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                            FOUNTAINS ABBEY

                   [Illustration: _Fountains Abbey_

       _J. M. W. Turner, R.A. pinxit._          _Art Repro. Co._

       _From a drawing in the possession of J. E. Taylor, Esq._]




                            FOUNTAINS ABBEY

                        THE STORY OF A MEDIÆVAL
                      MONASTERY BY GEORGE HODGES
                      D.D. DEAN OF THE EPISCOPAL
                     THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE
                             MASSACHUSETTS

                          LONDON: JOHN MURRAY
                          ALBEMARLE STREET W

                                 MCMIV

                           BALLANTYNE PRESS
                          LONDON & EDINBURGH


                              TO MY WIFE
                         I INSCRIBE THIS FRUIT
                          OF A GOLDEN SUMMER




PREFACE


The materials out of which this book is made were taken mainly from two
sources: a description and explanation of the Abbey ruins by Mr. W. H.
St. John Hope, and a collection and annotation of the Abbey records by
Mr. John Richard Walbran.

The ruins have been minutely examined by Mr. St. John Hope, who has left
no stone unconsidered. He has brought to his study of the Abbey a
profound knowledge of monastic architecture. The account of his
investigations is published in the fifteenth volume of the “Yorkshire
Archæological Journal,” to which is appended a historical ground-plan of
the Abbey, drawn by Mr. Harold Brakspear. The Marquess of Ripon has had
copies of this plan framed and placed in various parts of the buildings
for the information of visitors. Through the courtesy of Mr. Hope and
Mr. Brakspear I am enabled to give a reduced version of this excellent
plan.

The records have been gathered together by Mr. Walbran, and printed,
with many learned and interesting notes, in two volumes of the
publications of the Surtees Society, entitled “Memorials of Fountains
Abbey.” They begin with a contemporary narrative of the foundation of
the Abbey, and extend to the grant which the king made of the Abbey
lands after the suppression. They include the chronicle of the
administrations of the abbots; the deed of the ground on which the Abbey
stands; a series of royal charters and a series of papal privileges;
various records of the dealings of the Monastery with its neighbours,
clerical and lay; letters to Thomas Cromwell from Layton and Legh, the
commissioners at whose demand the Abbey was surrendered, and from
Marmaduke Bradley, the abbot who surrendered it; and the king’s
assignment of pensions by name to the abbot and the monks after the
dissolution.

Of these documents, the longest and most interesting is the contemporary
account of the foundation--_Narratio de fundatione Fontanis Monasterii_.
It was written by Hugh, a monk of the daughter house of Kirkstall, upon
information given him by Serlo, an aged brother then resident in that
abbey, who had once lived at Fountains. Serlo was almost a hundred years
old when he sat in the sun in the cloister of Kirkstall, and told this
story of his early days, answering Hugh’s questions. “It is now,” he
says, “the sixty-ninth year of my conversion. When I first went to
Fountains to associate myself to that holy brotherhood, I was, as I
remember, about beginning my thirtieth year.” The Abbey, at that time,
as he tells us in another place, was five years old; but he had been
acquainted with the brethren before. “When the monks left the monastery
of York, I myself was present. I had known their names and faces from my
boyhood; I was born in their country, was brought up amongst them, and
to several of them I was related by ties of blood. And although I am, as
thou may see, far advanced in years, I am very grateful to my old age
that my memory remains unimpaired, and particularly retentive of those
things committed to it in early years. Such things, therefore, relating
to the origin of the Monastery of Fountains, which I personally
witnessed, or have gathered from the credible report of my elders, I
will now relate.”

Serlo spent ten years at Fountains, leaving in 1147, with the colony
which founded Kirkstall. After that, the chronicler writes not from
personal observation, but from near acquaintance. There would naturally
be frequent communication between the mother and the daughter house. The
reminiscences end with the death of the sixth abbot, in 1190. Thence the
history proceeds, by the hand of Hugh and others, to recount the
administration of the seventh and eighth abbots, and mention is made in
the last sentence of the ninth and tenth.

In addition to these books, information is to be had concerning the
Cistercian Order in its official documents. These are the Life of St.
Stephen Harding, the chief founder; the Exordium (1120), a history of
the beginning of the Order; the Charta Charitatis (1119), its
constitution; the Rule of St. Benedict, to whose strict keeping the
Cistercians were pledged; the Usus Antiquiores or Consuetudines, the
Customs of the Society; and the Instituta Capitali Generalis, or laws
passed during several hundred years by the General Chapter for the
government of the Order. A life of St. Stephen, in English, was
published in 1844, under the editorship of John Henry Newman, as the
first in a projected series of lives of the English saints. The Rule of
St. Benedict is admirably summarised in the article on Monachism in the
“Encyclopædia Britannica.” The Institutes have been printed in
successive numbers of the “Yorkshire Archæological Journal” (vols. ix.,
x. and xi.) by the Rev. J. T. Fowler. The other documents are assembled
in the 166th volume of Migne’s “Patrologia Latina.”

