The Lord blessed them and they advanced
from poverty to great opulence,
under father Roger, a man of singular integrity, who still survives in a
fruitful old age having nearly completed the fifty-seventh year of
administration.
[William of Newburgh, twelfth-century Augustinian Canon]
A cantankerous monk
One rather colourful recruit was Wimund, the former bishop of the Isle
of Man, who retired to Byland after he had been blinded and castrated
by his enemies. There, he related his tales to those who would listen
and vowed that had he only the eye of a sparrow he would wreak vengeance
on his enemies.
[Read the full story of
this ‘fisher turned hunter’,
who was blinded and castrated by his enemies]
The twelfth century was
an unsettling time for the monks of Byland, who occupied no fewer than five
sites and, with the absorption of the Savigniac
order within
the Cistercian family, underwent a change of identity. The lengthy and successful
abbacy of Roger brought stability
to the community in this uncertain period. Roger, who had formerly officiated
as sub-cellarer and master of
the novices,
presided over the monks for more than fifty years.(25) He
led the community to Old Byland, Stocking and New Byland, oversaw its transition
to
the Cistercian way
of life, and drew benefactors and recruits. Furthermore, he initiated the construction
of the new monastery at Byland, as well as the substantial temporary buildings
at Stocking, where the monks remained for thirty years. The church at Byland
was, in fact, the largest in the country at this time, and has been described
as one of the most ambitious Cistercian churches in twelfth-century Europe.(26)
Greed and ambition
There were many who condemned, rather than admired, the Cistercians’ rapid
accumulation of lands. Two of their harshest critics were the satirists
Gerald of Wales and Walter Map, who maintained that the monks of Byland
hatched a violent plan to secure the estate of their knightly neighbour. Read moreabout their ambitious
scheme
Roger also developed a solid economic framework
by attracting patronage and thereby expanding the community’s
holdings. Donors at this time included William, son of Osbert of
Denby. He granted the monks twenty-four acres of
land in Pilatecroft,
Denby, with common pasture for 200 sheep, twenty beasts and two horses, as
well as the right to freely dig the iron ore in Claverlay. In return for
his generosity
William expected prayers for his soul and the annual payment of three shillings.(27) Byland
received a number of grants from relatives and tenants of its patron,
Roger de Mowbray,
and from other great men such as William de Percy.(28) This
period of accumulation was also a time of hardship. When Roger
de Mowbray,
left on
Crusade in 1147, the Stuteville family saw an opportunity to reclaim lands
of theirs
that had passed to Roger and which he, in turn, had given to Byland. Roger
rose to the defence of his community, and instructed his officials to protect
the
monks and their land ‘as if it were their own.’ (29)
[Read more about Byland’s lands
and resources]