1. William of Newburgh, A History of English Affairs by William
the Small, Canon of Newburgh Book I, ed and tr. P. G. Walsh
and M. J. Kennedy (1988), ch. XIV, pp. 74-5.
2. Four of the five volumes of the fifteenth-century chartulary survive - volumes
I,II and III are now in the British Library, volume V is in the John Rylands
Library, Manchester. For a printed edition, see Abstracts of the Chartulary
of Fountains and other Documents contained in the Chartulary of the Cistercian
Abbey
of Fountains, ed. W. T. Lancaster, 2 vols. (Leeds, 1915). Other charters are
preserved in the British Library, the West Yorkshire Archives, the Bodleian Library,
Oxford, and in private holdings. The Coucher Book of Fountains contains Latin
abstracts of 3382 charters relating to the abbey’s estates; this is a late
fourteenth-century compilation and the entries are arranged alphabetically.
3. The Narratio is printed in Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary
of Fountains I, ed. J. R. Walbran, Surtees Society 42 (1862), pp. 1-129;
for a translation,
see
A. W. Oxford, The Ruins of Fountains Abbey (London, 1910), appendix I, pp. 127-230.
All translations are from Oxford’s Ruins of Fountains. The earliest surviving
manuscript is dated to the fifteenth-century and is now in Trinity College Cambridge
(Gale MS 1104).
4. The Bursar’s Book is transcribed in the Memorials of Fountains III,
pp.
1-91; the President’s Book is in Memorials of Fountains I, pp.
130-153,
and the ‘Memorandum of Thomas Swynton’ in Memorials of Fountains III,
pp. 92- 255.
5. This has been published by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society – The
Fountains
Abbey Lease Book, ed. D. J. H. Michelmore, YAS Rec Series, 140 (1981).
6. See F. Ross, The Ruined Abbeys of Britain, 2 vols (London, 1880s), vol. I,
p.
31.
7. For the list of pensions, Monks, Friars and Nuns, ed. C. Cross and N. Vickers,
Yorkshire Arch. Soc. Rec Soc. 150 (Huddersfield, 1995), pp. 115-116; Memorials
of Fountains I, p. 301 (no. LXXXIV). For further information on surviving documents
preserved in the BL, the Bodleian, University College Oxford and the PRO, see
Memorials of Fountains II:I, pp. 86-93, and Michelmore’s introduction to
the Fountains Abbey Lease Book, pp. xx-xxiii.
8. All references to the foundation history [Narratio] refer to A . W. Oxford’s
translation printed as appendix I in his The Ruins of Fountains Abbey (London,
1910), pp. 127-230; this quote appears on p. 127.
9. This section is largely a summary of the recent assessment of the Narratio by
Elizabeth Freeman, who argues that the Fountains foundation history was to
be
read on several levels and incorporated several themes, see E. Freeman, Narratives
of a New Order: Cistercian historical writing in England, c. 1150-1220 (Turnhout,
2002), pp. 151-168. Key works on the Narratio, especially on its dating, are
Derek Baker’s ‘The genesis of English Cistercian chronicles: The
foundation of Fountains Abbey I’, Analecta Cisterciensia 25 (1969), pp.
14-41, and ‘The genesis of English Cistercian chronicles: The foundation
of Fountains Abbey II’, Analecta Cisterciensia 31 (1975), pp. 179-212.
10. See Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, p. 154, for a summary of
Derek Baker’s
argument in ‘The genesis of English Cistercian chronicles', and ‘The
genesis of English Cistercian chronicles'.
11. These seven letters are Archbishop Thurstan’s lengthy letter to Archbishop
William of Canterbury, which is included in full (Oxford, Ruins of Fountains,
pp. 137-163); Bernard of Clairvaux’s letters to Abbot Richard (Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, pp. 169-170); his two letters to Abbot Geoffrey of York (Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, pp. 171-175; 175-178); his letter to Archbishop Thurstan
(Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, pp. 170-171); a letter to Fountains’ community
upon the death of Abbot Richard; a letter to Henry Murdac, abbot of Vauclair,
regarding his mission to visit Fountains and oversee the election of a new abbot
.
12. Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, pp. 162-5.
13. For further discussion (of the second part), see Freeman, Narratives
of a
New
Order, pp. 162-165.
14. See Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, pp. 151-168, esp. 154-.
15. Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, esp. pp. 156-7.
16. William of Newburgh, A History of English Affairs by William the Small,
Canon
of Newburgh Book I, ed and tr. P. G. Walsh and M. J. Kennedy (1988), ch. XIV,
pp. 74-75.
17. Janet Burton has recently suggested that Thurstan’s letter should be
dated to c. 1140, in other words, that it was a later compilation, see Narratives
of
a New Order, p. 155. Thurstan’s letter, which is included in
the Narratio, survives also in two copies, one of which (a late twelfth-century
copy) is in Oxford,
Corpus Christi, MS 209.
