RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Winterburn were stations on the way to York 

 and the south ; his messuage in Beverley gave 

 shelter to his bailiffs as they mixed with the 

 traders of the east. It is this combination of 

 solitary base and wide-spread connexion which 

 gives meaning to the frequent but not very clear 

 or well-defined appearance of the abbot and his 

 convent upon the political stage. 



Until the settlement of England under the 

 strong rule of Henry II, the new abbey was 

 busied in maintaining its precarious position in 

 the north. But the political storms of the period 

 were at first less embarrassing than the problems 

 raised by its relations with the monastic world. 

 The events which led to a settlement of Savi- 

 gniac monks in the domain of Stephen are not 

 known ; perhaps we can trace the first settlers 

 by the Ribble in the enthusiasts who helped to 

 arouse the reform party at York to retire to 

 Fountains.* In any case the abbey was certainly 

 of Savigniac origin,' and soon became involved 

 in the disputes to which the union of Savigny 

 and Citeaux gave rise. Savigny was surrendered 

 five years after King Stephen confirmed his 

 original grant of Furness, and in 1 148 thirteen 

 English abbeys joined the Cistercian order.^" 

 Furness did not submit without a struggle. 

 Ignoring the charter of subjection to Savigny, 

 the fourth abbot, Peter of York, hurried to 

 Rome to appeal against the new order. Accord- 

 ing to the abbey tradition he procured a confir- 

 mation from Eugenius III of the existing state 

 of things, but upon his return was detained at 

 the mother house, and forced to give up his 

 position. ' He entered Savigny, where he stayed, 

 a most excellent monk, learning the Cistercian 

 rule. Thence he was promoted to be fifth abbot 

 of Quarr.' ^^ The records of Savigny tell a more 

 authentic story, Peter returned from Rome with 

 letters appointing a commission to decide the case 

 in Normandy. He succeeded in getting the date 

 of the trial postponed, but failed to appear upon 

 the day fixed. Whether he was detained at 

 Savigny or was contumacious cannot be decided. 

 The judges, after waiting in vain for the missing 

 abbot, went into the case. The abbot of Savigny 

 showed that Furness had been built and main- 

 tained at the expense of his monastery. Peter 

 was forced to submit, and his fellow monks, 



' Walbran, Mem. of Fountains Abbey, i, 20. These, 

 if the founders of Furness, must have been already 

 settled for three or four years. 



' Stephen, both, as count and king, seems to have 

 made a double grant to the monks settled at Furness 

 and to the abbot and convent of Savigny ; Coucher, 

 24, 122, 124; Farrer, op. cit. 301, 304; Jouiit. 

 Brit. Arch. Assoc, vi, 419. The last document is 

 printed by M. Delisle from the chartulary of Savigny 

 and is translated in Round, Cd. of Doc. in Trance, 291. 

 It belongs to c. 1 142, and explicitly grants the abbey 

 of Furness to Savigny. 



'° Engl. Hist. Rev. viii, 669. 



" Coucher, 8-9. 



under their new abbot, Richard of Bayeux, a 

 learned monk of Savigny, joined in the transfer 

 of their house to the Cistercian order.''' 



Although the authority of Savigny could not, 

 in the nature of things, last very long or retain 

 much force,'' the decision had important results. 

 The English abbey had to find its place in the 

 Cistercian ranks. A dispute, finally settled in 

 1232, arose with Waverley about the right of 

 precedence in the two orders.'* As the middle 

 ages wore on, our scanty authorities seem to 

 show that Furness maintained the high position 

 which it then secured." But the event of most 

 immediate importance to Furness was the loss of 

 all possible influence at Byland. The story of 

 the first colony at Calder, of its failure, repulse 

 at Furness, and settlement at Byland must be 

 sought elsewhere. The prosperity of the new 

 abbey caused the older to claim superiority. 

 The claim was disregarded, and Furness was 

 rejected in favour of Savigny. A general council 

 deputed the case to Ailred of Rievaulx, who called 

 a large assembly of abbots and monks. The 

 immediate tie between Savigny and Byland was 

 confirmed.'^ 



Meanwhile the abbey passed through troublous 

 times in the north. In the days of King Stephen 



" Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, vi, 420-2 ; see also 

 Coucher, 9. The date is about 1 150. 



" The abbot of Savigny appears as mediator {c. 

 1208) in the dispute between Furness and Conishead 

 {Lanes. Pipe R. 362), but after the twelfth century 

 very little is heard of him. Mr. St. John Hope 

 thinks he can identify ' the original camera for the 

 father abbot of Savigny, or his deputy, when he held 

 his annual visitation of the abbey ' {Abbey of St. Mary 

 in Furnesi, 68), but as this is marked ' early fifteenth 

 century ' on the plan, the suggestion is not very 

 probable. 



" Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 311 ; Engl. Hist. Rev. 

 viii, 641-2. The precedence of Waverley was main- 

 tained in general chapters of the order of Citeaux and 

 in the order of Savigny abroad ; the abbot of Furness 

 was to have ' prioratum in tola generatione Elemosinae 

 in Anglia et in generatione Saviniaci in Anglia tantum.' 

 The general position of the Savigniac houses, retro- 

 spective and independent in its nature, is defined in 

 Maurique, Ann. Cistercienses, ii, 104 ; A. du Moustier, 

 Neustria Pia, 684 (cf. Gir. Camb. Opera (Rolls Ser.), iv, 

 114; Hist, de France, xiv, 5 18). When Boniface IX 

 exempted the Cistercians in England from the juris- 

 diction of the anti-papal abbot of Citeaux, he addressed 

 the abbots of Furness and Waverley ; Cal. Pap. 

 Letters, v, 358. 



" In the fifteenth century the abbots of Fountains 

 and Byland were visitors in the province of York ; 

 Foed. O. xi, 93. On the other hand, the abbot of 

 Furness was one of the presidents at the general 

 council of Combe in 1407 (Beck, Ann. Fum. 95) and 

 visited Whalley in 1 41 8 as reformator of the order 

 (ibid. 289). Again, in 1441 the abbots of Furness 

 and other Cistercian abbeys appear as orators of the 

 order, Proc. ofP.C. v, 151. 



'^ ^ourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, vi, ^2'i-i\. ; Dugdale, 

 Mon. V, 349-53- 



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