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subsequently assumed so strong a form. He issues
a citation to the vicar-general of Cardinal Gaetano,
the archdeacon of Richmond, concerning the undue
burden to which the clergy of that archdeaconry were
subjected, when he was on his visitation. They had
been compelled, it seems, to find entertainment for
his train of fifteen and sometimes four-and-twenty
horsemen, each of whom had his dog following him
ready for a hunt whenever a stag or a roc-deer might
spring from a covert on the road side. And we find
penances assigned in many cases where persons of no
mean rank amongst the laity had fallen into grievous
sin.
The episcopate of Archbishop Melton was a
troubled time for the diocese, owing to the forays of
the Scottish marauders, who ravaged many of the
towns and did incalculable mischief to the churches
and religious houses. It witnessed the rout at
Myton on the Swale, that battle which was called
"the Chapter of ]\Iyton " from the number of clergy
whom his influence pressed into the ranks to oppose
the Scots, with an undisciplined zeal which utterly
failed to achieve its object. It witnessed also the
battle of Boroughbridgc, and the fall of the great
Earl of Lancaster, whose execution within sight of
his own castle of Pontefract excited such a wonderful
amount of sorrow and sympathy in the minds of the
people of the North. They regarded him as a saint,
but Melton, who failed to view him in that light,
issued more than one injunction forbidding the
offering of prayer at his tomb.
In connection with the Minster Melton's name will