The Art and Architecture of the Cistercians in Northern England, C.1300-1540 [1° ed.] 2503581935, 9782503581934

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The Art and Architecture of the Cistercians in Northern England, c. 1300–1540

MEDIEVAL MONASTIC STUDIES General Editors Janet Burton, University of Wales Trinity Saint David Karen Stöber, Universitat de Lleida Editorial Board Frances Andrews, University of St Andrews David Austin, University of Wales Trinity Saint David Edel Bhreathnach, Discovery Programme, Dublin Guido Cariboni, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano Megan Cassidy-Welch, Monash University James Clark, University of Exeter Albrecht Diem, Syracuse University Marilyn Dunn, University of Glasgow Sarah Foot, Oxford University, Christ Church Paul Freedman, Yale University Alexis Grélois, Université de Rouen Martin Heale, University of Liverpool Emilia Jamroziak, University of Leeds Kurt Villads Jensen, Syddansk Universitet William Chester Jordan, Princeton University József Laszlovszky, Central European University Budapest Julian Luxford, University of St Andrews Colmán Ó Clabaigh, Glenstal Abbey Tadhg O’Keeffe, University College Dublin Jens Röhrkasten, University of Birmingham Antonio Sennis, University College London Orri Vésteinsson, University of Iceland

Volume 3

The Art and Architecture of the Cistercians in Northern England, c. 1300–1540

by

Michael Carter

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

© 2019, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2019/0095/12 ISBN: 978-2-503-58193-4 e-ISBN: 978-2-503-58194-1 DOI: 10.1484/M.MMS-EB.5.116176 ISSN: 2565-8697 e-ISSN: 2565-9758 Printed on acid-free paper

Rita Maria Carter 13 July 1936 – 18 January 2013

RIP

Contents

List of Illustrations Colour Plates

ix xvii

Acknowledgements xxv Abbreviations xxvii Introduction. Debates and Definitions Chapter 1. The Evidence

xxix 1

Chapter 2. Patronage

47

Chapter 3. Art, Architecture, and Religious Identity

91

Chapter 4. Death and Commemoration

141

Chapter 5. The Art and Architecture of Cistercian Nuns

203

Chapter 6. Suppression and Survival

251

Conclusion 269 Biblio­graphy

275

Index

311

List of Illustrations Plates Plate 1. Chasuble from Whalley Abbey, Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Burnley. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Plate 2. Chasuble from Jervaulx Abbey, V&A, London. c. 1531. . . . . . . . . . xviii Plate 3. Stained glass panels with the arms of Furness and Cîteaux, Great Urswick Parish Church. Fourteenth Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Plate 4. The illuminator John Stell depicted in the cartulary of Furness Abbey, London, BL, MS Additional 33244, fol. 2r. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx Plate 5. Renaissance style illuminations in the Breviary of Abbot Huby, Oxford, Christ Church, e. 8. 29. c. 1520. . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Plate 6. Abbot Dalton kneels before an image of the Virgin, illuminated miniature in the cartulary of Furness Abbey. TNA, DL Misc Books 3, fol. 7v. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxii Plate 7. The coat of arms of St Oswald as used by Fountains Abbey, London, College of Arms, MS Vincent 162, p. 167. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii Plate 8. Historiated initial, Esholt Priory Charter. 1485. Leeds, West Yorkshire Archive Service, ACC 3429. 1485. . . . . . . . . . . . xxiv

Maps Map 1. Cistercian abbeys in northern England. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxviii Map 2. Cistercian nunneries in northern England. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix

x

list of illustrations

Figures Figure 1.1. Fountains Abbey. Mid-twelfth to early sixteenth centuries. . . . . . . . 2 Figure 1.2. Byland Abbey, west front. Late twelfth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Figure 1.3. Furness Abbey, ruins of nave and crossing. Late twelfth to fifteenth centuries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Figure 1.4. Kirkstall Abbey, presbytery. Late twelfth century with fifteenth-century fenestration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Figure 1.5. Rievaulx Abbey, presbytery. Early thirteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Figure 1.6. Holm Cultram Abbey, church. Twelfth to sixteenth centuries. . . . 6 Figure 1.7. Whalley Parish Church, choir stalls from Whalley Abbey. Fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Figure 1.8. Aysgarth Parish Church, screen from Jervaulx Abbey. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Figure 1.9. Title page of a missal printed in 1516 from a Yorkshire Cistercian abbey. Private collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Figure 1.10. Sawley Abbey, plan of the church as rebuilt in the fourteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Figure 1.11. Fragments of the pulpitum screen, Rievaulx Abbey. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Figure 1.12. The late medi­eval sedilia, Roche Abbey. Late fourteenth/early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Figure 1.13. The sedilia, Furness Abbey. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Figure 1.14. Sedilia, Kirkstall Abbey with evidence of late medi­eval modifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Figure 1.15. Crossing tower, Calder Abbey. Early thirteenth century. . . . . . . . 16 Figure 1.16. Bell tower of Abbot Huby, Fountains Abbey. Early sixteenth century, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Figure 1.17. Western bell tower, Furness Abbey. Early sixteenth century. . . . . 19

list of illustrations

xi

Figure 1.18. Kirkstall Abbey, church with early sixteenth-century additions to the bell tower and other contemporary works. . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Figure 1.19. West range, Whalley Abbey. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . 21 Figure 1.20. Outer gatehouse, Whalley Abbey. Early fourteenth century. . . . 22 Figure 1.21. Inner gatehouse, Whalley Abbey. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . 23 Figure 1.22. Stained-glass angel from Furness Abbey. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Figure 1.23. Alabaster panels from Fountains Abbey, now at the Yorkshire Museum. Fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Figure 1.24. Screen from Sawley Abbey sculpted with the Annunciation to the Virgin, now at Mitton Parish Church. Mid-fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Figure 1.25. Limestone panel sculpted with the Annunciation to the Virgin, Rievaulx Abbey, c. 1500. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Figure 1.26. Ex situ limestone panel sculpted with the Annunciation to the Virgin from Fountains Abbey. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Figure 1.27. Porch at the front of Holm Cultram Abbey. 1507. . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Figure 1.28. Signet ring traditionally identified as that of Abbot Huby, English Heritage Museum, Fountains Abbey Mill. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Figure 1.29. Engraving of the east range of Whalley Abbey by James Basire after a drawing by J. M. W. Turner. 1801. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Figure 2.1. Rebus of Abbot John Darnton on an image console in the west front of Fountains Abbey. 1494. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Figure 2.2. Misericord decorated with the initials of Abbot William of Whalley, now at Whalley Parish Church. c. 1418–34. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Figure 2.3. Bench-end with the monogram ‘HM’, an unidentified abbot of Jervaulx. Aysgarth Parish Church. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . 56

xii

list of illustrations

Figure 2.4. Monogram of an unidentified abbot of Jervaulx on a screen from the abbey. Now at Aysgarth Parish Church. Late fifteenth century. . . . 57 Figure 2.5. Rebus of Abbot William Heslington of Jervaulx on a bench-end now at Aysgarth Parish Church. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . 57 Figure 2.6. Copper-gilt and enamel roundel with the arms of Abbot John Inkeley. Rievaulx Abbey Museum. 1449–63. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Figure 2.7. Sculpted motto and initials of Abbot Huby on the chapel of Bewerley Grange. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Figure 2.8. Piel Castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Figure 2.9. Dalton Castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Figure 2.10. Ex libris inscription of John Gilling, monk of Byland, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 842, fol. 1r. 1477. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Figure 2.11. Seal of Abbot Richard Gower of Jervaulx, c. 1410. London, TNA E329/138. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Figure 2.12. Fountains Abbey, Chapel of the Nine Altars, sculpture of a mitred abbot, probably John Darnton. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . 71 Figure 2.13. Limestone panel sculpted with the rebus of Abbot Marmaduke Huby and incorporating a jewelled mitre. English Heritage Museum, Fountains Abbey. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . 72 Figure 2.14. Cartulary of Furness Abbey, ‘portrait’ of Alicia de Staneley, BL, MS Add. 33244, fol. 120r. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . 78 Figure 2.15. Sculpted arms, probably those of the see of York, on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Figure 2.16. Arms of Norton on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Figure 2.17. Engraving of ex situ stonework sculpted with the arms of Percy at Sawley ­Abbey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

list of illustrations

xiii

Figure 3.1. Unfinished western tower at Bolton Priory. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Figure 3.2. Western tower at Shap Abbey. Late fifteenth to early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Figure 3.3. Inscriptions on the upper storeys of Huby’s tower at Fountains. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Figure 3.4. Plan of the church at Fountains Abbey showing its liturgical arrangement in c. 1500. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Figure 3.5. An oak panel, probably from Whalley Abbey, sculpted with the Sacred Monogram. London, V&A W.10-1936. Mid-fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Figure 3.6. Dalmatic from Whalley Abbey, with an orphrey decorated with scenes from the life of the Virgin. Glasgow, Burrell Collection, mus n. 29.2. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . 108 Figure 3.7. Seal of Fountains Abbey. 1410. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Figure 3.8. Image niche above the entrance of the capella ad portas at Furness Abbey. Fourteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Figure 3.9. Sculpture of the Virgin and Child from Holm Cultram. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Figure 3.10. Nottingham alabaster Our Lady of Pity. London, V&A.  Fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Figure 3.11. Fragmentary Annunciation to the Virgin on the gatehouse of Kingswood Abbey. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Figure 3.12. Inscription from the shrine of Abbot William. Fourteenth century (?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Figure 3.13. Life of Aelred in Nova legenda Angliae, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde, 1516. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Figure 3.14. Image of a female martyr, probably St Katherine, on Huby’s tower at Fountains. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

xiv

list of illustrations

Figure 3.15. Image of St James the Great on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Figure 3.16. Image of St James in the Chapel of the Nine Altars. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Figure 3.17. Image of an abbot, probably St Bernard, on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Figure 3.18. Image console and associated inscription in the north transept of the church at Fountains recording the dedication of an altar to St Michael. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . 125 Figure 3.19. Inscription recording Huby’s patronage and naming SS Cuthbert and Oswald at Winksley Parish Church. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Figure 3.20. Coat of arms of Fountains Abbey, Ripon Minster, north aisle of the nave. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Figure 3.21. Feast of St William of York on 8 June added to the calendar of a missal printed in 1516 from a Yorkshire Cistercian Abbey. . . . . . . . . 132 Figure 3.22. James Cole’s engraving of the west front of Holm Cultram. Early eighteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Figure 3.23. Early sixteenth-century sculpted eagle re-set on the west gable of Holm Cultram Abbey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Figure 4.1. Chapter house at Fountains Abbey, with early abbatial monuments at its east end. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Figure 4.2. Chapter house at Rievaulx Abbey. Abbatial monuments are clustered near the apse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Figure 4.3. Abbatial monument in the chapter house of Byland Abbey. Thirteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Figure 4.4. Drawing of the monument of Abbot William Rydecar at Holm Cultram. c. 1458. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Figure 4.5. Monument of Abbot Robert Thornton of Jervaulx, now at Middleham Parish Church. c. 1533. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

