A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



land around it, into the hands of Alan Rufus, 

 son of Eudo, Count of Bretagne.^ This church 

 and land were given by the earl to Stephen, a 

 monk of Whitby, on which to found a Benedic- 

 tine abbey.' 



Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux and his 

 canons looked askance upon the settlement of 

 Benedictines in York in the neighbourhood of 

 the Minster.* Alan's right to the church and 

 land was disputed by the cathedral authorities, 

 the archbishop himself laying claim to them.' 

 The matter was eventually settled by the king 

 giving to the archbishop the church of St. 

 Stephen in York instead of St. Olave's, and the 

 abbot further propitiated the prelate by a gift of 

 land in Clifton and Heslington. In 1088 King 

 William Rufus visited York and saw how in- 

 adequate were the premises at St. Olave's for 

 the requirements of the brethren, and he con- 

 ferred upon them additional lands adjacent to 

 their dwelling, and the year after he himself 

 laid the foundation stone of a new house, which 

 was dedicated to the honour of the Blessed 

 Virgin, the Danish ascription of their old church 

 being superseded.' 



The abbey had not long been founded before 

 a number of cells were established and made 

 dependent upon it. That of Wctheral in 

 Cumberland seems to have been the first. 

 Afterwards there followed St. Bees in the same 

 county, St. Martin's near Richmond, Rumburgh 

 in Suffolk, Sandtoft and Haines in Lincolnshire, 

 St. Mary Magdalen at Lincoln, and later on 

 Warmington in Northumberland and Marsk in 

 Notts.' At what date the cell of Wetheral 

 was founded is not known for certain,' though 

 Drake says it was given to the abbey at the time 

 of the foundation by the Earl of Cumberland.' 

 It was at all events confirmed to the abbey in 

 1 1 31-2 by King Henry I. Henry I also con- 

 firmed to the abbey its various possessions, and 

 made it quit of aids and tallages, enjoying the 

 same privileges as those possessed by the minsters 

 at York and Beverley.^" 



During the abbacy of Geoffrey,'' 1 13 1-2, the 

 Benedictine rule had become somewhat slack, 

 and some of the brethren of St. Mary's were 

 pining for a more rigid rule, such as Cistercian 

 foundations would offer ; the prior, Richard, 

 and the sub-prior were among the number. The 



'Lawton, ReFtg. Houses, 36. 



'Drake, Eboracum (small ed.), ii, 221 ; Karl. MS. 

 236 (Chartulary of St. Mary's), fol. I. 

 * Fasti Eboracenses, 156. 

 ' Lanton, Rclig. Homes, 37. 

 'Ibid.; 'Dt%Yc, Ebcracum, 579. 

 'Brit. Assoc. Handbk. (1906), 146 ; Mon. Angl. iii, 



54+- 



' Lawton, Rellg. Houses, 3 8 . 



' Drake, Ehora:um (small ed.), ii, 227. 



'" Pat. 33 Edw. I, m. 23. 



" Miscalled Godfrey in the Monasticon (iii, 538). 



abbot tried to put an end to the movement, 

 but the malcontents appealed to the archbishop, 

 Thurstan, who sympathized with them ; and 

 finally in 1 1 32 thirteen of them left St. Mary's 

 amid a turbulent scene and found their way to 

 the valley of the Skell, where the Cistercian Abbey 

 of Fountains was established, Richard being 

 chosen as its first abbot.'^ 



A trouble of a different kind came to the 

 abbey five years later, when the house was 

 much injured in the great fire of 1 137." 



The abbey, as we have seen, was founded in 

 the reign of William I, and on a greater scale by 

 William II. Henry I confirmed its possessions 

 and privileges," which Henry II afterwards 

 ratified," as also did Henry III and most of his 

 successors.'* These privileges were very great : 

 (i) exernption from royal exactions; (2) im- 

 munity from all pleas and quarrels ; (3) soc, sac 

 tol, tem, infangthef and utfangthef"; (4) freedom 

 from attendance and service at county court;, 

 tithings, wapentakes, and hundreds ; (5) the 

 possession of a prison and gallows. Moreovei: 

 the town of Bootham with its fair, market and 

 liberties belonged to them '* : and a vast district 

 in and around York became known as ' the; 

 Liberty of St. Mary.' 



The Archbishop of York had the right of N 

 making an annual visitation of the abbey, but 

 the first extant record of any archiepiscopal 

 survey was one made by the southern Primate. 

 In 1 1 95 Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, 

 was suspended from his spiritual duties," and 

 Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, went to York 

 as papal legate. On Tuesday 1 3 June he visited 

 the abbey of St. Mary, being received by the 

 monks in solemn procession. Afterwards, assem- 

 bled in the chapter-house, the monks complained 

 of the incompetency of Robert their abbot 

 through weakness and physical infirmity, and 

 Archbishop Hubert deposed him from the 

 abbacy.^" After a short vacancy the king gave 

 the abbacy in 1 1 97 to Robert Longchamp, 

 Prior of Ely, brother of the chancellor.^' On 

 6 March 1226 a papal mandate was issued 

 to Archbishop Walter Gray, authorizing him 

 to visit the abbey once a year, or twice if 

 need arose, and correct any abuses by counsel 

 of the religious and sometimes of five or six j 

 of the better canons of the cathedral church,^' ' 

 and on 26 February in the following year a papa 

 mandate was issued to the abbot and convent . 



" Fasti Ebor. 204-7. 



"Aller, Hist, of Torks. 57. ' 



" Pat. 33 Edw. I, m. 23. 



" Drake, Eboracum (small ed.), ii, 228. " Ibid. 



"Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 21 d. 



" Drake op. cit. ii, 230. 



^^ Fasti Ebor. 266. 



" Drake, Eboracum, 424. 



" Ralph de Diceto, Hist. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 151. 



"Cj/. of Papal Letters, \, 108. 



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