RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



fied by his failure, he meditated resignation, under 

 pretext of a journey to Rome, undertaken in 

 connexion with his unauthorized surrender of 

 certain charters to Archbishop Roger.^^ Ac- 

 cordingly in 1 1 60 he resigned and retired to an 

 anchorite's cell in the newly-founded priory of 

 Watton, where he lived for seven years, until 

 the church and his cell were burnt down, 

 when he returned to Meaux, dying there in 

 1 1 80.2' 



The second abbot, Philip, Prior of Kirkstead, 

 who succeeded in 1 160, bore office for twenty- 

 two years and maintained the numbers and 

 spiritual discipline of the house, though he did 

 not greatly increase its wealth. During the rule 

 of his successor the house was involved in a costly 

 lawsuit with the powerful Sir Robert de Thurn- 

 ham ; bad seasons, with a failure of crops, hit the 

 monks hard, and to crown all, they had to raise 

 300 marks for the ransom of King Richard. 

 Once more the convent had to be broken up,^^ 

 the monks dispersed amongst the different houses 

 of the order, but after fifteen months William de 

 Rule, rector of Cottingham, feeling the approach 

 of his death, became a novice in the abbey, 

 bringing with him jCzoo. This enabled the con- 

 vent to reassemble, but Abbot Thomas, a worthy 

 man of no great ability, feeling his own incom- 

 petence, resigned in December 1197.^' By the 

 advice of the father Abbot of Fountains the monks 

 elected Alexander, a monk of Ford Abbey, who 

 was intimate with the justiciary, Hubert, Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury. By his influence the 

 justiciary was induced to appeal to Robert de 

 Thurnham on behalf of the monks, but it was 

 not until the sudden death of his master. King 

 Richard, in 1199 that Sir Robert consented to 

 restore the lands in dispute. Other costly law- 

 suits followed, and Abbot Alexander, a man of 

 character and courage, led the opposition of the 

 Cistercians to King John's demands for an aid or 

 grant of money .^° He further instigated Arch- 

 bishop Geoffrey and the expelled bishop to com- 

 plain to the pope against the king ; and on a second 

 demand for an aid from the Cistercians he alone 

 resisted this infringement of their privileges. 

 Meaux was also one of the three English houses 

 which maintained the privileges of the order by 

 continuing to celebrate mass during the Interdict.^' 

 His courageous conduct made him a marked man 

 and brought down the king's vengeance upon his 

 house, so that once more almost all the monks had 

 to leave the abbey, fortunately obtaining hospital- 

 ity from Earl Baldwin of Albemarle. To avert 

 further catastrophe Abbot Alexander resigned in 

 1 2 10 and retired to Ford, where he died two 



^ Chron deMelsa,i,loj. He had, however, retained 

 duplicates of the charters, by which the monks after- 

 wards recovered the lands ; ibid. 94. 



^Mbid. 107. " Ibid. 233. 



'' Ibid. 234. '° Ibid. p. xxxiv. 



" Martene, Thesaurus Anecd. iv. 



years later.^' Meanwhile the abbey had purchased 

 the king's goodwill by a fine of 1,000 marks. 

 The payment of this large sum by the succeeding 

 abbot, Hugh, formerly Prior of Meaux, so crippled 

 the abbey that the monks had once more to aban- 

 don it for a short time, and as all the English 

 Cistercian houses were suffering from the king's 

 exactions and could hardly support their own 

 members, some of the monks went to St. Mary's, 

 York, some to Bridlington Priory, some to 

 Cistercian houses in Scotland, and the rest were 

 quartered in batches in neighbouring castles and 

 villages. ^° 



The convent reassembled at the beginning of 

 November 1 2 1 1 , and settled down to their normal 

 life, building, acquiring property, and quarrelling 

 with their neighbours. About 1260, during the 

 abbacy of William of Driffield, the sub-prior of 

 Meaux was instrumental in averting an armed 

 struggle between the military tenants of Holder- 

 ness and the royal forces sent to coerce them into 

 rendering certain disputed feudal services.'" 

 Abbot William, a man of wonderful sanctity but 

 inferior as an administrator to his predecessor, 

 Michael Brun, died in 1269, and a few years 

 later we find the abbey burdened with a debt of 

 nearly j^4,000.'^ Roger, the thirteenth abbot, 

 who succeeded in 1286, considerably reduced the 

 debt, but the most important event of his rule 

 was the surrender to the king in 1293 °^ *^^ 

 abbey's manor of Wick, where Edward I founded 

 the port of Kingston-on-Hull. Besides granting 

 lands in exchange the king caused Master Richard 

 of Ottringham to place under Meaux a chantry 

 which he was founding and endowing.'^ By the 

 terms of this chantry seven monks were to reside 

 at Ottringham, but as this resulted in a scandalous 

 relaxation of the monastic rule the chantry was 

 removed, thirty years after its foundation, to a 

 chapel just outside the gates of the monastery,^' 



Abbot Adam of Skyrne by the time of his 

 death in 1339 had reduced the debt of the house 

 to below £,itOO, but it was speedily brought up 

 again by the mismanagement of his successor, 

 Hugh de Leven, and by the inundation of the 

 monastic estates on the sea-coast.'^ During 

 Abbot Hugh's rule a crucifix was carved for 

 the quire of the lay brethren by a man who 

 was so much of a religious enthusiast that 

 he only worked upon it on Fridays, fasting, and 

 so much of an artist that he employed a nude 

 model.'^ The crucifix proving miraculous, leave 

 was obtained for women to visit it, but as a 

 source of income this expedient proved dis- 

 appointing, as more came out of curiosity than 

 devotion, and their entertainment cost more than 

 their alms brought in. 



" Chron. de Melsa, i, 329. 

 '" Ibid, ii, p. XX. 

 ^' Ibid. 192-5. 

 '* Ibid, iii, p. vii. 



''Ibid. 354. 

 "Ibid. 156. 

 " Ibid. 295-6. 

 '' Ibid. 35. 



147 