list of illustrations

xv

Figure 4.6. Drawing of the monument of Abbot Thomas Burton of Meaux. c. 1437. From Poulson, Holderness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Figure 4.7. Drawing of a fragmentary abbatial monument, now in the south transept at Fountains Abbey. Early fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . 161 Figure 4.8. Drawing of a funerary slab with indents for looted brasses, choir of Fountains Abbey. Late fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Figure 4.9. Bishop Beckington and Archbishops Chichele and Cranley with their mitres elevated to reveal their doctoral caps. Oxford, New College, MS C. 288, fol. 4r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Figure 4.10. St Gregory the Great and St Ambrose depicted with raised mitres to reveal doctoral caps. Tracery lights, east window, Beverley Minster. Mid-fourteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Figure 4.11. Monument of Abbot John Barwick of Selby Abbey. c. 1529. . . . 170 Figure 4.12. Monument of Abbot Robert Chamber of Holm Cultram, now in the vestry at the abbey church. c. 1530. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Figure 4.13. Two side panels and central panel of Abbot Chamber’s tomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Figure 4.14. Brus Monument, Gisborough Priory, now at Guisborough Parish Church. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Figure 4.15. Drawing of the now lost monument of William Rymington, prior of Sawley. d. c. 1385. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Figure 4.16. Monuments in the galilee porch of Rievaulx Abbey. . . . . . . . . . . 188 Figure 4.17. Funerary monument from Fountains Abbey traditionally identified as that of Henry, Lord Percy (d. 1315), who was buried in the choir of Fountains. Early fourteenth century. . . . . 190 Figure 4.18. Chantry chapel, Roche Abbey, nave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Figure 4.19. Woodcut miniature of the Mass of St Gregory in a printed Cistercian missal, probably from Jervaulx Abbey. 1515. . . . . . . . 196

xvi

list of illustrations

Figure 4.20. Text of the Mass of St Gregory added to a printed missal from Kirkstall Abbey. Early sixteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . 198 Figure 4.21. Monument of Perwyn and Isobel of Doncaster in the nave of Roche Abbey. Fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Figure 5.1. Bell tower of Ellerton Priory. Fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Figure 5.2. Refectory range, Sinningthwaite Priory with fifteenth- or sixteenth-century fenestration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Figure 5.3. Psalter of Lady Elizabeth Vernon, San Marino, Huntington Library, MS EL9 H. 17, fol. 36r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Figure 5.4. Manu­script owned by Prioress Joan Wade of Swine. Fifteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Figure 5.5. Swine Priory, the nuns’ church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Figure 5.6. Engraving of Swine Priory Church. 1782. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Figure 5.7. Interior of Swine Priory Church, twelfth to early sixteenth centuries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Figure 5.8. Alabaster monuments at Swine. Late fourteenth to early fifteenth centuries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Figure 5.9. Late fourteenth-century misericord of the head of a man, Swine Priory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Figure 5.10. Female head on misericord at Swine Priory. Late fourteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Figure 5.11. Rood screen, Swine Priory. c. 1531. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Figure 5.12. Screen of the Hilton Chantry, Swine Priory. 1531. . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Figure 6.1. Screen inscribed with the initials of Abbot Adam Sedbar of Jervaulx, Aysgarth Parish Church. 1536. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Colour Plates

Plate 1. Chasuble from Whalley Abbey, Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Burnley. Early fifteenth century. Courtesy of Towneley Hall Art Galley and Museum.

xviii

COLOUR PLATES

Plate 2. Chasuble from Jervaulx Abbey, London, V&A 697-1902. c. 1531. Courtesy of the V&A.

COLOUR PLATES

Plate 3. Stained glass panels with the arms of Furness and Cîteaux, Great Urswick Parish Church. Fourteenth Century. Courtesy of Gordon Plumb.

xix

xx

COLOUR PLATES

Plate 4. The illuminator John Stell depicted in the cartulary of Furness Abbey, London, BL, MS Additional 33244, fol. 2r. Early fifteenth century. Reproduced with permission of the British Library.

COLOUR PLATES

xxi

Plate 5. Renaissance style illuminations in the Breviary of Abbot Huby, Oxford, Christ Church, e. 8. 29. c. 1520. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford.

xxii

COLOUR PLATES

Plate 6. Abbot Dalton kneels before an image of the Virgin, illuminated miniature in the cartulary of Fur­ness Abbey. TNA, DL Misc Books 3, fol. 7v. Early fifteenth century. Courtesy of TNA.

COLOUR PLATES

Plate 7. The coat of arms of St Oswald as used by Fountains Abbey, London, College of Arms, MS Vincent 162, p. 167. Early sixteenth century. Reproduced with permission of the College of Arms.

xxiii

xxiv

COLOUR PLATES

Plate 8. Historiated initial, Esholt Priory Charter. 1485. Leeds, West Yorkshire Archive Service, ACC 3429. 1485. Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service.

Acknowledgements

T

he past ten years spent researching the art and architecture of the Cis­ tercians have been among the happiest and most rewarding of my life. This is largely because I encountered kindness and generosity at every turn, and I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all those who assisted me. First and foremost, my thanks must go to Professor David Park who super­ vised the Courtauld PhD thesis on which this book is based. He was unfailing in his scholarly rigour, and was also a boundless source of knowledge, support, encouragement, and good humour. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to work under his supervision. I have profited greatly from the generous advice and comments provided by numerous scholars. Special mention must be made of Professor Tim Ayers, Dr Jessica Barker, Dr Alixe Bovey, Professor Janet Burton, John Cherry, Dr Glyn Coppack, Professor Claire Cross, Professor Paul Crossley, Professor Peter Fergusson, Dr  Elizabeth Freeman, Dr  Judy Frost, Dr Jana Gajdosova, Dr Alexandra Gajewski, Dr Maria Grasso, Dr David Griffith, Dr Stuart Harrison, Dr Martin Heale, Professor Emilia Jamroziak, Celia Jennings, Professor Terryl Kinder, Professor Julian Luxford, Dr Lesley Milner, Professor Christopher Norton, Dr Maeve O’Donnell-Morales, Dr Zoë Opačić, Gordon Plumb, Dr John Renner, Dr Mike Spence, Dr Jane Spooner, Dr  Karen Stöber, Professor Dale Townshend, Dr  Charles Tracy, Dr  Jayne Wackett†, Dr Paul Williamson, Professor Christopher Wilson, and Michaela Zöschg. Thanks must also be extended to my colleagues at English Heritage for their help and support, especially Dr Jeremy Ashbee, Polly Chiapetta, Dr Mark Douglas, Anna Eavis, Susan Harrison, and Roy Porter. Questions about the liturgy of the Cistercians were answered with great generosity by Fr Hilary Costello OCSO. Dr Gerrit Verhoeven and James Smithies must also be thanked for the assistance they provided with Latin translations, more than making up for what I had forgotten in the thirty-odd years since sitting my ‘O’ levels. I am also conscious of the debt I owe to the librarians, archivists, and

xxvi

Acknowledgements

curators whose assistance I called upon, and everyone at Brepols who so skilfully and efficiently guided this book through the publication process. A special debt of gratitude is owed to my partner, Steve Edwards, who stood by me through the highs and lows of my research and writing (and so much else besides), accompanied me (often in foul weather) on visits to monastic ruins across northern England and elsewhere, drew the maps illustrating this book and read with patience several of my research papers and draft chapters. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the unfailing support and love of my father, Neil, and also my mother, Rita, who sadly died four days before the examination of my PhD thesis. This book is dedicated to her memory.

Abbreviations

Chron. de Melsa Thomas de Burton, Chronica monasterii de Melsa: a funda­ tione usque ad annum 1396, auctore Thoma de Burton, abbate, ed. by Edward  A. Bond, Rolls Series, 43, 3  vols (London: Longmans, 1866–68) CPL

Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed.  by William  H. Bliss and others, 20  vols to date (London and Dublin: HMSO and Irish Historical Manu­scripts Commission, 1893–)

CPR

Calendar of Patent Rolls (London: HMSO, 1901–)

HRH

Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, ed. by David Knowles and others, 3 vols (Cam­bridge: Cam­bridge Uni­ver­ sity Press, 1972–2008)

Knowles, MO

Knowles, David, The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940–1216 (Cam­bridge: Cam­bridge Uni­ ver­sity Press, 1963)

Knowles, RO

Knowles, David, The Religious Orders in England, 3  vols (Cam­bridge: Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity Press, 1948–59)

L&P Henry VIII Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII (London: Longman and Green, HMSO, 1862– 1932) Monasticon

Dugdale, William, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. by John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Bulkeley Bandinel, 6 vols in 8 (Lon­ don: Longman, 1817–30)

Abbreviations

xxviii

Statuta

Statuta capitulorum ordinis Cisterciensis ab anno 1116 ad annum 1786, ed. by Joseph Canivez, 8 vols (Louvain-laNeuve: Revue d’histoire ecclèsiastique, 1933–41)

TNA

The National Archives, London

V&A

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Valor

Valor ecclesiasticus temp. Henr. VIII auctoritate regia institutus, v, ed. by John Caley (London: Great Britain Record Com­ mission, 1825)

VCH

Victoria Country History

Introduction

Debates and Definitions

I

n 1517, Abbot Marmaduke Huby of the Cistercian abbey of Fountains, Yorkshire, wrote to the General Chapter of his Order at Cîteaux requesting the renewal of his commission as reformer of the Order in northern England, maintaining that of all the regions of England, it was in the northern parts that the religion and ceremonies of his Order were especially well observed.1 Huby was a prolific patron and his assertion of the vitality of Cistercian monasticism in the northern counties of England provides an excellent starting point for The Art and Architecture of the Cistercians in Northern England, c. 1300–1540. This study is the first book-length, region-wide, systematic, cross-media examination of late medi­e val Cistercian art and architecture anywhere in Europe. It is especially timely given the increasing focus of historians and art historians on late medi­e val monasticism. Evidence will be amassed demonstrating that there was significant investment in art and architecture at Cistercian monasteries in the northern counties in the two centuries before the Suppression of the Monasteries in the late 1530s, and that this investment speaks of change and evolution rather than spiritual malaise and decay. I will argue that monastic observance was a major preoccupation of patrons and the enduring piety of the northern Cistercians found expression in art and architecture until the very end of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, I will also show that even though the Cistercians in northern England retained strong 1 

‘Plures utique Anglie patres, presertim borealium parcium, ubi religio et ordinis ceremonie convervantur’; Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, p. 244.

Introduction

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religious and regional identities, there was little that was truly distinctive in their art and architecture, much having parallels elsewhere in the region and also at Cistercian and other religious houses across England, indeed Europe. Before proceeding to an examination of the evidence, it is first necessary to explain and justify the context and parameters of this study while outlining its specific aims.

The Cistercians: A Case Study in Monastic Decline? The Cistercians were the most successful of the monastic reform movements which emerged in Western Europe in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries.2 There is a vast literature on the art and architecture of the Cis­tercians,3 which for the most part is concerned with the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.4 This was unquestionably a period of expansion and vigour for the famously austere Order. In contrast, the fourteenth century onwards has been widely viewed as an era of decline. The early Cistercians built their monasteries ‘far from the concourse of men’, rejected all forms of feudal income, and adopted a habit of unbleached white wool to symbolize their purity and poverty. The characteristic austerity of the Cistercians’ art and architecture in the twelfth century has been widely interpreted as an expression of their desire to return to the essentials of the Rule of St Benedict, which the Order’s founders believed was laxly observed in Benedictine and Cluniac houses. The Cistercians’ detailed twelfth- and early thirteenth-century regulations on art and architecture prohibited all forms of ostentation, including images (with the exception of a single painted crucifix), coloured and figurative window glass, and the possession of luxury altar plate and vestments.5 The reasons for the Cistercians’ austere approach are seemingly explained in the Apo­logia of St Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) and some of the Order’s early statutes. The Cistercians defined themselves by their quest 2 

Excellent recent histories of the Order are, Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages and Jamroziak, Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe. 3  For an overview of this literature, see Fergusson, ‘Cistercian Architecture’. 4  The classic work on the Order’s abbeys in twelfth-century England is Fergusson, Architecture of Solitude. 5  The Order’s regulations on such matters are handily summarized in ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton. For these decrees in their wider legislative context, see Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, ed. by Waddell.

