2 1 6 Whalley A bbey. 



was founded A.D. 1296, or shortly afterwards, by a body 

 of that celebrated branch of the Benedictines, denomi- 

 nated the " Cistercians," and also known as the " White 

 Monks." The latter name had reference to certain 

 peculiarities in their dress; the former was taken from 

 Cisiertium, the Latinised name of Cisteaux, in Burgundy, 

 where the order had been instituted about two centuries 

 previously. At the time of the dissolution of the monas- 

 teries by Henry VIIL, the Cistercians numbered, in 

 different parts of the kingdom, no less than eighty-five 

 establishments. How much modern England is in- 

 debted to those energetic and pious men, it would be 

 difficult to over-estimate. Seating themselves in remote 

 places, they became centres of civilisation, art, literature, 

 and charity; and though the "dissolution" may have 

 been rendered expedient, if not necessary, it is impos- 

 sible to deny that, with the monks of the other orders 

 (constituting altogether about 608 establishments,*) they 

 were the pioneers and preservers of very much that we 

 have to be thankful for at the present day. A good deal 

 still remains to show the ancient beauty and stateliness 

 of the Abbey. Several arches of a portion of the 

 Chapter-house are nearly perfect, and every here and 

 there, in the fragments of walls, we find a window or a 



* Bishop Tanner : " Notitia Monastica, or, An Account of all the 

 Abbies, Priories, and Houses of Friers, formerly in England and 

 Wales. 1744." Chetham Library. 



