Yorkshire Almanac The foundation of Fountains Abbey by dissidents from St Mary’s, York, retold by a Victorian antiquary using Cistercian chronicles

27 December 1132: The foundation of Fountains Abbey by dissidents from St Mary’s, York, retold by a Victorian antiquary using Cistercian chronicles

John Richard Walbran, Ed. 1863. Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains, Vol. 1. Durham: Surtees Society. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Among other possessions which Turstin enjoyed, in right of his see, was a considerable estate at Ripon, where he had a palace and a park, and exercised great secular jurisdiction, extended by the favour of the Saxon Kings, over lands which had been conferred on the celebrated monastery of St. Wilfrid. It was a noble and picturesque domain, between the rivers Ure and Nidd, verging on the great plain of York on the East, and the confines of Craven in the opposite direction, including, in the higher and western portion, a wide tract of bleak and barren moors, and intersected by the valleys of the Laver and the Skell. In the town, also, near the confluence of their waters, there stood one of the Mother Churches of Yorkshire, then occupied by a college of secular canons. When the Christmas of the year of which we have been speaking arrived, Turstin came hither to celebrate the feasts of that holy season, accompanied by the brethren who hitherto had dwelt with him. Whether another purpose was originally entertained must rest unknown, but, on the day after they had commemorated the Nativity of our Lord – the 26th of December, 1132 – he passed with that faithful band towards the valley of the Skell, and, after traversing about three miles, halted by the side of the stream, in a narrow glen overgrown with thorns and brushwood, and overshadowed by the mount of Herleshow, begirt with sylvan gloom. This was to be their home; this the scene where the longed-for trial was to be fulfilled. An abbot must be chosen, who should be to them “a father and pastor of souls.” The choice fell upon Richard, their late Prior. The archbishop confirmed their election, gave him the episcopal benediction; and here he left them. What is the man of God to do? He has monks, but no monastery. Like his Master, he has not where to lay his head. No heart was there to welcome them, like that of Espec, breaking with the reed on which it leant; no harried soul to propitiate consolation with its gifts, like that which “answered groan for groan” by the waters of Bolton; no refuge from the winter’s storm; no possessions, but the raiment which they wore; no food, but the temporary provision of the archbishop; no place of shelter, but the impending rocks. In this very depth of desolation, defence against the elements was their most urgent requirement; and they availed themselves of the protection of a noble elm tree which stood in the midst of the valley; and which continued to flourish – a silent monitor – when after four centuries of power and pride, they who dispersed what these men gathered, “Cast a last longing, lingering look behind.” Having thatched a hut around its stem, which served as their church and their home, they betook themselves to their labours. Some plaited mats, others gathered sticks and stakes from the adjacent wood for the construction of an oratory; some busied themselves in laying out a little garden. None eat the bread of idleness. When the uprising sun glanced each morning into the glen, it found them thankfully occupied; when it was sinking behind the giant boles of the yew trees – the only living things that their eyes and ours have looked upon – contentment shone on their uplifted brows; and when the stars smiled and twinkled in the frosty sky, they listened to their joyous songs of prayer and praise.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

I don’t understand why, in the full original of this excerpt, Walbran gives the date as 26 December: his version of the MS specifies that it fell on the Feast of John the Evangelist AND the sixth day before the calends of January, both of which are 27 December.

I guess Espec refers to Walter Espec and some incident at the Battle of the Standard.

I haven’t checked out the elm tree story, but recall reading somewhere that, having survived the dissolution which closes the excerpt, an ancient one was felled in the 18th century.

A modern view of Walbran’s source:

Information on its foundation and early history derives mainly from a single record, the Narratio. Today, one pre-Dissolution version is extant, a copy made in the first half of the fifteenth century, probably at the abbey. Research has shown that this copy, and probably earlier versions, transmitted an institutional desire to ‘cistercianize’ the origins of the abbey, achieved through a redactive process of emphasizing some events, omitting others, and by introducing analogies with the origin of Cîteaux itself. Such writing formed part of a general policy promoted around the turn of the twelfth century, designed to counter criticism of the Cistercian movement, and the Fountains model partly emulated the earlier Historia Fundationis of Byland and Jervaulx Abbeys, and the chronicle of its own daughter house, Kirkstall; contemporary models have also been identified at Cistercian houses in Sweden and Denmark.

