ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



the finding of the boy's body in the Thorpe Wood, determined to resign his 

 bishopric and end his days in religious seclusion. Accordingly he retired to 

 Fontenay in the Cote d'Or and became a monk in the great Cistercian abbey 

 there, after contributing very largely to the monastic church. At its con- 

 secration in 1 147, he was present ; Pope Eugenius III and St. Bernard him- 

 self taking part in the splendid ceremonial. 



Three years later Everard died at Fontenay and was buried before the 

 high altar, where a sepulchral stone was placed over his remains, which still 

 exists as a testimony of the high estimation in which he was held.' 



From the whole evidence which has come down to us it is hard to arrive 

 at any other judgement of Bishop Everard than that he was a devout and 

 blameless ecclesiastic, but not to be counted among the strong men fitted to 

 rule in turbulent times.' He was one of the many conscientious ascetics who 

 came under the influence of St. Bernard, and so threw in his lot with the 

 Cistercian movement. Not improbably his experience at Norwich had con- 

 vinced him that the old Benedictine rule had grown lax, and that nothing 

 short of a new departure in the life of the cloister was needed if the religious 

 life in his own diocese was to become a reality. To a man of his very large 

 possessions there were two courses open. To found a rival monastery in his 

 own diocese, which should be subjected to the Cistercian rule, would have 

 seemed almost an act of schism. The other course, which we know he took, 

 was to renounce the world and turn his back upon the convent which he 

 could not hope to bring to a better mind — the Norwich monks had proved 

 too strong for him.' 



The episcopate of Bishop Everard can scarcely have been regarded by 

 the monastic party in East Anglia as anything but a period of decline from 

 the days when Bishop Herbert was exhibiting his immense activity in the 

 diocese. The Norwich priory must have chafed under the humiliation of its 

 subordination to a secular prelate, working his bishopric without much 

 consultation with his monastic chapter, and administering its affairs largely 

 by the help of his archdeacons as his assessors. The time had come when it 

 was necessary that a great effort should be made by the convent to assert itself 

 by claiming the right of electing some one from its own body to succeed the 

 prelate who had resigned. How it was managed we cannot tell, but when 

 Everard retired to Fontenay in 1 145,* it is probable that strong pressure was 

 put upon King Stephen in 11 46 to accept as bishop William Turbe, prior of 

 Norwich, who had been elected by the monks. ^ 



Bishop William was apparently a man of humble birth whom Herbert 

 the founder had taken into the monastic school in his boyhood and carefully 



' In a monograph on the abbey of Fontenay, published at Citcaux in 1 882, and drawn up by Abbe 

 J. B. Corbolion, the author asserts that Bishop Everard first went to Fontenay in I 139 and that remains of his 

 ' Castle ' arc still to be seen there. I know not on what authority this statement rests ; but if it be correct the 

 inference is that Everard had some landed territory in the neighbourhood, which is not unlikely. For a 

 general account of his retirement, see an article in Norf. Arch, v, 41. 



' The statement of Henry of Huntingdon, Epistola de contemptu munJi (Rolls Ser.), 3 l6 : ' Everardus 

 vir crudelissimus et ob hoc jam depositus ' must be dismissed as incredible on many grounds, which this is 

 not the place to set forth. 



' It is significant that three years after the retirement of Bishop Everard, a Cistercian abbey was founded 

 at Sibton, in Suffolk, by William de Caineto, brother of John, the sheriff who protected the Jews in 1 144. 

 Tanner's Notiiia, 88. 



* This is the date given by Radulph de Coggeshall and may be accepted provisionally. 



' Gervase of Canterbury, Oj>. (Rolls Ser.), i, 130. 



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