Debates and Definitions

xxxi

for poverty and the contemplative life. Therefore all forms of decoration were superfluous to the monastic horarium as they would only distract the eye and excite the senses, diverting attention from prayer and the quest for the inner life. Similarly, as Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx between 1147–67, explained in the Speculum caritatis, grandiose churches were an abuse of money that should be spent on the poor.6 The Cistercians were a highly centralized order and adherence to their regulations on art and architecture was enforced by the annual meeting of the Order’s General Chapter, which all abbots were required to attend, and by the yearly visitation of each abbey undertaken by the abbot of its mother house.7 By c. 1300, the Cistercians had, according to the traditional narrative, lost their vigour. Pressure from patrons ‘forced the monastery doors wide open’, and the once austere churches became crowded with ornamental sculpture and the effigial monuments of benefactors.8 By and large, the perception is one of an Order in decline, betraying its ideals and infringing its rules, leading to ‘censorious outbursts’ by scholars.9 The harsh judgement of art historians is arguably best exemplified by Nikolaus Pevsner’s condemnation of the early sixteenth-century abbot’s house built by Abbot Thomas Chard (1501–39) at Forde Abbey, Dorset, as ‘being on a scale to justify the Dissolution and Reformation’.10 Pevsner’s comment is reflective of a wider English historio­graphical tradition dating back to the sixteenth century, which until recently has disparaged the monastic and religious orders of the late Middle Ages. For the most part, the art and architecture of the Cistercians in the late Middle Ages has either been neglected or derided. George Woodward’s meticulously researched 1956 PhD thesis on the Cistercians and Benedictines in early sixteenth-century Yorkshire was primarily concerned with the economic status of the monasteries and prosopo­graphy.11 It had nothing to say about art and architecture. Woodward’s 6 

Cistercians and Cluniacs, trans. by Casey, pp. 63–66; Aelred of Rievaulx, The Mirror of Charity, trans. by Connor, pp. 73–74. For a discussion of the reasons underlying the Cistercians’ approach to their architecture and possessions, see Talbot, ‘The Cistercian Attitude towards Art’, and Kinder, Cistercian Europe, pp. 141–61. 7  Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, pp. 82–95. 8  Coldstream, ‘Cistercian Architecture from Beaulieu to the Dissolution’, p. 157. 9  Coldstream, ‘The Mark of Eternity’, p. 35. 10  Newman and Pevsner, Dorset, p. 210. 11  Woodward, ‘The Benedictines and Cistercians in Yorkshire in the Sixteenth Century’, esp. pp. 1–10.

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thesis was written at the same time as the Benedictine monk and Cam­bridge historian Professor Dom David Knowles was publishing his monumental fourvolume history of the monastic and religious orders in medi­e val England. In terms of scope, this has never been surpassed and remains an indispensable resource to scholars.12 Knowles judged the orders, the Cistercians included, against the ideals and exacting standards set by their founders and against this yardstick found the monks and nuns of late medi­eval England sadly lacking.13 In a similar vein, the art and architecture of the Cistercians in the later Middle Ages has often been assessed in comparison to conditions prevailing in the twelfth century. This is a historio­graphical tradition which continues to have currency, a recent analysis of the Order’s liturgical objects unfavourably comparing the precious-metal candlesticks listed in a sixteenth-century inventory from Fountains with early Cistercian austerity.14 It can be questioned whether this is an appropriate way of judging the monastic and religious orders and their art and architecture in the late Middle Ages. As long ago as 1973 Barrie Dobson observed that fifteenth-century monasticism has been continually assessed by twelfth-century standards and also suggested that scholars of monasticism were entangled in a myth of general moral decline in late medi­eval England.15 A recent generation of scholars has followed Dobson’s lead and has attempted to free itself from this myth. James Clark has argued that conscious programmes of monastic reform provide strong grounds for regarding the two centuries after 1350 as a distinctive period in the history of the monastic and religious orders of medi­eval England.16 Emilia Jamroziak has argued persuasively that there was no crisis in the Cistercian Order in the late Middle Ages, instead assembling evidence for change and renewal.17 Indeed, over the past two decades or so numerous articles and mono­g raphs have been published which have sought to demonstrate the vibrancy of late medi­eval monasticism and its continued relevance to contemporary society.18 12 

Knowles, RO, and MO. Knowles concluded that although the Cistercians were not in ‘chaos or degradation’ at the end of the Middle Ages, they nevertheless ‘had no anchor in foul weather’; Knowles, RO, ii, 38–39. 14  Cazabonne, ‘Liturgical Life as Art’, p. 202. 15  Dobson, Durham Priory, p. 387. 16  Clark, ‘The Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England’, pp. 10–11. 17  Jamroziak, The Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe, esp. pp. 239–84. 18  Important studies include Heale, Monasticism in Late Medi­eval England, esp. pp. 1–74 and his Abbots and Priors of Late Medi­eval and Reformation England; Stöber, Late Medi­ eval Monasteries and their Patrons; and also the essays collected in Burton and Stöber, eds, 13 

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xxxiii

The reinterpretation of the art and architecture of the monastic orders in the late Middle Ages has arguably been led by Julian Luxford, who has published major studies on the Benedictines, Carthusians, and Augustinian canons.19 Luxford argued that patronage of art and architecture reflected the widespread and selfconscious pious commitment of Benedictine monks and nuns at the end of the Middle Ages.20 Cistercian art and architecture are also being reinterpreted. Their evolution, even from the earliest days, has also been acknowledged.21 The legislation has been looked at afresh. It has been demonstrated that this was not as monolithic as previously assumed, and that rather than being prescriptive, the decrees of the General Chapter were more in the nature of recommendations and that their application was often affected by local circumstances and the wishes of patrons.22 Terryl Kinder has shown that the opinions of abbots attending the General Chapter were not always unanimous, and their decrees were often capable of different interpretations.23 This is illustrated by the attitude of the English Cistercians to the construction of stone bell towers, which were prohibited by decree of the General Chapter in 1157. Despite this, low crossing towers were built in the late twelfth century at a number of English abbeys, including Fountains, Kirkstall, and in the early thirteenth century, at Rievaulx.24 The study of the Order’s architecture in the late Middle Ages is also gradually being brought in from the cold. Terryl Kinder has urged that developments in the late Middle Ages should be interpreted in the context of monastic reforms and wider changes in medi­eval Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages; the two volumes edited by Clark, The Religious Orders of Pre-Reformation England and The Culture of Medi­eval English Monasticism. 19  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries; ‘Texts and Images of Carthusian Foundation’; ‘A Fifteenth-Century Version of Matthew Paris’s Procession with Relic of the Holy Blood, and Evidence for its Carthusian Context’; and ‘The Idol of Origins’. 20  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 206–07. 21  Norton and Park, ‘Preface to the Paperback Edition’, p. xviii. 22  See especially the articles by Gajewski, ‘Burial, Cult and Construction of the Abbey Church at Clairvaux’, ‘The Patronage Question under Review’, and ‘Another Look at Cistercian Architecture’. Mention should also be made of the important reinterpretation of the legislation in Kinder, Cistercian Europe, esp. pp. 13–26 and Fergusson, ‘Cistercian Architecture’, p. 590. 23  Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p. 14. 24  For a discussion of these towers, see Fergusson, ‘Early Cistercian Churches in Yorkshire and the Problem of the Crossing Tower’; Harrison, ‘“I Lift up Mine Eyes”’; and Thurlby, ‘The Crossing of Fountains Abbey Church’.

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society, arguing that Cistercian monasteries were living monastic institutions, not cultural museums for the preservation of twelfth-century life.25 For Kinder, condemnations of changes in Cistercian monasticism in the late Middle Ages ‘fail to see that an institution may evolve without losing its vision’.26 Roger Stalley’s study of the architecture of Cistercian monasteries in Ireland includes a chapter showing a modest revival of the Order’s architecture in the fifteenth century.27 David Robinson has discussed ‘tantalizing clues’ in the poetry of the Welsh bards of a last flowering of Cistercian patronage in Wales at the very end of the Middle Ages.28 Glyn Coppack has suggested that the extensive re-planning of English Cistercian monasteries in the later period was undertaken by monks who remained conscious of their Cistercian identity, and that their buildings were remodelled to better serve the realities of their monastic vocation.29 Individual aspects of the art and architecture of the late medi­eval Cistercians have been the subject of learned articles, many of which have questioned the traditional narrative of decline and deviance from early ideals.30 Nevertheless, as Christopher Norton and David Park recently observed, there is no systematic published study of the art and architecture of the Cistercians in late medi­ eval England,31 a gap which this book seeks to address. As already stated, it is a regional study focusing on the houses of Cistercian monks and nuns in northern England, based in part on the regional model established by Julian Luxford in his study of patronage of art and architecture at Benedictine monasteries in western England from c. 1300 to the Suppression.32 Discussion will now proceed to precisely how northern England and the late Middle Ages are defined.

Northern England and the Cistercians The decision to focus on northern England can be justified on several fronts. It was a recognized geo­graphical entity in the late Middle Ages; it was a region 25 

Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p. 37. Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p. 25. 27  Stalley, Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland, pp. 113–28, 141–52. 28  Robinson, The Cistercians in Wales, pp. 142–43. 29  Coppack, ‘The Planning of Cistercian Monasteries in the Late Middle Ages’, p. 209. 30  See, for instance: Harrison, Morris, and Robinson, ‘A Fourteenth-Century Pulpitum Screen at Tintern Abbey’; Coomans, ‘From Flanders to Scotland’; and Smith, ‘Netley Abbey’. 31  Norton and Park, ‘Preface to the Paperback Edition’, p. xxxi. 32  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries. 26 

Debates and Definitions

xxxv

especially associated with Cistercian settlement; and by the fourteenth century, the Order had divided England into distinct northern and southern provinces. Late medi­e val England was a country with pronounced regional identities, which had their roots in the landscape, patterns of settlement, lordship, devotional practice, economics, and connections with the wider world.33 Some scholars have traced the beginnings of a northern consciousness back to the time of Bede (673–735), who distinguished his fellow Northumbrians as the ‘nation inhabiting the district north of the Humber’.34 His contemporary Eddius Stephanus, the bio­g rapher of St Wilfrid (d. 709), referred to ‘regular monastic life in all kingdoms on both sides of the Humber’.35 The differentiation of the north of England from the south persisted throughout the late Anglo-Saxon period and after the Conquest, and in 1215 the barons who rose against King John were described by contemporaries as ‘the Northerners’. This has a justification in fact, but was also intended to imply the barbarity of the insurgents.36 In 1327 one visitor to the region described the north as a ‘wild country, full of wastelands and great hills and very impoverished, save for livestock’.37 During the Wars of the Roses, northerners were characterized as violent and were feared.38 Northern England had a distinctive dialect; war with Scotland meant that the region was more militarized than southern parts of England; and the north was also more sparsely populated, less urbanized, and poorer. This has led to the suggestion that the dichotomy between the more ‘backward’ north and more ‘advanced’ south was at its most pronounced during the late Middle Ages.39 Other scholars have questioned, however, if the cultural, social, and economic differences between northern and southern England were in reality meaningful, and have shown how difficult it is to make generalizations about such a large, diverse, and ill-defined region.40 Geoffrey Dickens observed a will33 

