A list of the visitations made by the archbishop in the first year of his pontificate will give some idea of the energy he displayed in discharging the duties of his office : May 14, 1286. Thurgarton priory. July 20. Healaugh priory. The deanery of Ainsty in Aberford church. Nostell priory. The jurisdiction of Otley in Otley church Bolton priory. The deanery of Craven in Skipton church. Sep. 16. The deanery of Cleveland in East Harlsey ,, 27. The deanery of Harthill in Everingham Oct. 7. Moxby priory. 4 16. Feb. 2. The deanery of Nottingham in Sneinton church. Thurgarton priory. The provostry of Beverley in North Burton church (Beverley Chapter Act Book, ii., 151). In addition there were ordinations at Tadcaster and Pocklington on June 8 and September 21, convocation at York on November 13, and an inquiry about pluralities and appropriations of churches to religious houses, lasting from September 30 to October 2. The archbishop also found time to visit his manor at Hexham in September and to make a rapid journey to Durham in November. Although, as may be expected, more had to be done in the first year than later, his activity continued unabated. For example, in his second year he visited religious houses at Selby, Hampole, Monk Bretton, St. Mary's, York, Swine, and Bridlington, and the deaneries of Bingham and Newark, and intended to visit the deaneries of Lonsdale, Amounderness, Furness and Cartmel, and Kendal. At the visitation of any deanery all the rectors, vicars, and priests of the churches and chapels in that deanery were to be present, and a list of their names was to be made ready by the rural dean. Three or four trustworthy parishioners were also to be summoned from each parish (no. 118). The list which follows of the numerous districts into which the diocese of York was divided, will give some idea of the labour involved in a visitation, whether made by the archbishop or commissioners. First of all there were the five archdeaconries : (1) York, comprising the deanery of the Christianity of York, and the deaneries of the Ainsty, Pontefract, Craven, Doncaster and Rotherham. (2) Cleveland, comprising the deaneries of Cleveland, Bulmer, Ryedale and Whitby Strand. (3) The East Riding, comprising the deaneries of Buckrose, Dickering, Harthill and Holderness. (4) Nottingham, comprising the deaneries of Nottingham, Bingham, Newark, and Retford. (5) Richmond, comprising the deaneries of Richmond, Catterick and Boroughbridge; and "ultra moras” (no. 998), comprising the deaneries of Amounderness, Cartmel and Furness, Coupland and Kendal. In addition to the four great chapters of York, Beverley, Ripon and Southwell, with the chapel of St. Mary and the Holy Angels, there were certain spiritualities or jurisdictions, each with its dean or warden (custos), Howden, Allerton, Shirburn (Wickwane's Register, no. 817), Otley, Selby and Snaith, Scrooby, Hexham in Northumberland, and Churchdown in Gloucestershire. The churches in the liberties of St. Peter's, York (scattered over the county), Scrooby and Southwell, and the provostry of Beverley, as well as the parish of Ripon with its chapels, were extra-ruridecanal. This is clearly shown in archbishop Lee's returns of 1538, which represent the arrangement which had prevailed for several centuries. archbishops appointed deans at Beverley and Southwell, and most likely at Ripon; but these deans probably had jurisdiction only over the archbishop's immediate tenants. The great chapters, like the archdeacon of Richmond, had the right of institution within their own liberties, and probably appointed their own local deans. Thus a large proportion of the York churches were outside the control of the dean of Christianity. Unfortunately little or nothing is told of what took place at the visitations of any of these places except in the case. of the Chapters and the Chapel. Commissions were issued to correct the comperta, but of the nature of the offences or the names of the delinquents nothing is stated. Another class of visitations, that of the religious houses in the diocese, must have caused the archbishop much anxiety and occupied a considerable portion of his time. Fortunately the decrees or corrections made after nine of such visitations have been recorded. They are most valuable, as they afford trustworthy material from which it is possible to form some conclusions as to the spiritual and temporal condition of the religious houses at this period. Before noticing these decrees it is right to call the reader's attention to the fact that in many cases nothing more is recorded after the notice of the archbishop's intention, either in person or by commissioners, to make a visitation. To take the first year in the archdeaconry of York, notices of visitations were given for