In the Rites of Durham, a contemporary account of the customs of a
Benedictine abbey, light is thrown upon obscure passages in these
official documents, and much help is given in the way of homely detail
towards an understanding of the routine of the monastic day. Dean
Stubbs, in his lectures on Ely Cathedral, and the Rev. John Henry Blunt,
in his account of Sion House, prefixed to his edition of the “Myroure of
oure Ladye,” take us pleasantly into the refectory, telling us what the
monastic folk had for dinner, and with what curious signs they
communicated one with another during the silent meal.

The writer gratefully acknowledges the friendly services of the Dean of
Ripon and of Charles Edward Eardley Childers, of Pittsburg, and the
courtesy of the Marquess and Marchioness of Ripon during his
locumtenency of Studley Church, in the summer of 1901.

THE DEANERY
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
_Sept. 1903_




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNING

                                                                    PAGE

The Abbey and the Elm                                                  1

St. Stephen Harding                                                    3

The founding of Citeaux (_Cistercium_)                                 4

The pursuit of Poverty                                                 6

The coming of St. Bernard                                              8

Cistercians at Rievaulx                                                9

Discontent at St. Mary’s, York                                        10

Departure of the Monks                                                12

_The founding of Fountains_, 1132                                     13

St. Bernard receives the Abbey into his Order                         14

The starving time                                                     15

The arrival of prosperity                                             16


CHAPTER II

THE GROWTH OF THE ABBEY


I. COLONIES

The Monks appreciated by their neighbours                             20

Newminster founded, 1137                                              22

Kirkstead, 1138                                                       23

Louth Park, 1138                                                      23

Woburn, 1145                                                          23

Lisa-Kloster, 1146                                                    24

Kirkstall, 1147                                                       25

Vandey, 1147                                                          25

Meaux, 1150                                                           27


II. BUILDINGS

The Cistercian plan                                                   28

The Architect                                                         29

_Nave and transepts_ [in their present form]                          30

Built by Abbot Richard, the first, 1132-1139                          31

And Abbot Richard, the second, 1139-1143                              32

Abbot Henry Murdac, 1143-1147                                         33

The Fire                                                              35

_Eastern range of cloister, and part of Western_                      36

Built by Abbot Richard, the third, 1147-1170                          36

Abbot Robert the Strenuous, 1170-1179                                 37

_Builds Southern range and completes Western_                         38

Abbot William, 1179-1190                                              38

Abbot Ralph Haget, 1190-1203                                          38

Abbot John of York, 1203-1211                                         40

Abbot John of Ely, 1211-1220                                          42

Abbot John of Kent, 1220-1247                                         43

_Builds Chapel of Nine Altars and Infirmary_                          44


CHAPTER III

THE DAILY LIFE OF THE MONKS

The wall, the porter’s lodge                                          45

The chapel, the mill, bake-house and brew-house                       46

The guest houses                                                      47

The Cellarium

Cellarer’s office                                                     50

Vestibule, cellar, buttery, passage                                   51

Refectory                                                             52

Dormitory                                                             53

The lay brothers, _Conversi_                                          53

The Church

Porch                                                                 58

Gallery                                                               59

Nave                                                                  59

Retro-choir                                                           61

Choir                                                                 62

Chancel                                                               63

North transept: Tower                                                 65

South transept: Sacristy                                              66

Chapel of the Nine Altars                                             68

At service in the Abbey                                               69

The West walk: Novices                                                73

The dormitory                                                         74

The North walk: living-room                                           77

The cloister brothers, _Monachi_                                      80

The chapter-house: morals                                             84

The day’s work                                                        90

The parlour                                                           94

The warming-house: recreation                                         95

The refectory                                                         96

The bill of fare                                                     100

Under the dormitory                                                  105

The Abbot’s lodgings                                                 106

Scriptorium and Muniment room                                        109

Coal-yard and rubbish-heap                                           110

Misericord                                                           111

The Infirmary                                                        113

The end of the day                                                   115


CHAPTER IV

THE SUPPRESSION


Abbey lands and dignities                                            117

Abbot John Darnton, 1479-1494                                        117

Abbot Marmaduke Huby, 1494-1526                                      119

_Builds the tower_                                                   119

The Monasteries and the Reformation                                  120

Abbot John Thirsk, 1526-1536                                         123

Abbot Marmaduke Bradley, 1536-1539                                   125

The coming of the King’s commissioners                               125

_The spoiling of the Abbey_, 1539                                    126

The subsequent owners                                                129




ILLUSTRATIONS


Fountains Abbey, from a water-colour
drawing by J. M. W. Turner, in the
possession of J. E. Taylor, Esq.
(photogravure)                                             _Frontispiece_

The East End of the Abbey (photogravure)      _To face page_          24

The Interior, looking west (photogravure)          “                  40

Historical Ground Plan (coloured)                               _The End_

The Cellarium (photogravure)                       “                  52

Principal Patterns of the Roman Floors
at Fountains Abbey, from a print by
Wm. Fowler of Winterton      “                                        72

The Abbey from the South-East (photogravure)       “                  80

The Abbey from the South-West (photogravure)       “                  96

Fountains Hall (photogravure)                      “                 128

Plan of the Precinct                                            _The End_

     [These plans are derived from the _Yorkshire Archæological Journal_
     vol. xv.]


