243 



The beautiful and picturesque situation of many ancient abbeys arrests 

 the traveller's attention and fiUs him with admiration. The quiet spot embosomed 

 amidst green hUls or the darker shades of the aged forest, and enriched by a 

 more luxuriant vegetation than the surroimding country, with the " trotting 

 brook " or the large rivulet, sweetly murmuring as it glides past the ruined walls, 

 mantled by the friendly and ever-verdant ivy, might have once presented to the 

 holy brotherhood, who selected it for their dwelling-place, the dreary and sterUe 

 aspect of Citeaux. 



The Lord of Beaune gave the pious monks leave to take possession of this 

 most unpromising property. They then hastily put together the trunks of trees 

 which they had felled, and constructed in this very simple and primitive manner 

 their new monastery. The rudeness of their dwelling gained for them a powerful 

 friend. 



Odo, duke of Burgundy, hearing from the Archbishop of Lyons that a num- 

 ber of holy men were building a monastery in his territory, made many enquiries 

 concerning them, and when he found their habitation consisting of a few cells com- 

 posed of unshapen timber so miserable that he feared they would not survive the 

 hardships of this dreary and unproductive situation, he sent workmen to assist 

 them in completing their monastery, furnished them for a long time with necessary 

 provisions and gave them much additional land, and also cattle to stock it. When 

 the edifice was ready for reception they appointed the 21st March, which in the 

 year 1098 fell on Palm Sunday, for the solemn inauguration of the new Abbey. 



But it is to the fame of St. Bernard, who joined in a.d. 1113, that the 

 speedy and widespread popularity of the new order is to be attributed. The 

 order was introduced into England at Waverley, in Sussex, in a.d. 1128, 29th of 

 Henry I., the remains of the celebrated Waverley Abbey are situated about two 

 miles south-east of Farnham, on the borders of Moor Park, still interesting from 

 the associations connected with them, although the fragments are in this instance 

 but slender. 



They stand on a broad green meadow, round which the river Wey, over- 

 looked by low wooded hills, winds on three sides, thus completely forming one of 

 those valleys which the followers of the "pious Bernardus" are said to have pre- 

 ferred to the rocky heights loved of their Benedictine brothers. 



The Cistercians professed to observe the rule of St. Benedict with rigid ex- 

 actness, only that some of the hours which were devoted by the Benedictines to 

 reading and study, the Cistercians devoted to manual labour. They affected a 

 severe simplicity. Their houses were simple, with no lofty towers, no carvings, 

 or representations of saints, except the crucifix. The furniture and ornaments of 

 their establishments, were in keeping — chasubles of fustian, candlesticks of iron, 

 napkins of coarse cloth, the cross of wood, and only the chalice of precious metal. 

 The amount of manual labour prevented the Cistercians from becoming a learned 

 order, though they did produce a few men distinguished in literature. They were 

 excellent farmers and horticulturists, and are said, in early times, to have almost 



