Fountains Abbey: The story of a mediæval monasteryHodges, George
History
Fountains Abbey: The story of a mediæval monastery
Hodges, George
Fountains Abbey (North Yorkshire, England)
In the next year another nobleman, Hugh of Tatshall, in Lincolnshire,
resolved to establish a Cistercian house, and sent to Abbot Richard for
advice and monks from Fountains, and founded Kirkstead Abbey on the
river Witham. At the same time the Bishop of Lincoln asked the abbot for
more men--the two companies of colonists leaving Fountains on the same
day--and settled them, after some wandering, at Louth Park. Their abbot
was the Geoffrey who forsook his companions at the bishop’s, and went
back to St. Mary’s, to return in deep penitence; who was thus assured of
their entire confidence in him.
In 1145, Hugh de Bolebec, for the redeeming of his sins, begged for the
services of the brethren of Fountains, and an abbey was built at Woburn.
In 1146, the Bishop of Bergen came to Fountains, and his heart was set
on having a Cistercian house in Norway. Thirteen brethren were found to
brave the sea and the unknown land. Thus was erected the monastery of
Lisa-Kloster, the abbey of the valley of light. One of the Ralphs of
the original settlement was the abbot. In the library of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, is a manuscript life of St. Olaf, which was once among
the books of Fountains. It is bound with other manuscripts in the skin
of a seal. Ralph came back after many laborious years to spend his last
days in the mother house. He may have brought with him this memento of
the Norway mission. It is pleasantly told of him in the narrative that
he used to sleep a good deal in his old age, and that the Lord sent a
prompting angel to awake him when he slept too long--_si sompno,
forsitan, per noctes diutius indulgeret, eum excitaret_.
The next year, 1147, saw three colonies go out from Fountains. Henry de
Lacy, of Pontefract Castle, having meditated upon his misdeeds during a
long illness, vowed that he would build a Cistercian house to the honour
of the Virgin
[Illustration: _Fountains Abbey_
_The East End._
_Photo. Watson._ _Art Repro. Co.]
Mary. Its tenants were Fountains men, under the abbacy of Alexander,
another of the founders. They had many troubles, some on account of the
climate, some on account of their neighbours. Serlo, our narrator, was
one of them, and might have made his story longer had he chose. It is
from another record that we learn that Alexander objected to the
nearness of the parish church, whose services distracted the attention
of his monks, and for the sake of peace and quiet pulled the building
down in spite of the parishioners. The parish appealed to the Archbishop
of York, then to the Pope, but the monks prevailed in both courts. The
neighbourhood, however, was naturally hostile thereafter, and presently
the abbot found a more convenient situation, where they built Kirkstall
Abbey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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