Keene, ‘National and Regional Identities’, p. 50. Jewell, North–South Divide, pp. 28–29. 35  Jewell, North–South Divide, p. 29. 36  Holt, The Northerners, pp. 8–9. 37  King, ‘The Anglo-Scottish Marches and the Perception of “the North” in FifteenthCentury England’, p. 38. 38  King, ‘The Anglo-Scottish Marches and the Perception of “the North” in FifteenthCentury England’, p. 37. 39  Campbell, ‘North–South Dichotomies, 1066–1550’, pp. 161–67. 40  Pollard, North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, pp. 1–30 and Pollard, ‘The 34 

xxxvi

Introduction

ingness among scholars to invest the medi­eval north with a homogeneity which it never possessed.41 The far north may have been economically depressed, but this was not the case for the region around York, and the level of violence in the medi­e val north was nothing exceptional.42 The northern nobility and gentry had a military ethic that befitted their proximity to the border; but their political, social, and educational experiences were far from unique.43 Nor was the late medi­eval north in any sense ‘backward’ in terms of religion. On the contrary, the Christ-centric affective piety expressed in the works of Richard Rolle (d. 1349), who spent the final years of his life at the Cistercian nunnery of Hampole, Yorkshire, made a major contribution to shaping the religious landscape of late medi­eval England, as did the writings of other northern authors including William Rymington, prior of the Cistercian abbey of Sawley, Yorkshire, sometime chancellor of the university of Oxford, accomplished preacher, and prominent opponent of Lollardy, at the end of the fourteenth century.44 His works were clearly known at Cistercian monasteries. A surviving manu­script from nearby Whalley Abbey contains contemporary copies of two of Rymington’s sermons.45 Clerics of northern origin occupied influential positions at the royal court and within the English Church.46 The north also had a sustained pride in its religious identity. In 1536 much of the region rose in the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising which was largely motivated by the religious policies of Henry VIII, especially the assault on the monasteries. Dr John Pickering, prior of the Dominicans at York, urged the ‘faithful people of the Boreal [northern] region […] [to] boldly go forth in their peregrination’.47 The Cistercians made their own contributions to the shaping of the monastic and religious milieus of the late medi­e val north. Monastic life in the region had been extinguished by Viking attacks, but was restored after the Characteristics of the Fifteenth-Century North’, pp. 131–43. 41  Dickens, Lollards and Protestants, p. 4. 42  Pollard, ‘The Characteristics of the Fifteenth-Century North’, pp. 135–36. 43  Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, p. 10. 44  Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, pp. 1–2. 45  Paris, Sorbonne, MS 790, fols 105v–120r; O’Brien, ‘Two Sermons at York Synod of William Rymyngton’. 46  Grassi, ‘Royal Clerks from the Diocese of York’. 47  Quoted in Cross, ‘The Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Yorkshire Church in the Sixteenth Century’, p. 160.

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Conquest and expanded rapidly in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The devastation of the region made it especially receptive to settlement by the Cistercians.48 The Order arrived in northern England in 1132 with the foundation of Rievaulx Abbey, though they were preceded five years previously by Savigniac monks at Furness, north Lancashire, a community which within a generation was also Cistercian. By the end of the twelfth century, eight houses of Cistercian monks had been established in Yorkshire alone.49 At the end of the twelfth century, the monastic chronicler William of Newburgh (c. 1135– c. 1198) described the abbeys of Byland, Fountains, and Rievaulx as the ‘tria lumina’ (three lights) of religion in the north.50 From the moment of their foundation, these monasteries had a strong northern identity. Aelred of Rievaulx was the son of a married Anglo-Saxon priest of Hexham.51 Through Aelred and his predecessor, Abbot Maurice (1145–47), the Cistercians forged strong connections with the Benedictines at Durham and became part of the intellectual, literary, and cultural world focused on the city’s cathedral priory.52 As will be seen, a distinctly northern religious identity found expression in the art and architecture of the Cistercians until the very end of the Middle Ages. This begs the question, what were the boundaries of the north? The Trent was a recognized boundary between the north and the south in the late Middle Ages. Heraldically it divided the jurisdiction of the Norroy and Clarenceux Kings of Arms; administratively it was used to demarcate the royal forest and duchy of Lancaster into northern and southern parts, a divide which was adopted by some other great landowners.53 The Trent divide also had ecclesiastical significance, marking the boundary between the provinces of York and Canterbury. The creation of a northern ecclesiastical province based at York had been envisaged by Gregory the Great when he sent St Augustine 48 

Donkin, ‘The Cistercian Order and the Settlement of Northern England’, p. 403. Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 98–124. For the settlement of the Order in Britain overall, see Burton, ‘The Foundation of the British Cistercian Houses’. 50  Quoted in Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 11. 51  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 284. For Aelred’s origins and northern links and identity, see Squire, Aelred of Rievaulx, pp. 4–19. 52  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 287. For similarities between the decoration of books from Rievaulx dating from Maurice’s abbacy and contemporary Durham manu­script painting, see Lawrence, ‘English Cistercian Manu­scripts of the Twelfth Century’, p. 292. 53  Pollard, North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, p. 9. 49 

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Map 1. Cistercian abbeys in northern England. Drawn by Steve Edwards.

on his mission to evangelize the English.54 York became a metropolitan see in 735, which was to encompass the dioceses of York, as well as Durham, seat of a bishop from 995, and Carlisle, where a bishopric was created in 1133.55 Dobson called the ecclesiastical province of York ‘an enduring reflection of northern identity’.56 For the purposes of this study northern England will, with only minor variations, be defined as the northern ecclesiastical province, and therefore encompass the historic counties of Cumberland, Durham, northern Lancashire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Westmorland, and Yorkshire (the names and boundaries of these historic counties will be used in this book). The late medi­eval northern province was the home of thirteen Cistercian abbeys (Map 1): Byland, Calder, Fountains, Furness, Holm Cultram, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, 54 

Jewell, The North–South Divide, p. 152. Dobson, ‘The Northern Province in the Later Middle Ages’, p. 53. 56  Dobson, ‘Cathedral Chapters and Cathedral Cities’, p. 3. 55 

Debates and Definitions

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Map 2. Cistercian nunneries in northern England. Drawn by Steve Edwards.

Meaux, Newminster, Rievaulx, Roche, Rufford, and Sawley, all of which were founded in the twelfth century. Also within the ecclesiastical province of York were fifteen nunneries which at some point in the Middle Ages were recognized as Cistercian (Map 2): Arthington, Baysdale, Ellerton, Esholt, Hampole, Handale, Keldholme, Kirklees, Neasham, Newcastle, Nun Appleton, Rosedale, Sinningthwaite, Swine, and Wykeham; but as will be discussed in Chapter 5, these nunneries had a somewhat confused and fluid identity. The Cistercians had strong ties with the province of York throughout the Middle Ages. Rievaulx was established with the consent and encouragement of Archbishop Thurstan,57 who also provided protection to the dissident monks from St Mary’s Abbey, York, who went on to found Fountains.58 Henry Murdac, abbot of Fountains between 1143 and 1147, was himself raised to the archbishopric. In the later 57  For the foundation of Rievaulx, see Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 100–02; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 37–43. 58  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 103–06; Coppack, Fountains Abbey, pp. 19–21.

Introduction

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Middle Ages, Cistercian abbots were members of the Convocation of the Northern Clergy.59 Moreover, during the late Middle Ages the Cistercians divided the admin­ istration of their English abbeys into the ecclesiastical provinces of Canterbury and York. This division had first emerged as a consequence of the disruption caused by warfare between England and France in the mid-fourteenth century and by the Great Schism (1378–1409), which also caused a schism within the Order.60 Cîteaux and the Order’s monasteries in France adhered to Clement VII at Avignon, whereas England was loyal to Urban VI at Rome. The English Cistercian houses were therefore cut off from their mother house at Cîteaux, necessitating the development of their own administrative and disciplinary structures.61 The division of English abbeys into the two provinces of Canterbury and York continued to be employed until the Suppression, with each province having their own reformers, who were responsible for conducting visitations, as well as their own commissaries of the abbot of Cîteaux.62 The western boundary of the province of York was the River Ribble in northern Lancashire. Approximately five miles south of this border, and therefore in the province of Canterbury, was Whalley Abbey, founded in 1296 by the migration of the monks of Stanlow from their monastery on the banks of the Mersey in Cheshire.63 Even though Whalley was technically in the Canterbury province, there are good reasons for listing the monastery among the northern Cistercian houses. Whalley was certainly regarded as a northern abbey in the late Middle Ages. In 1328 the abbots of Cistercian monasteries north of the Trent, including the abbot of Whalley, were commanded to remain at home because of the danger posed by the Scots, rather than travel to the annual meeting of the General Chapter.64 The Cistercians themselves appear to have placed Whalley within the northern province. In 1375 its visitor was the abbot of 59 

Dobson, ‘The Northern Province in the Later Middle Ages’, p. 56. Graham, ‘The Great Schism and the English Monasteries of the Cistercian Order’, p. 373. 61  The most thorough analysis of the Cistercians’ late medi­eval administrative arrangements in England remains Graham, ‘The Great Schism and the English Monasteries of the Cistercian Order’; but see also, Knowles, RO, ii, 127 and Desmond, ‘The Statute of Carlisle and the Cistercians, 1298–1369’. 62  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, p. 8; Knowles, RO, ii, 128–29. 63  For the migration of the Stanlow community and the foundation of Whalley, see Ashmore, A Guide to Whalley Abbey, pp. 7–8. 64  Rotuli Scotiae, ed. by Macpherson, Caley, and Illingworth, i, 220. 60 

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Rievaulx,65 while in 1418 the abbots of Furness and Sawley conducted the visitation.66 The toponyms of many of the Whalley monks listed in the abbey’s register also leave little doubt about their northern origins.67 These toponyms are also an indication of how well integrated Whalley was within local society. The same applies for the other houses of Cistercian monks and nuns in the north.68 The research of Claire Cross and Christopher Haigh has shown the important place in northern society that monasteries occupied until the very end of the Middle Ages.69 With some justification Holm Cultram has been described as ‘a local monastery for local people’.70 There were also strong bonds between the northern Cistercian houses. All belonged to the filiation of Clairvaux. Moreover, a mother–daughter (or granddaughter) relationship existed between many of them.71 The bonds between the mother house and its daughters had been reinforced by annual visitations. By the later Middle Ages, rights of visitation had been vested with the nominated visitors for each province. Nevertheless, there is evidence of enduring contact and bonds of affection between the northern houses. For instance, the abbot of Newminster was informed of the election of new abbots of its daughter house Roche in 1465 and again in 1479.72 At the end of the fifteenth century, Newminster appears to have supplied Roche with its abbot, John Morpeth (1491–1503).73 It is also clear that the abbots of mother houses continued to take an interest in discipline at their daughters, even though this was technically no longer their responsibility. In 1485, the abbot of Fountains corresponded with Cîteaux regarding Thurston Watson, a monk of Kirkstall who ran away without permission and joined the Carthusians at Mount Grace.74 65 

Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 62. Whitaker, History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, pp. 42–43. 67  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, pp. 79–81. 68  Prosopo­g raphical research has shown that the Cistercians in northern England, like other monastic orders in the region, recruited their monks and nuns locally, often from their own estates; see Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns. 69  Cross, ‘Monasticism and Society in the Diocese of York’; Haigh, The Last Days of the Lancashire Monasteries and the Pilgrimage of Grace, pp. 4–20. 70  Jamroziak, ‘Holm Cultram Abbey’, p. 28. 71  Burton and Stalley, ‘Tables of Cistercian Affiliations’, pp. 396–97. 72  Aveling, History of Roche Abbey, pp. 60–63. 73  Newminster is in very close proximity to Morpeth; for this abbot, see HRH, iii, 327. 74  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 95–96. 66 

Introduction

xlii

The political situation in northern England, especially the frequent warfare with Scotland, had a profound impact economically and materially on many of the abbeys and nunneries discussed in this book. This was most marked in the early fourteenth century. In 1316 Scottish armies devastated the Furness peninsula and in 1318 Fountains was only spared destruction after the payment of a ransom, though many of the abbey’s granges were damaged and Ripon was at the very least pillaged.75 Further destruction occurred in 1322. In the autumn of that year Edward II established his base at Rievaulx. However, following the defeat of his army at the Battle of Byland on 14 October, he was forced to flee the monastery in haste, leaving behind his plate and treasure. These were seized by the Scots, who also pillaged the monastery, a contemporary annotation in a manu­script from the monastery recording how the raiders carried off books, chalices, and sacred ornaments.76 Another source notes that nearby Byland was also sacked.77 Holm Cultram Abbey, Cumberland, was plundered by the Bruce in 1322, even though his father was buried there.78 An annotation in a manu­ script from Newminster Abbey, Northumberland, documents the monastery’s sacking by a band of Scots on 15 July 1334, the marauders all killed at Berwick five days later.79 As late as 1527 Abbot Robert Chamber (1507–c. 1530) of Holm Cultram petitioned the Crown, requesting that the monastery should be excused the payment and collection of tithes as it was ‘often in great danger from the Scots’.80 Chamber had grounds for this petition as there were frequent Scottish incursions into the border zone. Even though the Scots penetrated no further south than the border area after 1388, a fear that the disasters of the early fourteenth century could be repeated nevertheless endured well into the late Middle Ages. This found architectural expression in the form of the tower houses and peels that were built as far south as the Richmond and Craven districts of Yorkshire. These houses were built for the most part between 1350 and 75 

Chronicle of Lanercost, trans. by Maxwell, pp. 216, 221; Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 335. For a sceptical analysis of the damage caused at Ripon by the Scots, see Werronen, ‘Ripon and the Scottish Raid, 1318–1322’. 76  London, Inner Temple, MS  511.2, fol.  58 r: ‘Et anno domini M oCCC oxxij Scoti dilapidauerent et destruxerunt atque asportauerunt libros, calices et sacra ornamenta monasterii de Ryevall in festo sancto Kalixti pape et martiris’. 77  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 346. 78  Chronicle of Lanercost, trans. by Maxwell, p. 237. 79  BL, MS Add. 25014, fol. 2v. 80  Gilbanks, Holm Cultram, p. 90.

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1500, and it had been suggested that they were designed to resist a renewal of invasion, not local disorders.81 However, the outlook and connections of the Cistercians in northern England were far from being limited to their immediate locality and region. Janet Burton, in her study of the monastic orders in Yorkshire between the Conquest and 1215, observed that the Cistercians in the county acted above and beyond political and ecclesiastical boundaries.82 This is as true for the late Middle Ages as it was for the earlier period. Abbot Huby corresponded with Henry VII and Cardinal Wolsey.83 Northern abbots travelled widely. Abbot Richard Gower of Jervaulx (1399–1425) was a delegate of the province of York at the Council of Pisa in 1409,84 and John Ripon of Fountains (c. 1410–35) represented the Order’s General Chapter at the Council of Constance in 1415.85 The correspondence of the English abbots to the General Chapter at Cîteaux indicates an enduring relationship with the mother house of the Order until the very end of the Middle Ages.86

The Late Middle Ages The chrono­logical period covered by this study is c. 1300 to 1540. The date c. 1300 has become an acknowledged beginning or end point for studies of monasticism in medi­eval England.87 Moreover, from the Cistercian perspective, there are historical and art historical justifications for selecting the beginning of the fourteenth century as the starting point. The codifications of Cistercian legislation approved by the General Chapter in 1289 and again in 1316 recognized that the Order’s attitude towards its art and architecture had evolved and therefore replaced earlier restrictions on images, the possession of luxury vest81 

Pollard, North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, p. 14. Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 180. 83  Knowles, RO, ii, 36. 84  CPL, vi, 159. 85  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 146. 86  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot. 87  See the explanation in Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, pp. 264–68. Works using these chrono­logical parameters include Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries; Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons; Heale, Monasticism in Late Medi­eval England and Heale, Abbots and Priors of Late Medi­eval and Reformation England. 82 

Introduction

xliv

ments, figurative window glass, manu­script painting, and the building of bell towers with a vaguely worded general clause forbidding ‘superfluae novitates et notabiles curiositates’ (superfluous innovations and significant curiosities).88 The impact of the Order’s changing attitude towards its art and architecture which was formalized in these legislative changes had become apparent by the beginning of the fourteenth century. As scholars have already observed, the full range of religious art would have been encountered in a Cistercian context by c. 1300.89 During the late Middle Ages the only decrees of the General Chapter of any significance to art and architecture were periodic prohibitions of ostentation in dress, the ownership of personal property by monks, and the division of dormitories into separate cubicles.90 The early fourteenth century was also a period of major reform for the Cistercian Order, indeed monasticism generally, to make it more relevant to the realities of the late medi­eval world.91 The fundamental evolution in Cistercian monasticism since its twelfth-century origins was recognized in the new constitution of the Order issued in 1335 by Pope Benedict XII (r. 1334–42), a former Cistercian abbot noted for his reforming credentials. 92 That contemporaries thought the Order badly in need of reform is suggested by the poem De mutacione mala ordinis Cistercii (On the Evil Change of the Cistercian Order). Possibly written by a Cistercian monk from an abbey near London, it dates to the fourteenth century and laments the decline of the Order and the disappearance of its former spirit and vigour.93 Reform came in the bull Fulgens sicut stella matutina, commonly known as the Benedictina. This overhauled the Order’s finances. The bull also relaxed the Order’s strictly vegetarian diet and allowed the eating of meat in certain circumstances. In addition, the constitution forbade the construction of separate cells for all but the most senior monks, prohibited private property, and issued instruction to encourage the 88 

For a discussion of the evolution of Cistercian legislation, see Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, pp.  4–8; for the codifications of 1286 and 1316, see ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, pp. 384, 388. 89  Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, p. 8. 90  Statuta, v, 54, 75, 149, 239. For a discussion of the construction of private chambers in dormitories and infirmaries, see Bell, ‘Chambers, Cells and Cubicles’. 91  McDonald, ‘The Papacy and Monastic Observance in the Later Middle Ages’, p. 117. 92  Mahn, Le pape Benoît XII et les Cisterciens. 93  BL, Cotton Julius A VII, fols  88 v–90 r; transcribed in Meyer, ‘Zwei Gedichte zur Geschichte des Cistercienser Ordens’, pp. 402–05. I am most grateful to Professor Julian Luxford for this reference.

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xlv

university education of monks.94 The Benedictina was ratified at the meeting of the Cistercian General Chapter in 1335 (which was attended by Abbot Robert Topcliffe of Whalley (1323–42)) and was read at all of its subsequent meetings.95 Cistercian visitors in the late Middle Ages, including those of Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire, in 1481 enquired whether its clauses were adhered to.96 The early fourteenth century also witnessed the near-extinction of the lay brotherhood.97 The largely illiterate lay brotherhood had been a defining characteristic of Cistercian monasticism in the Order’s early centuries and their labour enabled the Order to remain separate from the feudal economy.98 The situation at Meaux Abbey, Yorkshire, was typical. In the mid-thirteenth century there had been ninety lay brothers, but on the eve of the Black Death there were only seven, and by the end of the fourteenth century there were none at all.99 Their disappearance meant, as will be discussed in Chapter 1, that the vast west ranges built for their accommodation became redundant and could be put to other purposes, their demise also having implications for the liturgical arrangement of Cistercian churches. The decline of the lay brotherhood was accompanied by significant changes in the Order’s land management, with their extensive estates now usually leased to tenants. Between 1336 and 1362 Fountains made manors of at least eleven of its granges that had been ruined by the Scots, and in 1342 Jervaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, leased four of its great granges, a situation replicated at Rievaulx.100 Cistercian life in northern England was brought to a permanent end between 1536 and 1540 as a consequence of the Suppression of the Monasteries, a cataclysmic event that provides a logical endpoint for this study. 94 

For a summary of its provisions, see McNulty, ‘Constitutions for the Reform of the Cistercian Order, 1335’. For discussions of its significance, see Lekai, Cistercians: Ideals and Reality, pp. 72–74; McDonald, ‘The Papacy and Monastic Observance in the Later Middle Ages’, pp. 117–32; Kinder, Cistercian Europe, pp. 273–74. 95  McNulty, ‘Constitutions for the Reform of the Cistercian Order, 1335’, p. 158. 96  Rufford Charters, ed. by Holdsworth, iii, 555–61. In 1478 the visitors of Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, also enquired about adherence to the Benedictina; see Harper-Bill, ‘Cistercian Visitation’, p. 105. 97  For general overviews, see Donnelly, Decline of the Cistercian Lay Brotherhood, and France, Separate but Equal, pp. 300–22; for the situation in England, see Knowles, RO, ii, 126. 98  Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, pp. 149–60. 99  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 65; iii, 36. 100  Donkin, The Cistercians, p. 127. See also, Burton, ‘The Estates and Economy of Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire’.

xlvi

Introduction

Aims and Structure Until recently, the historio­graphical tradition established at the Reformation coloured perceptions of the late medi­e val English Church, especially the monasteries. In many respects, the Cistercians provided the textbook example of monastic decline and decadence at the end of the Middle Ages. At a very basic level, therefore, this book intends to show that study of the art and architecture of the late medi­e val Cistercians can be rewarding, that there was substantial investment in the buildings and material possessions of the Cistercians, and that rich and often overlooked or misinterpreted sources are available for research. More specifically, it is hoped that the findings of this study will provide insights into the vitality of Cistercian monasticism at the end of the Middle Ages, and whether the Order’s art and architecture expressed a discernible religious identity. It is also intended that the evidence and arguments assembled here will make a contribution, from an art historical perspective, to current historical controversies concerning the vitality or otherwise of the monastic and religious orders in late medi­eval England. Hopefully it will also inspire similar studies of the Order’s art and architecture in other regions of England and elsewhere in Europe. The comparative evidence cited from monasteries beyond the geo­ graphical parameters of this book will indeed hint at the material available for such studies. Like Luxford’s study of Benedictine art and architecture in western England, it is hoped that this book will provide a model capable of wider application. These questions will be addressed over six chapters. The first four concern the male houses, examining in turn, the sources, patronage, how the spirituality of the late medi­eval Cistercians found expression in the buildings and possessions of their abbeys, and finally the art and architecture of death and commemoration. Attention then turns to the nunneries. Considering them separately can be justified by their often far from fixed identities, a question which will be considered in greater detail. Moreover, none of the nunneries in northern England were ever admitted to the Order and only at the end of the Middle Ages did Cistercian abbots in the region show any interest in their spiritual well-being. Although numerous, the material and documentary evidence for the nunneries is slight in comparison to the abbeys. This chapter will consider questions of patronage, showing that the art and architecture of these poor priories was largely funded by external patrons, many of whom had close personal links with the houses they supported. The visual and material evidence for the spirituality of northern nuns will also be discussed. The final chapter on the traumatic events of the late 1530s, which permanently extinguished organized

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Cistercian monasticism in northern England, brings discussion of the abbeys and nunneries together. It considers evidence for sustained patronage into the early sixteenth century, the process of destruction, and the efforts made by individual religious and their gentry benefactors to salvage possessions from the wrecked monasteries.