18. For the most recent analysis of this, see Freeman, Narratives of a New
Orderand link to screen.
19. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in W.
Oxford,
The
Ruins of Fountains Abbey (London, 1910), appendix I, pp. 127-230, at p. 130.
20. See Thurstan’s letter, cited in the Narratio (Oxford, Ruins
of Fountains,
p. 143).
21. Thurstan’s account of Geoffrey and the reason he feared reform, see
his
letter to the archbishop of York, Narratio, pp. 137-163, at p. 140.
22. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 134.
23. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 132.
24. Thurstan’s letter to Archbishop William of Canterbury, which is incorporated
in the foundation history (Narratio), see ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio),
in Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, p. 158.
25. For a translation of this see Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, pp. 137-163. According
to Janet Burton, Thurstan’s letter was a later compilation, and should
be dated to c. 1140, see Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, p. 155.
26. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 136.
27. For a recent analysis of the identity of these thirteen monks – and
the
discrepancies amongst the manuscripts – see J. Rüffer, ‘The
thirteen monks who left St Mary’s, York’, Cistercian Studies
Quarterly35: 2 (2000), pp. 187-199.
28. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 164.
29. For a survey of Gervase’s abbacy and an edition of his confessions,
as well as an account of his life and death, see The Testament of Gervase
of
Louth
Park, ed. C. H. Talbot, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis, 7 (1951), pp. 32-45.
30. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 164. This is an allusion to Genesis III: 14.
31. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 165. In Saxon, ‘Skel’ meant ‘spring’.
32. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, appendix I, pp. 127-230, at p. 179.
33. This letter is included in the foundation history – Narratio (Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, pp. 169-170); and appears as no. 171 in the collection of
Bernard’s
letters, see The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux, ed. B. S. James (Stroud,
1998), no. 171 pp. 240-241.
34. R. Gilyard-Beer and G. Coppack, ‘Excavations at Fountains Abbey 1979-1980:
the early development of the monastery’, Archaeologia 108 (1986), pp. 147-188,
at p. 175.
35. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 178.
36. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 180.
37. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Ruins
of Fountains,
p. 182.
38. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, appendix I, pp. 127-230, at p. 186.
39. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 187.
40. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 190.
41. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, appendix I, pp. 127-230, at pp.191,
192.
42. ‘The foundation history of Fountain’ (Narratio), taken from St
Bernard’s
letter to the Fountains community, see Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, p. 198.
43. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 201.
44. Bernard’s letter to Henry, in ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio),
in Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, pp. 199-200, at p. 200.
45. For a summary of the building work that Henry undertook, see G. Coppack,
Fountains
Abbey (London, 1993), pp. 32-38.
46. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 206.
47. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 207.
48. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 207.
49. William of Newburgh, History of English Affairs Book I, ed. P. Walsh and
M.
Kennedy
(Warminster, 1988), ch. 17, pp. 82-3.
50. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, appendix I, pp. 127-230, at p. 210.
51. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 212.
52. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, pp. 211-212.
53. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 58.
54. For a summary of the building work undertaken by Richard, see Coppack, Fountains
Abbey, pp. 43-60.
55. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 231.
56. See J. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors 1132-1300 (Kalamazoo,
1987),
pp. 118-121, esp. p. 121.
57. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 62.
58. Clay, ‘Early abbots’, p. 19.
59. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, pp. 218-220.
60. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains,
pp. 218-220.
61. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains,
p. 223.
62. ‘The foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), Oxford, Ruins
of
Fountains, p. 223
63. Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, Latin text
with English notes and commentary, ed. C. Waddell (Brecht, 2002), 1192: 42 (p.
252).
64. Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, Latin text
with English notes and commentary, ed. C. Waddell (Brecht, 2002), 1199: 45 (p.
436).
65. Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, Latin text
with English notes and commentary, ed. C. Waddell (Brecht, 2002), 1200: 23 (p.
462).
See Waddell’s comments on the probable reason for this visit and sour relations
between Geoffrey and Ralph; see too statutes 1192: 26 and 1198: 46.
66. Cited in A. Rigg, A History of Anglo-Latin Literature 1066-1422 (Cambridge,
1992),
p. 136 – poem 28 (of 54) lines 5-6.
67. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, pp. 119-221.
68. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, pp. 158, 269.
69. See Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, pp. 16, 22-3.
70. Stephen of Lexington, Letters from Ireland 1228-9, tr. and intro. B. W. O’Dwyer
(Kalamazoo, 1982), letter 59, pp. 116-120. This was an order rather than a request,
and Brother S was threatened with suspension from the Divine Office should he
delay for more than three days.
71. Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, p. 227.
