RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



selected to be abbots and several were cliosen 

 as heads of other foundations. The vitality 

 of Waverley is evidenced by its many off- 

 shoots. Garendon Abbey in Leicestershire, 

 Ford Abbey in Devonshire, Combe in War- 

 wickshire and Thame in Oxfordshire were 

 daughter houses, and no less than eleven 

 Cistercian abbeys were descended from Waver- 

 ley. The priority claimed by her over all 

 other houses of the order in England was for 

 a time disputed by Furness,^ but established 

 by the decision of 1232 that the abbots of 

 Furness should have precedence through the 

 whole generations of Aum6ne in England and 

 Savigny in England, while the abbots of 

 Waverley should have precedence everywhere, 

 not only in the chapters of the abbots as- 

 sembled in England but throughout the entire 

 order.'' 



The exemption claimed by the Cistercians 

 by right of papal indulgence from the pay- 

 ment of tithes, and assistance in those aids or 

 subsidies to the king which it was customary 

 to call on all ecclesiastics to grant, was at first 

 strenuously upheld by them, and in the case 

 of Waverley, as senior house of the order, 

 drew upon the brethren much unfavourable 

 attention in the days of the earlier Planta- 

 genets. The wisdom of a gradual withdrawal 

 of their opposition seems to have occurred to 

 them in the reigns of Edward I. and his suc- 

 cessors. At the time of the third Crusade in 

 1 188 a heavy tax was laid on the whole of 

 Europe by the authority of the pope. The 

 poor, we are told, suffered grievously under 

 this exaction, but the Cistercian order was ex- 

 empt.^ For the ransom of Richard I. in 

 1 1 93 money was collected throughout the 

 kingdom, abbeys and shrines were despoiled 

 of their gold, silver and precious stones. Even 



1 A house of older foundation, but originally of 

 the Benedictine order. Being an offshoot of Savigny 

 in France, it only became Cistercian later during 

 the rule of the fifth abbot. 



2 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 311. An indnlt 

 granted by Pope Alexander IV. in 1258 exempting 

 the Cistercians from the payment of money to 

 prelates, nuncios and legates demanding it under 

 letters of safe-conduct vyas addressed to ' Waverley 

 and all Cistercian monasteries in England' {Pafal 

 LetUTS, i. 359). On a later occasion in 1401, 

 during a schism in the Papacy, a mandate was 

 addressed to both abbots of Waverley and Furness 

 exempting them temporarily from the jurisdiction 

 of the abbot of Citeaux, who had espoused the 

 cause of the anti-popes Clement VII. {Chron. Mon. 

 de Melsa [Rolls Ser.J, iii. 258) and Benedict XIII., 

 calling on them to convoke a general chapter of the 

 order in England and Wales for the purpose of 

 choosing difinitores {Palpal Letters, v. 358). 



8 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 245. 



the sacred vessels on the altars were not 

 spared. The Cistercians, in whose houses 

 precious metals were not found,* were com- 

 pelled to contribute one year's wool." 



With the accession of John commenced a 

 period of trial for the abbey of Waverley. 

 The opening years of the thirteenth century 

 were marked by natural misfortunes and 

 losses. A violent storm in July 1201 did 

 much damage to crops, the abbey buildings 

 were flooded and all but carried away." John, 

 the sixth abbot, a man whose character and 

 rule seems to have won the veneration of all, 

 died at Merton on 16 September.'' The 

 rainfall of the year 1201 was followed by 

 general failure of crops and consequent sea- 

 sons of dearth. Nevertheless William, rector 

 of Broadwater, undeterred by these mis- 

 fortunes, laid the foundation of a new church 

 at Waverley in March 1203-4,^ but in the 

 same year such a grievous famine and mor- 

 tality arose in the district that the brethren 

 were dispersed abroad in other religious houses 

 owing to lack of sustenance.' King John's 

 dispute with the pope resulted in the kingdom 

 being laid under an interdict in 1208, fol- 

 lowed by the seizure of all ecclesiastical pro- 

 perty by the king,^" that of William de 

 Broadwater being confiscated among the rest. 

 In the same year however John spent the 

 last days of Holy Week at the abbey " and 

 seems to have been favourably impressed by 

 his hosts, for on leaving he issued an order for 

 the release of the rents and possessions of 

 William, priest ot Broadwater, that the 

 church of Waverley which he was building 

 at his own expense might be continued.^^ In 

 1 2 10, however, John was endeavouring to 

 extort money by every means in his power, 



* Simplicity in their houses was enjoined on the 

 Cistercians by their statutes, which forbad them to 

 multiply pictures, images, and ornaments ' out of 

 keeping with our poverty.' The windows of their 

 abbey churches were originally white-glazed. 



6 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 248. It is said that 

 the Emperor Henry offered the king's ransom to 

 the Cistercians to be made into chalices and thur- 

 ibles, but they, loving Richard and loathing the 

 plunder, refused. Matt, of Paris, Hist. Minor. 

 [RoUs Ser.], ii. 58. 



6 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 253. 



' Ibid. 



8 Ibid. p. 255. 



8 Ibid. 



10 Ibid. p. 260. 



" Close, 9 John, m. 5. An order dated at Guild- 

 ford 6 April 1208 gives directions for R. de Corn- 

 hull to be paid five marks for two tons of wine and 

 carriage from Pagham to Waverley ' for the ex- 

 penses of our household there ' (ibid. m. 4). 



12 Ibid. 9 John, m. 4. 



79 



