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Kirkstall from the late twelfth century to the mid-thirteenth century (2/7)
Turgisius (c. 1196), the fourth abbot of Kirkstall, was renowned for his uncompromising discipline. He always wore a hair-shirt and even in the depths of winter wore only the minimum clothing, namely, a hood and tunic, with nothing on his feet. Whilst the other monks stood frozen at Vigils wearing two layers, the abbot seemed unaffected by the cold. Turgisius was also noted for his continual weeping – a sign of deep contrition and thus a mark of great piety. The abbot was wont to stand before the altar with tears streaming down his face, so that it seemed to onlookers that he was raining tears; his garments were so sodden that, as the author of the Foundation History notes, no other might have worn them.(12) In 1196 Turgisius officiated as papal legate and visited the canons of Guisborough, to settle a dispute that had arisen between them and the monks of St Mary’s, York.(13) Turgisius was succeeded by Helias, a former monk of Roche who was an astute and energetic administrator, ‘fully practised in dealing with outside affairs’. Helias did much to consolidate and conserve the abbey’s properties and, of greatest significance, negotiated the return of the community’s grange at Micklethwaite.(14) Little is known of the abbey’s fortunes from the accession of Robert of Newcastle at the beginning of the thirteenth century, until the abbey’s financial plight in the late thirteenth century, but a few general remarks can be made. In common with other Cistercian houses in the country Kirkstall was increasingly caught up in litigation relating to the administration of its lands and in business pertaining to the Order, such as regular attendance at the General Chapter at Cîteaux and arbitrating in disputes that had arisen between other Cistercian houses.(15) The Kirkstall community was also affected by national developments, and the abbot was amongst those summoned to attend Simon de Montfort’s Parliament in London in 1265. |