                                ERRATA


              Plate facing page 52. _For_ “The Cloisters”
                        _read_ “The Cellarium”

                Page 9, lines 3 and 13. _For_ “Rievaux”
                           _read_ “Rievaulx”




CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNING


The first Fountains Abbey was a forest tree. In the days of the simple
beginning, the brethren ate and slept and said their prayers under an
elm which stood in the middle of the valley.

The elm lived into the eighteenth century, and toward the end of its
life was made to divide its honours with a group of venerable yews. Some
said that the monks found their first shelter under the yews. But Serlo
settled the matter, hundreds of years ago, in favour of the elm.
_Ulmus_, he said, _Ulmus erat vallis in medio, lignum frondosum_. The
yews were there, however, in the first days, and one or two of them are
still surviving.

They are propped up on either hand, like an old man leaning on his
staff; but they live. The elm has wholly disappeared. Mr. Walbran’s
maternal great-grandfather remembered “the stump of an enormous elm tree
in the last stage of decay, which was called ‘the Fountain’s elm.’” It
stood “between the river Skell and the stream from Stank’s pond, not far
from the eastern boundary of the Abbey site.” But the smooth turf covers
the place. Only the yews look down from their gentle hill upon the
broken walls. There they were when the monks came, a little adventurous
company, to begin their life of seclusion and prayer. Their leaves were
green when the Abbey rose in splendour, and mitred abbots walked in
their shadow. They saw the expulsion of the convent and the ruin of the
monastery. They are a symbol of the persistence of the quiet, elemental
forces amidst our human chance and change.

The monks of Fountains Abbey belonged to the Cistercian Order.

In the twelfth century, when the Abbey began, this was the newest
religious society. The Benedictines, after splendid services to
civilisation, had encountered the temptations which accompany the
praises and the gifts of grateful communities, and had been worsted.
They had verified the wise saying, “When anybody does a good thing, all
the neighbours join together to keep him from doing it again.” They had
grown rich in the treasures which are subject to the invasions of moth
and rust and thieves, but they were growing poor in the accounts of
heaven. The purpose of the Cistercians was to return to primitive
monastic simplicity. Gregory the Great had said that he who would see
angels must have his head pillowed on a stone. The Cistercians believed
it.

Stephen Harding, who founded the Cistercian Order, was an Englishman,
from Dorsetshire. He spent his early years in the monastery at
Sherborne. Thence he went wandering, in the free fashion of the time,
partly to see the sights, partly to save his soul, and made a pilgrimage
to Rome. On his way back, in Burgundy, he chanced upon a little company
of monks, who were encamped in a clearing in the midst of a thick
forest. They had built a chapel with the trunks of trees, and around it
had gathered a forlorn group of huts made of the boughs, and were
freezing and starving to their hearts’ content. All this filled Stephen
with devout envy. He joined this monastery, and thereafter saw England
again no more.

But presently, the rule seemed to many of the brethren to be too hard
for human endurance, and they relaxed it, and began to live more softly,
so that Stephen was dissatisfied. And out he went, and a few like-minded
brethren with him, in quest of hardship, which they found at Citeaux.
This was a wild place in the dark woods, with a deep stream running
through the midst of it, the banks of which were the residence of beasts
of prey. Here Stephen was made prior; the honest severity of Benedict’s
laws was sought again; the brethren lived in holy simplicity.

And then friends appeared. This good life was appreciated by rich and
powerful neighbours, and they brought gifts and built a church; and one
of them was buried there. This was Odo, duke of Burgundy, whose son
Hugh, with a company of friends, people of the court, took a fancy for
going to church at the monastery chapel, so that the plain place shone
with their silks and jewels, and the simple brethren were distracted in
their prayers by the neighbourhood of all this fine array. The chapel
was becoming a fashionable church. By this time Stephen was the
abbot--abbot of Cistercium, which was the Latin for Citeaux. And Stephen
stopped it. He turned all these gay worshippers out of doors, forbade
them ever to come in again, and shut the monastery gate in the face of
all his influential friends.

Then he made the plain services more plain. He forbade that “in the
House of God, in which they wished to serve God devoutly day and night,
anything should be found which savoured of pride and excess, or can in
any way corrupt poverty, that guardian of virtue, which they had chosen
of their own accord.” There must be no gold or silver in the church,
except a silver cup for the sacramental wine. A single candlestick must
suffice for light, and that must be of iron and straight from top to
bottom. Vestments must be of common stuff, no more of silk or
cloth-of-gold. All the pictures must come down. The