72. Jennings, Yorkshire Monasteries, p. 89.
73. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p. 17, n. 57; C. Graves, ‘The
economic activities of the Cistercians in England 128-1307’, Analecta Cisterciensia
13 (1957), pp. 3-62 at p. 40.
74. C. Madden, ‘Business monks, banker monks, bankrupt monks: the English
Cistercians
in the thirteenth century’, The Catholic History Review 49 (1963), pp.
341-364, at p. 353.
75. Letters from Ireland, ep. 8 (p. 27), 13 (p. 32), 65 (p. 129); 7 (p. 26).
76. See Stephen of Lexington’s letter to the abbot of Cîteaux, Letters
from Ireland, ep. 24 (pp. 55-61, at p. 58).
77. Oxford, Ruins of Fountains, pp. 229-230.
78. Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, p. 156.
79. G. Coppack, Fountains Abbey (London, 1993) p. 78.
80. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p. 24.
81. Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary of Fountains I, ed. J. R. Walbran, Surtees
Society 42 (1862), no. xxii, pp. 180-181; for the archbishop’s two previous
letters to Clairvaux, in 1290, see nos. xx and xxi.
82. Memorials of Fountains I, p. 143. Whereas in 1318 the abbot was to arm all
men between 20 and 60 years old, in 1321/22 the age was lowered to 16 years;
in 1322
he was also instructed to raise men to resist the earl of Lancaster and fellow
rebels who had besieged Tickhill Castle, near Roche Abbey in Maltby.
83. For a list of the prelates and nobles who were summoned to this meeting of
parliament,
see Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III 1264-8, pp. 84-7.
84. For these and other calls to parliament, see Memorials of Fountains I, p.
140.
85. Memorials of Fountains I, p. 138.
86. Memorials of Fountains I, p. 141.
87. Register Greenfield IV, Surtees Soc. 152 (1937), no. 2352 (p. 364). For further
details see vol. V, pp. xxxvii ff.
88. Register Greenfield V, Surtees Soc. 153 (1938), no. 2354 (pp. 1-5 at p. 1);
see
also p. xxxix.
89. For a detailed account of these, see E. F. Jacob, ‘The disputed election
at Fountains 1410-1416’, in Medieval Studies Presented to Rose Graham (Oxford,
1950), pp. 78-97; see Chronica Monasterii de Melsa I, ed. E. A. Bond (London,
1866), PAGE and Monastic Chancery Proceedings, ed. J. S. Purvis, YAS Rec. Ser.
LXXXVIII, no 80 (pp. 87-8).
90. Monastic Chancery Proceedings, ed. J. S. Purvis, Yorkshire Archaeological
Soc.
Rec. Ser. 88 (1934), no. 80 (pp. 87-88).
91. For an account of this disputed election and the litigation that followed,
see Chronica Monasterii de Melsa I, for an account of this, see pp. lxii-lxx;
III,
pp. 239-240, 258-271.
92. Cited in Jacob, ‘The disputed election’, pp. 81-2; for details
regarding
Swan, see pp. 80-1.
93. See Jacob, ‘The disputed election’, pp. 80 ff. The manuscript
is
now held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Arch. Seld. B.23.
94. For various documents relating to this feud, see Memorials of Fountains I,
pp.
208-214.
95. ‘Chronicle of the abbots’, printed as appendix II in Oxford,
Ruins of Fountains, p. 243.
96. Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary of Fountains I, ed. J. R. Walbran, Surtees
Society 42 (1862), p. 150; see D. Knowles, Religious Orders III (Cambridge, 1959),
p. 29.
97. Memorials of Fountains I, p. 150.
98. Documents relating to Downom’s expulsion from Fountains in 1449 are
printed
in Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux 1442-1521,
ed. C. H. Talbot, Camden Society Ser. 4 (London, 1967), no. 2 (pp. 22- 40). A
London physician, Henry Wells, was summoned to tend the ailing abbot, see Hammond
and Talbot, A Biographical Register of the Medical Practitioners in Medieval
England, pp 85-6; for Henry’s testimony, see Letters from the
English Abbots,
p. 30.
99. Cited in J. Fletcher, The Cistercians in Yorkshire (London, 1919), p. 92.
100. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary
of
FountainsIII, ed. J. T. Fowler, Surtees Society (1918), p. 56.
101. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of Fountains III, pp. 15, 25
(ink);
p. 67 (liquorice for the abbot); p. 49 (part payment for a pair of clavichords);
p. 14 (cart), p. 25 (soap for the abbot), p. 51 (walnuts); p. 52 (map of the
world).
102. E.g. see ‘Memorandum Book of Swinton’, Memorials of FountainsIII,
pp. 108, 110.
103. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of Fountains III, p. 51.
104. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of Fountains III, p. 13.
105. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of Fountains III, p. 51 (boots);
p. 25 (felt hat for the abbot), p. 67 (hat for Swinton).
106. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of Fountains III, pp. 85 (copes),
16 (cowls), 25 (silk), 85 (black fur).
107. ‘Bursar’s Book’, Memorials of Fountains III, p. 15 (oat
straw); ‘Memorandum
of Swinton’, pp, 167, 202 (rye and rushes).
108. ‘Memorandum of Swinton’, Memorials of Fountains III, p. 112.
109. Memorials of Fountains III, p. xiii.
110. This has been edited and printed by D. J. H. Michelmore for the Yorkshire
Archaeological Society, The Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. D. J. H. Michelmore,
YAS Record
Series, 140 (1981).
111. Fountains Lease Book, p. xxix; no. 276 (pp. 292-293).
112. Fountains Lease Book, p. xxix; no. 276 (pp. 292-293, at p. 292). Ellen’s
husband, Robert, was the keeper of the west gates.
113. Jennings, Yorkshire Monasteries, p. 108.
114. See Knowles, Religious Orders III, pp. 35-6 for further details.
115. C. H. Talbot, ‘Marmaduke Huby, abbot of Fountains 1495-1525’,
in
Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis XX (1964), pp.165-184, at p. 168.
116. Letters of English Abbots ep. 33 (pp. 86-88).
117. Talbot, ‘Marmaduke Huby’, p. 170.
118. Letters from the English Abbots, pp. 13-14; see letter 89.
119. This letter is printed in Talbot, ‘Marmaduke Huby’, p. 178,
and
also
in Letters from the English Abbots, ep. 125 (pp. 239-241).
120. See Knowles, Religious Orders III, p. 35.
121. W. St John Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, Yorkshire Arch. Journal XV
(1898-99),
pp. 269-402, at p. 314.
122. For an account of this and Huby’s letter to the abbot of Cîteaux
describing the event, see Talbot, ‘Marmaduke Huby’, pp. 183-4; Letters
from the English Abbots, ep.131 (pp. 258-260).
123. The earl’s letter is printed in Memorials of Fountains I, no. LXVII
(p.
252). For Layton and Legh’s letter to Cromwell accusing him of various
acts of misconduct, see no. LXXIV (pp. 265-267).
124. For his ability as an abbot, see Monks, Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth-Century
Yorkshire, ed. C. Cross and N. Vickers Yorkshire Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. 150 (Huddersfield,
1995), p. 117; Michelmore, The Fountains Abbey Lease Book, pp. xxx-xxxi.
125. Michelmore, The Lease Book of Fountains, p. xxxi.
126. Layton and Legh’s letter to Cromwell is printed in Memorials of
FountainsI, no. LXXIV (pp. 265-267).
127. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, p. 117. The document regarding
the
pension assigned to Thirsk is printed in Memorials of Fountains I, no. LXXIII
(p. 265).
128. The documentation regarding Thirsk’s treasonous behaviour is printed
in
Memorials of Fountains I, nos. LXXV (the minutes of the evidence against Thirsk
and others; pp. 168-174) and LXXVI (the examination of Thirsk; pp. 274-5).
129. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, p. 126. Robert, who had spent
some time as a Cistercian in Wales, had apparently declared that the commons
in Wales
had been ready to rise.
130. Monks, Friars and Nuns, ed. C. Cross and N. Vickers, Yorkshire Arch. Soc.
Rec.
Ser. 150 (Huddersfield, 1995), pp. 118-126.
131. For these figures, see R. N. Hadcock and D. Knowles, Medieval Religious
Houses:
England and Wales (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 108, 80, 66, 82.
132. G. Coppack, Fountains Abbey (London, 1993), p. 131. The inventory is printed
in Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary of Fountains I, ed. J. R. Walbran, Surtees
Society 42 (1862), no. LXXXII (pp. 288-296).
133. For Henry VIII’s plans to make Fountains the site of a new bishopric,
see
Memorials of Fountains I, no. LXXXVI (pp. 304-306.)
134. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 130.
135. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 131.
136. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 129.
137. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, p. 116.
138. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, pp. 120, 122-128.
139. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, p. 124.
140. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, pp. 116, 124.
141. The first permanent community settled in 1212; an earlier attempt to establish
a community here had been attempted in 1204.
142. ‘Foundation history of Fountains’ (Narratio), in A. W. Oxford,
Ruins
of Fountains (Oxford, 1910), p. 187.]
143. This episode is related in chapter XIII of his life, summarised in W. Williams, ‘Saint
Robert of Newminster’, Downside Review 58 (1939), pp. 137-149 at p. 148.
144. This is taken from A. W. Oxford’s translation in his The Ruins
of
Fountains(London, 1910), pp. 137-163.
