stone, wood, half-timber work, and tiled roofs is a little to the east of the Minster. It consists of a series of rooms ranged round a central courtyard. It is of much historical interest, and since it was restored recently to be the home of the Convocation of the Northern Province, it has returned to the service of the church. The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who were employed by the canons as their deputies, also lived in community. They had their hall, chapel, and other buildings in an enclosed part called the Bedern not far from the Minster.

As a counterpart to the Minster, in appearance as in use, was the great, rich Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, of royal foundation. With a mitred abbot who sat among the lords spiritual in Parliament, St. Mary's was perhaps the most important of the northern monasteries. The buildings were proportionally large and fine. The church, dating mostly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was particularly long and had a tall spire. It was only a little inferior to the Minster in magnificence. On the south side were the Cloisters, the open-air work-place and recreation place of the monks, while beyond were the conventual buildings—such as the calefactory or warming-house, the dormitories, and the refectory or room where meals were taken. The cloisters were square in plan and consisted of a central grass plot, along the sides of which there was a continuous covered walk with unglazed windows facing the central open space. Benedictine abbeys usually conformed to a common scheme as regards the planning of the church and the conventual buildings. The cloisters were only one of the courts or open squares, which separated groups of conventual buildings. Further, there were gardens and orchards. Nearer the river there was the Hospitium, or guest-house, where visitors were lodged. The abbey was within its own walls, and on one side its grounds extended to the river. The gateway, comprising gate, lodge, and chapel, was on the north side.

Near the Castle there was an extensive Franciscan Friary. On the other side of the river there was the priory of the Holy Trinity, the home of an alien Benedictine order. A Carmelite Friary in Hungate, opposite the Castle, seems, from the few odd fragments of stone that remain, to have had fine buildings. The Augustinian Friary was between Lendal and the river. The Dominican house, which was burnt down in 1455, was on the site of the old railway station.

The only nunnery in the city was the Benedictine Priory of St. Clement. There were sisterhoods in St. Leonard's and other hospitals. It should, however, be noted there were many nunneries in the districts round York.

Some of the religious institutions were called Hospitals. The care of the sick was only one of the functions of this type of religious house. Such was the large and famous St. Leonard's Hospital, a royal institution that was not under the control of a bishop. The beautiful ruins of St. Leonard's, which adjoined St. Mary's Abbey, prove how well this hospital had been built. These hospitals, of which there were fifteen in York, were in close touch with the people. While St. Mary's, for instance, was one of the great abbeys, where the monks, by the time when the fifteenth century was advanced, were living luxuriously, easily, and generally unproductively, the religious of the hospitals and lesser houses, were still engaged in feeding the poor, tending the sick, and educating the children of the people.

Each of these religious institutions, whether monastery or hospital, was within its own grounds, bounded by its own walls. Altogether they occupied a large part of the total area of the mediæval city which their buildings adorned, and of which they were so characteristic a feature: St. Mary's Abbey, which with its buildings and grounds covered a large area, was actually outside the city proper, but it was immediately adjoining it. There were nearly sixty monasteries, priories, hospitals, maisons-dieu, and chapels. The maisons-dieu, of which there were sixteen, were smaller hospitals. They combined generally the duties of almshouse and chantry.

Parish Churches, which were the centres of the religious life of the laity, were everywhere. In the fifteenth century there were forty-five churches and ten chapels, so that there was always a place in church for every citizen.

A church was always in use. Besides the regular public services which took place frequently during the day, and the special services for festivals, there were services in chantries. Both the high altar in the chancel and altars in other parts of a church were used. Several altars were necessary because the number of masses, for the celebration of which money was liberally bequeathed, was very large. The parish church was used for other than purely religious purposes. It was the central meeting-place of the parish, and might be described as the seat of parochial government. Meetings were held in the Nave. Parts of the church were used as schools. The parish church was also the depôt for the equipment of those members who became soldiers. Moreover, fire-buckets (generally of leather) were often kept in the church, since, being of stone, it was perhaps the safest building in the parish. There were also long poles with hooks at the end used to pull thatch away from burning houses.

Most, if not all, of these churches were fine specimens of the architecture of the Middle Ages, the so-called Gothic architecture, which is characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and the constant use of the buttress. These churches were, in contrast to the present condition of most of those that remain, complete with chancel, nave and aisles, towers or spires, bells, stained-glass windows, and furniture, many of them being particularly rich in one or more of these features. The painted windows [9] are especially interesting, for they show the standard of this branch of fifteenth-century art and are valuable historical documents. The rich, mellow tones of colour should be noted, also the incidental pictures of mediæval dress and furniture. It is interesting to compare the fifteenth-century work with that done, for instance, by the William Morris firm to the designs of Burne-Jones (1833-1898), at a time when the revived art, with other forms of decoration, was enjoying a period of great success. In the fifteenth century the church was flourishing materially, at least, and money and gifts were freely given.

The offices and services in churches were recited and sung. Organs were used, but were not very large and were capable of being carried about: although working on similar principles to the modern organ they lacked its size, power, and varied capacity. At the Minster there were several organs, for instance "the great organs," "the organs in the Choir," "the organs at the Altar B.V.M."

The Chancel was the most sacred part of the church, for there was the principal or high altar. In the Chancel were the stalls or seats of the clergy and officials. The actual seats could be turned up when the occupants wished to stand. Standing for long periods was made less irksome in that the underside of each seat was made with a projecting ledge, which gave some support. It is thoroughly characteristic of the age that this very human device should have existed, and, secondly, that these ledges were carved and ornamented. These misericords, as they are called, were usually curiously, even grotesquely carved. Some of these carvings were founded on natural objects, some were grotesque heads, others represented subjects with man and animals. There were pews for the nobility, but, apart from the few old and weak people who used the rough bench or two in the body of the church, or the stone bench that ran along the walls, the general public stood during the services.

Wealthy parishioners left money to the parochial