Making due allowance for the propaganda content of the Narratio, it is nevertheless possible to determine that an incipient monastic establishment was set up at the end of 1132 under the general protection of Archbishop Thurstan of York. The initial community was a group of dissident monks, who were ejected, or departed abruptly, from the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary’s York, without the time or foresight to secure for themselves the patronage of a substantial lay benefactor, which was by then the established procedure for the foundation of a new Cistercian house. In fact, due to its impromptu beginning, the community was not initially Cistercian, and it seems to have endured a precarious existence until autumn 1133, or even possibly 1134, when it was admitted to the Cistercian family.

Cistercian endorsement marked a turning point, after which benefactions began to be received from some of the Yorkshire magnate families, particularly the Mowbrays and the Percys, which permitted the colony to move out of subsistence, and then to grow steadily. By 1136, permanent buildings were being erected on the site and the community had grown to thirty-five monks from the initial group of thirteen.15 A continuing inflow of resources and recruits empowered the community’s spiritual aspirations, so that within a short time an ambitious expansion programme was initiated, and new monasteries were founded. In marked contrast to its own (pre-Cistercian) foundation, the expansion programme shows signs of careful preparation, implementation, and adaptation. From their Yorkshire base, the monastery contributed greatly to the spread of Cistercianism across the country, by establishing no fewer than seven daughter houses across England and three granddaughter houses in the twelve-year period between 1138 and 1150. Each new daughter house was colonized by thirteen monks, so over this period some ninety brethren departed from Fountains; among them were most of the original founders, who went as abbots…. It may be no coincidence that this remarkable expansion took place in the midst of a civil war, when baronial lands were liable to forfeiture and reallocation: in some circumstances, making a grant of lands to a religious house might be seen as a defensive measure.

(Spence 2020)

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Comment

I guess Espec refers to Walter Espec and some incident at the Battle of the Standard.

I haven’t checked out the elm tree story, but recall reading somewhere that, having survived the dissolution which closes the excerpt, an ancient one was felled in the 18th century.

A modern view of Walbran’s source:

Information on its foundation and early history derives mainly from a single record, the Narratio. Today, one pre-Dissolution version is extant, a copy made in the first half of the fifteenth century, probably at the abbey. Research has shown that this copy, and probably earlier versions, transmitted an institutional desire to ‘cistercianize’ the origins of the abbey, achieved through a redactive process of emphasizing some events, omitting others, and by introducing analogies with the origin of Cîteaux itself. Such writing formed part of a general policy promoted around the turn of the twelfth century, designed to counter criticism of the Cistercian movement, and the Fountains model partly emulated the earlier Historia Fundationis of Byland and Jervaulx Abbeys, and the chronicle of its own daughter house, Kirkstall; contemporary models have also been identified at Cistercian houses in Sweden and Denmark.

Making due allowance for the propaganda content of the Narratio, it is nevertheless possible to determine that an incipient monastic establishment was set up at the end of 1132 under the general protection of Archbishop Thurstan of York. The initial community was a group of dissident monks, who were ejected, or departed abruptly, from the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary’s York, without the time or foresight to secure for themselves the patronage of a substantial lay benefactor, which was by then the established procedure for the foundation of a new Cistercian house. In fact, due to its impromptu beginning, the community was not initially Cistercian, and it seems to have endured a precarious existence until autumn 1133, or even possibly 1134, when it was admitted to the Cistercian family.