Chapter 1

The Evidence

I

n 1296 the monks of Stanlow Abbey, Cheshire, migrated to their new home at Whalley, Lancashire, completing the Cistercian settlement of northern England. As the Introduction to this book showed, the foundation of Whalley occurred at a time of considerable administrative, artistic, and economic change for the Order. In this chapter I will provide a comprehensive overview of the material, documentary, and archaeo­logical evidence elucidating the impact of these developments on the art and architecture of Cistercian abbeys in the northern counties. The chapter will first explore the planning and architectural development of the buildings within the claustral complex and monastic precincts of the northern monasteries, and also at their granges, urban properties, and appropriated churches. As the discussion aims to show, there were substantial building works at even the smallest and poorest of the northern monasteries, as the monks renovated, repaired, and repurposed the fabric of their abbeys to suit their evolving religious, domestic, and economic needs. Attention will then focus on other aspects of the material evidence including sculpture, vestments, and manu­scripts, which leave little doubt that the full range of religious art was present in Cistercian monasteries. Evidence demonstrating that Cistercian monks were both producers and consumers of artworks, some of very high quality, will also be discussed. This will be followed by an analysis of the evidence pertaining to the Order’s aesthetic, showing that, for the most part, in terms of icono­graphy and style, the art of the Cistercians was standard for late medi­eval England and that it mirrored developments in the wider English, and indeed European, Church.

Chapter 1

2

Figure 1.1. Fountains Abbey. Mid-twelfth to early sixteenth centuries. All photographs by the author, unless otherwise stated.

The chapter then moves onto the evidence yielded by accounts, chronicles, wills, inventories, and other documentary sources, which similarly show that the Cistercians and their patrons made significant investment in their buildings and possessions in the late Middle Ages, again demonstrating that religious art was a priority. Overall, the chapter aggregates for the first time the range of sources available for a comprehensive analysis of Cistercian art and architecture in the late Middle Ages, providing a basis for discussion in the following chapters, not least because it demonstrates the scale of investment that the Cistercians made in their buildings and possessions in the period after c. 1300. But from the outset, it must be acknowledged that although these sources are plentiful, they are not without their problems, not the least of which is the losses sustained since the mid-sixteenth century.

The Nature of the Material Evidence The Cistercian abbeys of northern England provide one of the richest case studies anywhere in Europe of sustained Cistercian architectural activity on a regional level.1 The ruins of Fountains Abbey (Fig. 1.1) must be counted among 1 

Norton and Park, ‘Preface to the Paperback Edition’, p. xxiii.

The Evidence

3

Figure 1.2. Byland Abbey, west front. Late twelfth century.

the finest medi­eval monastic remains in all of Europe, and the abbey has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.2 Almost as impressive are the ruins of Byland (Fig. 1.2), Furness (Fig. 1.3), Kirkstall (Fig. 1.4), and Rievaulx (Fig. 1.5). There are also a number of lesser-known Cistercian monasteries in the north, including Holm Cultram, Cumberland, where there is considerable evidence of late medi­e val building work and patronage. Holm Cultram can boast the only Cistercian church in England to have remained in continual use since the Suppression, but over the centuries it has been reduced to the six western bays of the nave, and these have lost their aisles and clerestory (Fig. 1.6).3 In a final indignity, the medi­eval roof timbers of the abbey perished at the hands 2 

Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, p. 1. For a description of the standing remains at Holm Cultram, see Harrison, ‘Architecture of Holm Cultram’, pp. 242–45. 3 

Chapter 1

4

Figure 1.3. Furness Abbey, ruins of nave and crossing. Late twelfth to fifteenth centuries.

of arsonists in 2006. In fact, the material evidence for the Cistercians in the northern counties (and elsewhere in England) consists of ruins and fragments. Richard Marks could have had the northern Cistercians in mind when he commented thus in the catalogue of the 2003 V&A Gothic exhibition of late medi­ eval English art: ‘the pattern of survival has […] been uneven and therefore distorting. A lethal combination of war, religious ideo­logies, financial imperatives, cupidity and fragility, fashion and taste has dealt severely with the products of the Middle Ages’.4 The material evidence is especially thin in some areas. The total surviving late medi­e val church plate from all of England would not have been enough to have served a large medi­e val parish church,5 and none of this plate has a Cistercian provenance.6 Only small fragments of window glass from Cistercian

4 

Marks, ‘An Age of Consumption’, p. 14. Marks, ‘An Age of Consumption’, p. 13. 6  For the surviving metalwork from English Cistercian abbeys, see Geddes, ‘Cistercian Metalwork in England’. 5 

The Evidence

5

Figure 1.4. Kirkstall Abbey, presbytery. Late twelfth century with fifteenth-century fenestration.

Figure 1.5. Rievaulx Abbey, presbytery. Early thirteenth century.

Chapter 1

6

Figure 1.6. Holm Cultram Abbey, church. Twelfth to sixteenth centuries, with later modifications.

abbeys in the north have survived.7 Though there is no doubt that it once existed, no late medi­eval wall or panel paintings from the monasteries discussed here are extant.8 Nevertheless, the situation is not as desperate as was believed as recently as 1986 when it was asserted that no vestments were extant.9 In fact, the set of early fifteenth-century Mass vestments from Whalley Abbey, now at Towneley Hall, Burnley, and the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, is one of only two complete sets of English medi­eval vestments to have survived (Plate 1),10 and an early sixteenth-century vestment from Jervaulx is also extant and is now in the collections of the V&A (Plate 2).11 7 

Marks, ‘Cistercian Window Glass in England and Wales’. The evidence for such painting at Cistercian houses in late medi­eval England is discussed by Park, ‘Cistercian Wall and Panel Painting’. 9  Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, p. 2. 10  Monnas, ‘Opus Anglicanum and Renaissance Velvet’; Monnas, ‘Vestments from Whalley Abbey’; and Brown and Zöschg, ‘Chasuble and Two Dalmatics’. The other set of vestments are at St John’s College, Oxford. 11  V&A 697-1902, discussed by Carter, ‘Remembrance, Liturgy and Status in a Late Medi­ eval English Cistercian Abbey’, and by Brown and Zöschg, ‘Chasuble’. 8 

The Evidence

7

Figure 1.7. Whalley Parish Church, choir stalls from Whalley Abbey. Fifteenth century. Courtesy of Charles Tracy.

The survival of other aspects of the material culture of the Cistercians is better for the north than other parts of England. The early fifteenth-century choir stalls from Whalley Abbey survive virtually intact in the nearby parish church (Fig.  1.7); also in parish churches are screens from Jervaulx (Fig.  1.8) and Sawley; a considerable number of late medi­eval manu­script and printed books are preserved,12 among them the magnificent two-volume cartulary of Furness Abbey, by far the most impressive late medi­eval illuminated manu­script from an English Cistercian house.13 Alabaster panels and stone sculptures are extant, 12  See the entries for the respective houses on the Medi­e val Libraries of Great Britain website: [accessed 1 November 2018]. 13  BL, MS Additional, 33244, London, TNA, DL Misc Bks 3. The illuminations in the volumes are discussed by Scott, Later Gothic Manu­scripts, ii, 121–23.

Chapter 1

8

Figure 1.8. Aysgarth Parish Church, screen from Jervaulx Abbey. Late fifteenth century.

and a credible Furness provenance has been proposed for two important fourteenth-century ivory diptychs depicting scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ.14 Funerary monuments of abbots, monks, and the laity are preserved at most of the abbeys and are often in their original location. The large number of extant floor-tiles has already provided fruitful material for research.15 New discoveries continue to be made. In recent years, three Cistercian missals from the same edition printed in Paris in 1516 have been identified, all once belonging 14 

The Eskdale Diptych was found in c. 1870 during the demolition of Spot How, in close proximity to a sheep farm of Furness. The Ulpha Diptych is also said to be from Furness having been found at an old farm in the Duddon Valley, approximately ten miles from Spot How; see Fair, ‘Two Medi­eval Ivory Diptychs’. 15  Stopford, Medi­eval Floor Tiles of Northern England.

The Evidence

9

Figure 1.9. Title page of a missal printed in 1516 from a Yorkshire Cistercian abbey. Private collection.

Chapter 1

10

to the Order’s abbeys in Yorkshire (Fig. 1.9).16 The identification of these books leaves no doubt that the liturgy and Cistercian monastic observance were an enduring priority for the monks of the northern monasteries. Similar evidence can also be gleaned by an analysis of the building works that took place at these monasteries in the two centuries before the Suppression.

Planning and Architecture All the northern Cistercian abbeys provide evidence of architectural activity in the late Middle Ages. The extent of the building works encompassed major building campaigns at Whalley, Sawley, Fountains, and Furness, through to smaller piecemeal programmes of renovation, repair, and refenestration, evidence of which can be seen at Calder, the smallest and poorest of the northern Cistercian monasteries.17 Regardless of their scale, the main reason for these works was, as Glyn Coppack showed in his article on the replanning of Fountains, Rievaulx, Sawley, and Rushen (Isle of White), to ensure that the buildings of the monasteries were appropriate for the liturgical, domestic, and economic needs of their late medi­eval communities. All the abbeys had originally been built to accommodate two separate communities within the same monastery. The monks occupied the buildings in the east and south ranges of the cloister, whereas the west range was the preserve of the lay brothers. At some monasteries, the lay brothers, or conversi, were provided with their own infirmaries. Even the church was divided, the rood screen providing a barrier between the two communities, with the stalls of the lay brothers located in the nave and the choir of the monks to the east, usually beneath the crossing. At their height in the twelfth century, the communities at Rievaulx and Fountains comprised well over one hundred monks and several hundred lay brothers. Even a mid-ranking daughter house, such as Kirkstall, would have had a community of fifty or so monks and approximately eighty lay brothers. Vast dormitories were needed to accommodate the monks with even larger west ranges constructed for the lay brothers. However, during the fourteenth century, the lay brothers ceased to be a sig16 

Carter, ‘A Printed Missal from an English Cistercian Abbey’; Carter, ‘Unanswered Prayers’. The third copy is at Leeds City Library and a publication identifying Kirkstall as its abbey of origin is planned by Philip Wilde. 17  A summary of the works conducted at each of the monasteries between the twelfth and early sixteenth centuries can be found in Robinson, ed., Cistercian Abbeys of Britain.

The Evidence

11

Figure 1.10. Sawley Abbey, plan of the church as rebuilt in the fourteenth century. Courtesy of Historic England/English Heritage.

nificant presence at Cistercian monasteries and the number of monks was also much reduced, typically numbering no more than twenty to thirty brethren.18 The implications of these changes in the composition of Cistercian communities can still be seen in the churches of several abbeys. Especially significant are the works associated with the celebration of the liturgy. By the late four18 

Coppack, ‘The Planning of Cistercian Monasteries in the Late Middle Ages’. For general overviews of Cistercian architectural activity in late medi­eval England, see the articles by Coldstream, ‘Cistercian Architecture from Beaulieu to the Dissolution’ and ‘The Mark of Eternity’.

