Now! Then! 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:

Excerpt

Thurstan 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 [their patron] Walter 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.”

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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.

Abbreviations

Comment

I do not 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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Original

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.

581 words.