RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



area.' '' Edward II resided in this friary in 

 131 9-20, where he occupied the ' king's 

 chamber,' and public business was transacted in 

 the friars' chapter-house.'* He gave to the friars 

 besides other alms a quarter of corn.'' The 

 warden in October 1322 went to Scotland to 

 join John of Britanny, Earl of Richmond, who 

 had been captured by the Scots,'* and it is 

 probable that the Parliament of 1322 sometimes 

 met in the Grey Friars Church.'' 



Edward III, on his way to encounter the Scots, 

 came to York in May 1327 and stayed about 

 six weeks. He and the queen-mother, Isabella 

 of France, were lodged at the Friars Minors, 

 where they kept their households separate. 

 Froissart describes a feast which the queen gave 

 on Trinity Sunday (7 June) in the friars' dor- 

 mitory, when at least sixty ladies sat down to 

 her table. The revels were cut short by a fierce 

 street fight between the citizens and the Hainault 

 mercenaries.'' Edward III stayed here in 1335,'^ 

 when he gave orders for the repair of a wall and 

 well in the garden of the Friars Minors by the 

 door of the kitchen,*" and after his departure gave 

 the friars lOOs. in compensation for damages.*^ 

 The Bishop of Durham held an ordination in 

 this church on 21 December 1336,*^ when the 

 candidates included a large number of friars of 

 the different orders. Hugh Willoughby, canon 

 of York, who had been Chancellor of Oxford in 

 1334, entered the Minorite Order in his later 

 years.*' 



The friars complained that the officers of the 

 sheriff, mayor, and bailiffs invaded their precincts, 

 breaking their walls and trampling their gardens, 

 in order to seize persons who had taken sanctuary, 

 and the king in 13S9 ordered that the rights of 

 sanctuary should be respected.** In 1378 the 

 warden sued John de Wiresdale and Thomas 

 Belle, clerks, for breaking his close and taking 



" Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27, printed in Drake, 

 Eior. App. p. xlvii. A new altar was consecrated this 

 year in their church ; Fasti Eior. i, 378 n. 



'* Close, 13 Edw. II, m. 9 d. 



'*Add. MS. 17362, fol. 6. 



'^ Pat. 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 19. 



" Pat. 18 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 14 d. 



^' Ciron. de Jehan k Bel (ed. Polain), i, 39 ; 

 Chron. de J. Froissart (ed. Buchon), i, 2 1 ; cf. Close, 

 2 Edw. Ill, m. 20 d. 



'^ Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), ii (2), 909. 



*° Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 30 ; Close, 9 Edw. 

 Ill, m. 32. 



" Cott. MS. Nero C. viii, fol. zozb. Cf. Exch. 

 Accts. 387, no. 9 {zos. for damages during the king's 

 stay, 2 July 1334) ; Cott. MS. Nero C. viii, fol. 205 

 (July 1336). 



" Reg. Pal. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), 111,1728-33. There 

 is a record of an ordination here in Mar. 1 500-1 in 

 Cott. MS. Galba E. x. 



*^ Mon. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 542 ; Grey Friars in 

 Oxf.tOxi. Hist. Soc), 235. 



** Drake, Ebor, App. p. xlvii. 



away his goods and chattels to the value or 

 £40.*' Richard II in 1380 took the friars under 

 his special protection,*^ and gave orders that they 

 should not henceforth be annoyed by the butchers 

 and others throwing filth and ofFal into the Ouse 

 and the lanes and places near their church and 

 house, where he and his grandfather were wont 

 to lodge when in York.*' 



The special studium for the custody was at 

 York in the 14th century.*' Adam of Lincoln, 

 D.D., and Thomas of Pontefract, D.D., who had 

 both lectured to the Oxford Franciscans, took 

 part in the Council of York which investigated 

 the charges against the Knights Templars in 

 1311.*' 



Friar John Mardeslay, D.D., in 1355 disputed 

 with the Dominican, William Jordan, in the 

 cathedral chapter-house and chancellor's schools 

 at York on the conception of the Virgin : his 

 manner of disputation gave offence, but the 

 chapter of York issued letters testifying to his 

 good conduct and courtesy. He afterwards 

 became provincial minister, and was buried at 

 York.'" The provincial chapter was held here 

 in 1361, Archbishop Thoresby contributing 

 5 marks to the expenses." Boniface IX con- 

 ferred special privileges on Henry Bilton, a friar 

 of this house, in 1398-9, and ordered the Arch- 

 bishop of York, the Bishop of Lincoln, and the 

 Abbot of St. Mary's, York, to see that he was 

 well treated by his brother friars.'^ 



A Minorite who had considerable influence in 

 the city in 1426 was William de Melton, S.T.P.; 

 he introduced reforms into the mystery play on 

 Corpus Christi Day and induced the authorities 

 to take strong measures against the harlots who 

 infested the city.°' In 1485 the cathedral organs 

 were taken to the Grey Friars to be mended." 

 Several friars of this house were admitted mem- 

 bers of the Corpus Christi Gild of York, namely : 

 John Makeblyth 1470, Master Henry Schyrwyn 

 1481, Thomas West 1497, ^'^'^ Master William 

 Vavasour 1512.^° 



*' Baildon, Mon. Notes (Yorks. Arch. Soc), i, 244. 



" Pat. 3 Ric, II, pt. ii, m. 4. 



" Pat. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 39 ; printed in Drake, 

 Eior. App. p. xlviii. 



'^ Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), viii, 68. In 

 1398 a German friar, William of Cologne, w.i; 

 ordained priest at York ; Cott. MS. Galba E. x, 

 fol. 120^. 



" Wilkins, Concilia, ii, 396, 399. 



" Little, Grey Friars in Ox/. 81, 242. 



" Fasti Eior. 1,461. 



" Bullar. Franc, viii, 96. 



" Drake, Eior. App. pp. xxix, xxxii ; L. Toulmin 

 Smith, rork Mystery Plays, p. xxxiv ; Little, op. cit. 

 259. A reward was given yearly to a friar preaching 

 on the Friday after Corpus Christi Day ; Davis, Ex- 

 tracts from Munic. Rec. of York, 42. 



" Fabric R. of York Minster (Surt. Soc), 88. 



" Reg. Corpus Christi Guild, York. (Surt. Soc), 74, 

 i09> 14s. 176. 



289 



37 