12

Chapter 1

Figure 1.11. Fragments of the pulpitum screen, Rievaulx Abbey. Late fifteenth century.

teenth century,19 if not earlier, the lay brothers’ stalls were cleared from their naves, and altars were inserted into the nave aisles, which had previously served as simple passageways; evidence of these altars and their associated furnishings can be seen at Fountains, Kirkstall, and Rievaulx.20 Excavations at Fountains uncovered processional markers dating to c. 1500 in the nave,21 and at several houses, especially Roche, portions of the nave were given over to lay burials.22 19  Though stalls for the lay brothers were still present in the nave at Meaux at this date; see Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxxii. 20  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 307–11; Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, pp. 20–21; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 76, 166. 21  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 307–08. 22  Fergusson and Harrison, Roche Abbey, pp. 9–10.

The Evidence

13

Figure 1.12. The late medi­eval sedilia, Roche Abbey. Late fourteenth/early fifteenth century.

The most drastic works were at Sawley, where in the late fourteenth century the nave was all but demolished, leaving only a small stub which was used for processions. The monks’ choir was moved to a newly constructed aisled presbytery of five bays (Fig. 1.10).23 Elsewhere, the monks’ stalls remained in their traditional location beneath the crossing and in the first bay or two of the nave, and evidence of the fifteenth- or sixteenth-century masonry footings for new timber stalls is extant at several houses, including Byland, Fountains, Furness, and Kirkstall.24 The screens enclosing the stalls were also replaced. At Rievaulx an earlier timber pulpitum screen was replaced in c. 1500 by a magnificent stone structure, with large image niches and tabernacled canopies (Fig. 1.11), its surviv23 

Coppack, ‘Planning of Cistercian Monasteries’, pp. 206–07; Coppack, Hayfield, and Williams, ‘Sawley Abbey’, pp. 73–74. 24  Harrison, Byland Abbey, p.  8; Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p.  303; Hope, ‘Abbey of St Mary in Furness’, p. 254; Carter, ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 123.

Chapter 1

14

Figure 1.13. The sedilia, Furness Abbey. Late fifteenth century.

ing fragments showing that it had strong affinities with contemporary screens at Ripon and York Minster.25 New liturgical furnishings were installed in the presbyteries of several abbeys. The south wall of the twelfth-century presbytery at Roche retains fragments of highly decorated fourteenth- or fifteenth-­century sedilia (Fig. 1.12). The surviving pinnacles and arched tabernacle canopies can leave little doubt about their original splendour, and on the north wall are equally impressive traces of canopy work, possibly from the tomb of a benefactor or perhaps from an Easter Sepulchre.26 At Furness, the transept chapels and entire presbytery were rebuilt on an impressive scale in the early fifteenth century because of subsistence (a problem which still blights the site to this day). These works involved the construction of impressive sedilia (Fig. 1.13).27 Traces of bright paint and gilding were still visible in the elaborate canopy work in 25 

Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 162. Analysis of the surviving fragments by Dr Stuart Harrison has demonstrated the screen’s affinity with those at other great northern churches. 26  Fergusson and Harrison, Roche Abbey, p. 13. 27  Hope, ‘The Abbey of St Mary in Furness’, p. 243.

The Evidence

15

Figure 1.14. Sedilia, Kirkstall Abbey. Note the evidence of late medi­eval modifications.

the nineteenth century.28 Modifications were also made to the twelfth-century sedilia at Kirkstall (Fig. 1.14). The original stone bench was cut away and the recess filled with wooden canopied seating, the outlines of which are still visible.29 Inventories, which will be discussed presently, describe the large number of vestments, reliquaries, chalices, and other liturgical plate in the possession of northern Cistercian abbeys. The twelfth-century sacristies abutting the south transept were no longer adequate for their secure storage. At Fountains and Furness, the innermost chapels in the south transept were converted into sacristies,30 and additional space was also provided at Fountains and Rievaulx 28 

Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 381. Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, pp.  11–12; ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 123. 30  Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 91; Hope, ‘The Abbey of St Mary in Furness’, p. 245. 29 

Chapter 1

16

Figure 1.15. Crossing tower, Calder Abbey. Early thirteenth century.

by the construction of new sacristies adjoining the south walls of their respective presbyteries.31 Architectural works extended to the exterior of the church, most strikingly the construction of bell towers, the liturgical function of which will be discussed in Chapter 3. Low crossing towers were built in the late twelfth century at a number of English abbeys, including Fountains, Kirkstall, and Roche.32 There are remains of a substantial early thirteenth-century crossing tower at Calder (Fig. 1.15).33 Although it now only just rises above the arches of the 31 

Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 96; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 162. For a discussion of these towers, see Fergusson, ‘Early Cistercian Churches in Yorkshire and the Problem of the Crossing Tower’; Harrison, ‘“I Lift up Mine Eyes”’; Thurlby, ‘The Crossing of Fountains Abbey Church’. 33  For a plan of the abbey and a description of its architecture, see Robinson, ed., Cistercian Abbeys of Britain, pp. 84–85. 32 

The Evidence

17

crossing, Suppression-era documents show that it functioned as a bell tower as they refer to both a ‘belfry’ and a ‘steeple’.34 In the mid-thirteenth century, a bell tower was built at Meaux; the abbey’s chronicle records that during the abbacy of William of Driffield (1249–69), a campanile was built in which was hung the great bell called Benedict.35 Its height is not known, but the chronicle later records that it held a peal of seven bells, and that an eighth, the Jesus bell, was added in the late fourteenth century.36 The church at Whalley was nearing completion in 1356 when Brother Robert of Pontefract was killed by a fall of masonry during the construction of the bell tower,37 the substantial foundations of which can still be seen. There was also a substantial crossing tower at Holm Cultram, which measured ‘19 fathoms’ and fell during a snowstorm on 1 January 1600, destroying much of the chancel in the process.38 The remains of the crossing are now only at ground level, and one of the piers shows evidence of strengthening, which Stuart Harrison has dated to the late Middle Ages when the tower was heightened.39 There are significant standing remains of early sixteenth-century towers at three abbeys, with that at Fountains built by Abbot Marmaduke Huby surviving virtually intact. Weaknesses in the crossing caused it to be built adjoining the north transept, a unique location for an English bell tower (Fig. 1.16).40 Instability in the crossing at Furness resulted in its tower, which dates to the abbacy of Alexander Banke (1497–1531), being built at the west end of the church (Fig. 1.17). Its surviving remains can leave little doubt that its scale must have rivalled that of Huby’s tower at Fountains.41 More modest, and befitting its status as a mid-ranking daughter house, were the additions which Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) made to the twelfth-century crossing tower at Kirkstall (Fig. 1.18). Large portions of the tower fell in the late eighteenth century, but enough remains to show that it was heightened by one and a half storeys. 42 34 

Loftie, ‘Calder Abbey’, p. 472. Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 119. 36  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, pp. lxxxii, 223. 37  Maddison, ‘Master Masons of the Diocese of Lichfield’, p. 124. 38  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 138. 39  Harrison, ‘Architecture of Holm Cultram’, pp. 251–52. 40  Carter, ‘The Tower of Abbot Marmaduke Huby’. 41  Hope, ‘The Abbey of St Mary in Furness’, p. 251. 42  Carter, ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, pp. 119–20, 126–30. 35 

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The stature of the tower was enhanced by the lowering of the pitch of the adjoining roofs, evidence of which can also be seen at Calder. The early sixteenth-century works on the church of Kirkstall also included the addition of battlements and pinnacles at its angles. The church was also partially refenestrated, including an enormous traceried east window. 43 Fountains, Furness, Holm Cultram, Newminster, Rievaulx, and Roche also provide evidence of similar refenestration. That Cistercian monasteries were living institutions, reshaped to serve the evolving needs of their communities is further demonstrated by the alterations made to their claustral buildings. In the mid-fifteenth century, all four cloister walks at Byland were rebuilt with glazed traceried windows.44 At around the same time, the cloister was enlarged at Kirkstall, where the twelfth-centur y plan included a lane for the lay brothers (which functioned as their cloister) on the west side. The wall dividing this from the cloister garth was removed, the space incorporated into the alleys which were provided with glazed arcades. 45 The reduced size 43 

Figure 1.16. Bell tower of Abbot Huby, Fountains Abbey. Early sixteenth century,

Carter, ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, pp. 120, 122; Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 215. 44  Robinson and Harrison, ‘Cistercian Cloisters’, p. 171. 45  Carter, ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 90; Robinson and Harrison, ‘Cistercian Cloisters’, p. 192.

The Evidence

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Figure 1.17. Western bell tower, Furness Abbey. Early sixteenth century.

of late Cistercian communities had implications for the planning and use of buildings in the east range. At Rievaulx, the enormous chapter house built by Aelred was radically modified. Sometime after the late fourteenth century, the eastern arcades were walled up and the ambulatory surrounding its eastern apse was demolished. Rievaulx’s vast dormitory was shortened to half its original length and divided into individual cells, a general trend at this time, providing the monks with more comfort and privacy.46 As the accommodation of the monks improved, so too did their diet. The constitution for the Order issued in 1335 by Pope Benedict XII relaxed pro46 

Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 99–101, 108. For the broader context of the division of dormitories into individual cells, see Bell, ‘Chambers, Cells and Cubicles’.

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Figure 1.18. Kirkstall Abbey, church with early sixteenth-century additions to the bell tower and other contemporary works.

hibitions on the eating of meat, and a decree of the General Chapter in 1439 permitted monks to eat meat twice weekly, provided this was done outside the refectory with the proviso that two-thirds of the community should always be eating a regular diet in the refectory, where the eating of meat was forbidden by the Rule of St Benedict.47 It was therefore necessary to provide a separate kitchen for the preparation of meat dishes and a refectory, or misericord, for its consumption. At Kirkstall, the twelfth-century refectory was divided into two, the lower storey functioning as the misericord, the first floor as the regular refectory. A meat kitchen was built to its south-east. Archaeo­logical evidence suggests these works date to the early sixteenth century.48 The monks of Furness were likewise provided with a misericord.49 Whalley’s refectory was completed in the late fourteenth century and was built on an east–west alignment. The twenty or so monks who comprised the community did not require a large 47 

Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, p. 113. Carter, ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 124. 49  Harrison, Wood, and Newman, Furness Abbey, p. 20. 48 

The Evidence

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Figure 1.19. West range, Whalley Abbey. Early fifteenth century.

north–south refectory, a defining characteristic of Cistercian planning from the mid-twelfth century.50 The west range at Whalley, which survives largely intact (Fig. 1.19), was completed in 1415, but it is doubtful if it ever accommodated any lay brothers, its lower storey instead used as cellarage, its first floor possibly as guest accommodation.51 At nearby Sawley, the west range was converted into a grand abbatial lodging at the end of the fourteenth century,52 and in the following century the west range at Rufford also appears to have been converted for abbatial accommodation.53 At Fountains the modest abbot’s house adjacent to the monks’ reredorter was rebuilt on a magnificent scale in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The portion of the monks’ dormitory above the chapter house was appropriated for use as the abbot’s private chapel, access to it provided by a long gallery over the thirteenth-century passageway to the monastic infirmary, which itself had been converted by the early fifteenth century into 50 

Robinson, ed., Cistercian Abbeys of Great Britain, p. 203. For the axial alignment of Cistercian refectories, see Fergusson, ‘The Twelfth-Century Refectories at Rievaulx and Byland’, esp. pp. 168–72. 51  Robinson, ed., Cistercian Abbeys of Great Britain, p. 203. 52  Coppack, ‘Planning of Cistercian Monasteries’, p.  206; Coppack, Hayfield, and Williams, ‘Sawley Abbey’, pp. 79–80. 53  Robinson, ed., Cistercians Abbeys of Britain, p. 168.