Sinningthwaite, Healaugh Park, Nostell, Bolton, Arthington, Drax and Selby, but there are decrees only for Selby, Arthington and Bolton, which are in all cases only concerned with their temporal affairs. The same holds good of the archdeaconry of Cleveland, where notices of visitations were issued for Guisborough, Whitby, Moxby, Marton and Newburgh, but these are decrees only for the last two places, and also of the archdeaconry of the East Riding, where three houses, Nunburnholme, Wykeham and Yedingham, were visited but no decrees made. In the populous and wealthy archdeaconry of Nottingham the tale is the same. There were notices of four visitations, but no decrees for any of them; the only decree being for Blyth, for the visitation of which house no notice has been recorded. For the ten years during which archbishop le Romeyn occupied the see of York, there are only decrees for a dozen houses, Arthington, Bolton, Selby, Monk Bretton, Drax, Newburgh, Marton, Bridlington, Warter, Shelford, Blyth (twice), and Newstead. This fact may fairly be cited as evidence that the religious houses in the diocese were well conducted, but it is not quite conclusive. First of all it must be remembered that the Cistercian and Cluniac houses, including such important ones as Fountains and Kirkstall, were exempt from visitation by the diocesan. Unluckily the records from Cîteaux, now in the Archives at Dijon, are so fragmentary as regards the English houses that there is no evidence as to their state at this time. The only visitation there is one of Warden abbey in Bedfordshire, made towards the end of the fifteenth century. Then it is very difficult to believe that all the decrees have been entered in the register. The condition of Thurgarton (nos. 702, 704) makes it almost certain that the archbishop found many matters, and very serious ones, requiring amendment, but the only recorded effect of the visitation is the vindication of the prior's character (no. 711). There is another class of cases where we should have expected to find decrees. When a house was ill spoken of there was, besides the visitation, an "inquisition," as at Sinningthwaite, Healaugh Park (no. 119), Bolton (no. 123), and Moxby (no. 443). However, except in the case of Bolton, there is no decree. Other reasons may also be suggested why the decrees were not entered on the registers: (1) that the decrees were written on loose sheets, and, as the registers did not accompany the archbishop on his travels, they got omitted. (2) That they related to matters of only temporary interest, and were generally only entered when useful as common forms for the benefit of the registrar and his successors in the work of composition. The most important house affected by these decrees was the great Benedictine abbey of Selby. In archbishop Wickwane's time (Wickwane's Register, no. 75) its reputation had been very bad, but when visited by his successor, some seven years later, there was so little to reprehend that it was only necessary to repeat archbishop Gray's injunctions, made in 1233, which, with the exception of not appointing bursars and cellarers, seems to have been duly observed. The fullest decrees are those made for Bridlington and Shelford, both houses of Austin canons. At Bridlington (no. 561) there is evidence of great laxity. Several of the most important rules of the order were unobserved. Not only were seculars allowed free access to the cloister, but even in the frater unsuitable persons gained admittance. The solemnity of the religious life was destroyed by the presence of buffoons from the neighbouring town of Bridlington, whose conversation gave rise to unseemly quarrels. One class of guests, whom the archbishop forbade as unsuitable and absurd, were persons one would have least expected in a religious house. These were Jews, who three years later were expelled from the kingdom in return for a subsidy of a fifteenth from the laity and a tenth from the clergy.1 Worst of all, women, the medieval monks' bête noire, had been permitted to lodge in the house, nuns as well as seculars, which excited the scribe's astonishment, as at this place he has written the word "memorandum” in the margin to draw attention to the fact. The only exception to the rule against the admission of females allowed by the archbishop was in the case of great ladies whom it would be impolitic to turn away.2 The condition 1Chronicon Walteri de Hemingburgh, ii, 20. "It is even more astonishing to find that married people were received as boarders at Elstow nunnery, near Bedford, in the earlier half of the fifteenth century. There is one case in the Lincoln Registers of nuns staying in religious houses of men. In 1442 a nun of Catesby priory went on a trip to Northampton and spent the night with the |