. The archbishop summoned him to 

 appear in the cathedral church on Thursday after 

 the feast of Pentecost and answer the charge. 

 The prior duly appeared, but none of his accu- 

 sers responded to the summons. The archbishop 

 thereupon pronounced sentence in favour of the 

 prior, and restored him fame pristine, as it is 

 expressed. 



Reports of strife between the prior and canons 

 having reached the ears of Archbishop Thoresby 

 in 1353,^" a commission of inquiry was issued on 

 23 August 1353. 



In 1357 ^^ the financial state of the house was 

 very bad. It owed ^^1,000, much the same sum 

 as it had owed thirty years before, and from a 

 letter addressed by the archbishop to the prior as 

 to the desolabilis status of the house, it would 



" Ibid. Melton, fol. 269*. " Ibid. fol. 285-7. 



" Ibid. fol. 3 14,5. " Ibid. Thoresby, fol. 21. 



" Ibid. fol. 179^. 



221 



