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Fountains Abbey: History
Fountains Abbey: Buildings
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The final years (1/6)
Marmaduke Huby was a hard act to follow at any time, but the changing political climate meant that his successor, William Thirsk, had to contend with additional problems. Amidst allegations of immorality and inability, he was eventually forced to resign from the abbacy, and was dismissed by the royal commissioners as an idiot and a fool.(123) However, there is little hard evidence to support this perception of William. He had a university education, having attained both a bachelor's degree and doctorate in theology at the Cistercian college of St Bernard’s, in Oxford, and his contemporaries noted his learning. The abbots of Rievaulx and Roche both spoke highly of him, and the fact that William commissioned the abbey’s lease book suggests that he was an able and interested administrator, and that he conducted the duties required of him.(124) Yet, in 1536 Abbot William was accused of immorality and inadequacy, and forced to resign from office. It now seems that this indictment of Thirsk was the work of an opposing faction, a party that sought his removal and thus blackened his character, leaving a distorted perception of the man and his abbacy. |