and here in Christchurch I will leave him in prison. In this
sudden doing _ex tempore_, to circumspect the house, and to search, your
servant John Antony's men marvelled what fellow I was, and so did the
rest of the abbey, for I was unknown there of all men. I found her
apparel in the abbot's coffer. To tell you all this comedy (but for the
abbot a tragedy), it were too long. Now it shall appear to gentlemen of
this country, and other the commons, that ye shall not deprive or visit,
but upon substantial grounds. The rest of all this knavery I shall defer
till my coming unto you, which shall be with as much speed as I can
possible."[505]

[Sidenote: October. Nunnery of Lichfield.]

[Sidenote: Two of the sisterhood found "not barren."]

Towards the close of the year, Leyton went north to join Legh; and
together they visited a nunnery at Lichfield. The religious orders were
bound by oaths similar to those which have recently created difficulty
in Oxford. They were sworn to divulge nothing which might prejudice the
interests of the houses. The superior at Lichfield availed herself of
this plea. When questioned as to the state of the convent, she and the
sisterhood refused to allow that there was any disorder, or any
irregularity, which could give occasion for inquiry. Her assertions were
not implicitly credited; the inspection proceeded, and at length two of
the sisters were discovered to be "not barren"; a priest in one instance
having been the occasion of the misfortune, and a serving-man in the
other. No confession could be obtained either from the offenders
themselves, or from the society. The secret was betrayed by an "old
beldame"; "and when," says Leyton, "I objected against the prioresses,
that if they could not show me a cause reasonable of their concealment,
I must needs, and would, punish them for their manifest perjury,--their
answer was, that they were bound by their religion never to confess the
secret faults done amongst them, but only to a visitor of their own
religion, and to that they were sworn, every one of them, on their first
admission."[506]

[Sidenote: Abbey of Fountains.]

[Sidenote: Theft and sacrilege committed by the abbot.]

A little later the commissioners were at Fountains Abbey; and tourists,
who in their daydreams among those fair ruins are inclined to complain
of the sacrilege which wasted the houses of prayer, may study with
advantage the following account of that house in the year