issued for their arrest but Chetwynd escaped and went into hiding. Old habits continued and, a year after his retirement, Chetwynd fell out with his successor and raided the abbey with a gang of armed men to seize goods, necessitating a royal intervention to restore order. Women's houses brought criticisms, often of a similar kind. Northburgh had to intervene in the case of Elizabeth la Zouche, who, with another canoness, deserted White Ladies Priory, near Brewood, in 1326. Initially the case was simply advertised in churches. She seems not to have returned until 1331, when she had to confess before Northburgh in Brewood parish church, ask for readmission at the priory entrance and undergo penance. When he visited White Ladies in 1338, Northburgh reprimanded the prioress, Alice Harley, for financial mismanagement and extravagance, including her expenditure on clothes. He also demanded that she cease hunting with hounds. However, Polesworth Abbey in Warwickshire seems to have had a special relationship with the Bishops, Northburgh included, through most of the 14th century and enjoyed unusual favour. One of Northburgh's earliest measures after taking up the see was to grant extraordinary pastoral and liturgical powers to Maud, the abbess-elect. In September 1327 the Pope wrote to the Bishop of Hereford asking him to intervene and secure justice between the rector of Eyton in Shropshire and the abbess of Polesworth. Northburgh had forced Thomas, the rector, to swear to pay the abbess two thirds of his income as a pension before allowing him to be inducted. On taking up the post, Thomas found the remaining third of the revenue insufficient to support him. The Pope had already intervened, ordering members of the Lichfield chapter to annul the oath: Richard Bernard, the Archdeacon of Salop, William de Bosco, the Chancellor, and Gilbert de Bruer, prebendary of Wolvey. He had also ordered the abbess to take the matter no further. However, she had got judgement against Thomas in the secular courts, claiming that the pension was a charge on the rectory instituted by Walter Langton, Northburgh's predecessor. Moreover, the Chancellor and Bruer had delegated their powers to Roger le Mareschall, the prebendary of Dernford, and he and Bernard refused to take the matter further. Once Thomas appealed to the Pope, the abbess had deprived him of his rectory and given it to William de Ipstones. Nothing more is reported of the case. When Northburgh visited the