Cistercian endorsement marked a turning point, after which benefactions began to be received from some of the Yorkshire magnate families, particularly the Mowbrays and the Percys, which permitted the colony to move out of subsistence, and then to grow steadily. By 1136, permanent buildings were being erected on the site and the community had grown to thirty-five monks from the initial group of thirteen.15 A continuing inflow of resources and recruits empowered the community’s spiritual aspirations, so that within a short time an ambitious expansion programme was initiated, and new monasteries were founded. In marked contrast to its own (pre-Cistercian) foundation, the expansion programme shows signs of careful preparation, implementation, and adaptation. From their Yorkshire base, the monastery contributed greatly to the spread of Cistercianism across the country, by establishing no fewer than seven daughter houses across England and three granddaughter houses in the twelve-year period between 1138 and 1150. Each new daughter house was colonized by thirteen monks, so over this period some ninety brethren departed from Fountains; among them were most of the original founders, who went as abbots…. It may be no coincidence that this remarkable expansion took place in the midst of a civil war, when baronial lands were liable to forfeiture and reallocation: in some circumstances, making a grant of lands to a religious house might be seen as a defensive measure.

(Spence 2020)

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29 August 1570: On arriving in Yorkshire, Archbishop Grindal declares war on bloody-minded folk-Catholicism

22 August 1138: King David of Scotland is overtaken near Northallerton by a furious local army in possession of a great standard – a Victorian view

13 January 1536: Richard Layton, dissolver of monasteries, writes to Thomas Cromwell claiming that Yorkshire clergy use birth control

7 January 1397: On the longest of the 42 days of his carnivalesque reign, boy-bishop John de Cave of York goes on a 200-mile begging spree

21 May 1108: Archbishop Gerald of York dies reading Roman astrology

16 February 1114: The morbidly obese Archbishop Thomas II of York ignores medical advice and dies chaste, unlike an 18th century successor

1 January 1151: Monks from Fountains move into the half-finished mud predecessor of Meaux Abbey (East Riding), built for them by Count William the Fat

19 May 1147: An expedition leaves Fountains Abbey to found Barnoldswick (WR/Lancs), predecessor of Kirkstall Abbey, as told by one of the colonists

20 September 1319: During the Anglo-Scottish wars, seasoned raiders encounter an improvised Yorkshire home guard of clergy, peasants and officials at Myton-on-Swale

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Comment

Map https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000021 https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/media/228.pdf

I have forgotten why the Brut gives 12 October instead of 20 September, and why I originally had 29 September.

Drake’s version:

The archbishop of York [William Melton], a reverend grave old divine, but a young soldier, more for the indignity of the affront, says the Scotch historian [George Buchanan], than any hopes of success, took up arms, and assembled such forces as he could raise; composed of clergymen, monks, canons and other spiritual men of the church; with a confused heap of husbandmen, labourers, artificers, tradesmen, in all to the number of ten thousand. These able soldiers had as experienced commanders, the archbishop and bishop of Ely, lord-chancellor [John Hotham], being the leaders of these warlike troops; much fitter to pray for the success of a battle than to fight it. This formidable army, breathing nothing but revenge, followed the Scotch, but they did not follow the proverb, to build a bridge for a flying enemy, and overtook them at Myton-upon-Swale, about eleven miles from York. The Scotch army finding themselves pursued, drew upon the other side of the river in battalia [battle array]. Then they set fire to some haystacks which were upon the place; the smoke of which driving with a brisk wind in the faces of the English, as they passed the river, so blinded them that they could not see the enemy; who came down in good order upon them, and without any great resistance entirely routed them. There were slain and drowned of the English above two thousand, some say, four thousand, the rest with their generals made great haste back to the city. In this conflict fell Nicholas Fleming, then mayor of York, who had headed up his citizens to the battle; there were taken prisoners Sir John de Pabenham, Knt. lord William Ayrmine, and several others. Here was such a fall of the priesthood, that the English, says Buchanan, called this fight, for a long time after, the white battle.

This battle was fought October 12, 1319. The archbishop had business enough to fill up vacancies in the church at his return. But in an especial manner, he showed his gratitude to the mayor, his body was honourably buried in the parish church of S. Wilfrid [a medieval church preceding the York Oratory], and an indulgence granted of forty days relaxation of sin to all parishioners thereof (g), who being truly contrite, penitent and confessed, should say for his soul the lord’s prayer, and the salutation of the blessed virgin. For him also in the same church was a chauntry [a chapel] founded.

King Edward hearing of this overthrow, as he lay before Berwick, raised the siege and retired to York.

(Drake 1736)

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