386 BYLAND ABBEY. 



the highest eminence in the law, was cut off in the 

 bloom of life, after a short illness at Madras in the 

 East Indies. 



BYLAND ABBEY 



is situated in the parish of Coxwold, and wapen 

 take of Birdforth, bordering on Rydale, 5 miles s w. 

 of Helmsley, and 11 from Kirkby-Moorside. 



This place was once the lordship of Roger de 

 Mowbray, who founded a priory here for monks of 

 the Cistercian* order, the account of which is thus 

 related by Burton : 



Gerald the abbot, with twelve monks, from the 

 abbey of Furnessin Lancashire, disturbed andplun- 

 dered by the incursions of the Scots, fled to York, 

 and were entertained there by Thurstan, archbishop 



* So called from Cisterlium, or Cifraux, in the dio- 

 cese of Chalons. They were first settled in Waverley 

 abbey, in Surrey ; and in 1151, there were 500 monas- 

 teries of that order. This order was founded by the ce- 

 lebrated St. Bernard, who was born in the year 1091. 

 It has been observed that it was the peculiar felicity of 

 this extraordinary man, to sway the human mind ; one 

 moment he concealed himself in the recesses of his soli- 

 tude, the next he shone in all the magnificence of a court ; 

 never out of his placo, yet without a title or public chara- 

 cter ; and deriving from his personal merit, a degree of 

 estimation superior to all authority. Though he was 

 only a poor monk of Clairvaux, he enjoyed more power 

 than the abbot ftuger, the first minister of France ; and 

 he preserved over his disciple, pope Eugenius the third, 

 an influence that did honour to them both. Of thepower- 

 ful and enthusiastic eloquence of this popular monk, it is 

 a sufficient proof to add, that through the influence of 

 his exhortations originated the second crusade. 

 bee Heiiau.lt Alrigi Chrouol, de Hist, de France, 1145. 