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Figure 1.20. Outer gatehouse, Whalley Abbey. Early fourteenth century.

a series of two-storey apartments for the monks, each with its own fireplace and latrine.54 The infirmary at Kirkstall was similarly divided up into separate cells and Byland’s was demolished in the fourteenth century and replaced with a building that incorporated two-room apartments to accommodate the monks.55 At Furness, Jervaulx, and Rievaulx, the earlier infirmaries were converted into abbatial residences, that at Rievaulx complete with first-floor hall, chambers, private chapel, and ‘long house’ or long gallery, which was positioned over the lodging occupied by Aelred and which linked the new abbatial lodging with the east range of the cloister.56 The fourteenth-century gatehouses at Calder, Roche, and Whalley are reminders that the wider monastic precincts were also the focus of consider54 

Coppack, ‘Planning of Cistercian Monasteries’, p. 202. Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, pp. 38–40; Harrison, Byland Abbey, p. 14. 56  Robinson, ed., Cistercians Abbeys of Britain, pp. 119, 129; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 132–35. 55 

The Evidence

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Figure 1.21. Inner gatehouse, Whalley Abbey. Late fifteenth century.

able building works.57 Whalley’s outer gate dates to the 1320s and is built on an impressive scale (Fig. 1.20).58 In 1348, the abbey received a royal licence to crenellate,59 one of only a handful of English Cistercian houses to receive this privilege. Battlements imparting a military air top an inner gatehouse at the monastery, completed in c. 1480 (Fig. 1.21).60 Several northern abbeys, espe57 

On Cistercian gatehouses generally, see Fergusson, ‘“Porta patens esto”’. Hartwell and Pevsner, Lancashire: North, p. 692. For the gatehouse at Calder, see Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 217. 59  CPR, 1348–50, p. 124. 60  Hartwell and Pevsner, Lancashire: North, p. 693. 58 

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cially those in the Border zone did indeed suffer because of warfare, and as will be discussed in Chapter 2, both Furness and Holm Cultram possessed castles and granges of Newminster were rebuilt in the fifteenth century with military characteristics. Nevertheless, the defensive function and value of these northern monastic gatehouses is open to question.61 The way in which gatehouses also projected the religious identity of Cistercian monasteries will be considered in more detail in Chapter 3, and here it will suffice to say that gatehouses had multiple, overlapping functions. The rooms above the great gate at Roche probably functioned as the courthouse and muniment store for the abbey’s estates.62 The first floor of Whalley’s outer gate has been interpreted as a chapel.63 The enduring significance of gatehouses as venues for the distribution of charity is demonstrated by the erection of a hospice outside the west gate at Fountains in the early sixteenth century.64 Charity was clearly an enduring priority for the northern Cistercians. An almshouse of uncertain location is documented at Furness, where there was also a grammar and song school.65 Nor was hospitality being neglected, as shown by the fourteenth-century renovation of the guesthouse at Kirkstall. Investment was being made in structures necessary to support the economy of the monasteries. For instance, at Rievaulx a tannery was built to the south of the main claustral buildings. Elsewhere, agricultural structures were being repurposed. At the end of the fifteenth century, the enormous wool-house at Fountains was employed as a workshop for craftsmen and artisans employed renovating the abbey church.66 There was also sustained architectural activity beyond the confines of the monastic precincts. Evidence survives demonstrating that the granges of several abbeys were rebuilt, even though from the early fourteenth century onwards they were now largely managed by tenants rather than directly farmed by the abbeys. Some of the granges were rebuilt on a grand scale, as shown by the 61 

For the uses and interpretation of medi­e val monastic gatehouses, see Luxford, ‘Architecture and Environment’. 62  Fergusson and Harrison, Roche Abbey, pp. 4–5. 63  Hartwell and Pevsner, Lancashire: North, p. 692. 64  The hospice is referred to in an agreement dated 20 February 1514, between Abbot Huby and Robert and Ellen Dawson, keepers of the abbey’s West Gates; see Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 291–92. 65  Williams, Tudor Cistercians, pp. 179, 181. Grammar schools are likewise documented at Calder and Whalley; see Williams, Tudor Cistercians, p. 179. 66  Wrathmell, Kirkstall Abbey, the Guest House; Coppack, ‘The Planning of Cistercian Monas­teries’, pp. 202–04.

The Evidence

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late fourteenth-century gatehouse range at Kilnsea, a grange of Fountains in the East Riding.67 In the fifteenth century, Furness’s grange at Hawkshead, Westmorland, was rebuilt. Its principal structural remains consist of a two-storey gatehouse, the upper floor of which served as a manorial courthouse for the abbey’s estates in the locality, with visits by the abbot of Furness documented in 1516 and 1532. The gatehouse provided one range of a courtyard residence. A hall and parlour, demolished in the nineteenth century, were located to the south, kitchens and offices in the west range, and the north side was filled with a simple high wall.68 Grange Hall, Westmorland, was in the possession of Byland Abbey and was the location of works in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its high status is suggested by the extant five-light oriel window that lit the principal first-floor chamber.69 Marmaduke Huby rebuilt several granges of Fountains Abbey in the early sixteenth century, and the evidence they provide regarding his motives as a patron will be discussed in subsequent chapters. From an early date, the northern Cistercian abbeys were in possession of urban properties, in some instances extending to the ownership of entire boroughs. Edward I granted Holm Cultram the free borough of ‘Wavermouth’ in 1300, and a year later the borough of Kireby Johanni (Newton Arlash), with a right to Thursday markets and an annual fair lasting seventeen days. Dalton in Lancashire was likewise a borough of Furness, the tower used for its administration a tangible reminder of the abbey’s role in the establishment, economy, and administration of the town. Other properties held by the northern abbeys included wharfs, shops, and warehouses in ports including Boston, Grimsby, and Scarborough. Several of the monasteries also owned properties in or near York.70 The grandest of these was the wool-house and manor of Byland at Clifton. In 1314 it was considered sufficiently comfortable to be thought suitable for the accommodation of John, earl de Warenne, who was then in York with Edward II during the Scottish campaigns.71 Furness owned properties in York from the early thirteenth century and a ‘Furnesse house’, doubtlessly the town house of the abbot, located outside Micklegate, is documented in 1529.72 The mid-fifteenth-century accounts of Fountains refer to the abbey’s hospitium 67 

Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 106. ‘Proceedings’, pp. 202–03; Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, i, 209. 69  Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, i, 208. 70  Donkin, ‘Urban Properties’. 71  Kaner, ‘Clifton and Medi­eval Woolhouses’, pp. 6–9. 72  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 293. 68 

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at York on several occasions, including expenditure incurred for the abbot’s stay there for the assizes, the installation of a new pavement, and the purchase of a candelabrum.73 Religious and secular business occasioned visits to London, and because Furness was under the patronage of the duchy of Lancaster, its abbot had the right to lodge within the precincts of the Savoy, his apartments there glazed with the ‘royal arms and cognisances’.74 Finally, Furness and the other northern Cistercian abbeys were in possession of appropriated churches. The fourteenth-century glazed arms of Furness and Cîteaux, mother house of the Cistercian Order, at the parish church of St Mary and St Michael, Great Urswick (Plate 3), is a rare material survival of the investment made by the northern Cistercians in these possessions,75 an issue which will be explored in more detail in the next chapter.

Production and Purchase The Rule of St Benedict mandated that monks should spend a portion of their day in manual labour.76 It is clear that northern Cistercian monks were using this time to produce accomplished works of art. Arguably, the most striking example is the two-volume cartulary of Furness Abbey commissioned in 1412 and illuminated by the monk John Stell, who depicted himself seated at a lectern surrounded by the tools of his craft at the beginning of the second volume (Plate 4). The cartulary’s decorative scheme includes approximately one hundred large historiated and illuminated initials and 128 painted armorials. Other artists may have worked on the smaller decorated initials and their borders. The text was the work of the scribe Richard Esk, who identifies himself in the metrical introductions to both volumes. The production of the cartulary has been described by one modern scholar as ‘a considerable feat under any circumstances’.77 The production of manu­scripts at Furness appears to have been sustained until the very end of the Middle Ages, a ‘Screpter’ (or scriptorium) being mentioned in a court case in 1542, five years after the suppression of the house.78 The miracle-working image of Christ Crucified which Abbot Hugh 73 

Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, pp. xiii, 9, 25, 43, 83, 87. Colvin, History of the King’s Works, iii.1, 206. 75  Hebgin-Barnes, Medi­eval Stained Glass of Lancashire, pp. 121–25. 76  Rule of St Benedict, ed. and trans. by White, chap. 48. 77  Scott, Later Gothic Manu­scripts, ii, 122. 78  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. lxxxviii. 74 

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of Leven of Meaux (1339–49) commissioned for his monastery’s rood was the work of an anonymous lay brother of the monastery.79 The mid-fifteenth-century account books from Fountains record the purchase of materials for the making of vestments.80 Despite this, the northern Cistercians were consumers, rather than producers of their art and architecture, turning to the services of professional master masons, and other types of artisans. Much of the surviving material evidence provides typical examples of English late medi­e val art and architecture. The imposing bell tower built by Abbot Huby at Fountains in the early sixteenth century has been attributed to the master mason Christopher Scune (fl. 1505–21), the architect responsible for the nave at Ripon Minster (now Cathedral), where he is first documented in 1514. In 1520–21, Scune was rewarded with 10s for his ‘good diligence supervising the mason working on the fabric’ at Ripon.81 Similarities between the buttressing and window tracery of the nave at Ripon and the great tower at Fountains82 suggest that this is a reasonable attribution. In at least one instance, the architecture of a Cistercian monastery provided inspiration for work in a non-Cistercian context. In 1533 the masons Thomas Sellers and Nicholas Craven were contracted to rebuild the (now demolished) north and south aisles of the parish church at Burnley, Lancashire, after the fashion of the newly built (and now utterly lost) Lady Chapel at Whalley Abbey.83 The mid-fifteenth-century canopied choir stalls from Whalley Abbey (Fig. 1.7) and the contemporary stalls at the Augustinian priories of Carlisle, Cumberland, and Cartmel, Lancashire, have been described as ‘remarkably similar’.84 The early fifteenth-century Mass vestments from Whalley (Plate 1), which are made of Italian cloth of gold and ornamented with narrative orphreys of English manufacture, stand comparison in terms of their quality and sumptuousness to other surviving examples of fifteenth-century English ecclesiastical embroidery. The appliques powdered on the early sixteenth-century vestment from Jervaulx (Plate 2) are typical for a commercial product of this 79 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, pp. xi, 35. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 49, 51. 81  Harvey, An Introduction to Tudor Architecture, p.  33; Harvey, English Mediaeval Architects, p. 270. 82  Wilson, ‘Ripon Cathedral’, p. 646. 83  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 70. 84  Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, p. 5. 80 

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period. The prominent York glazier John Petty (d. 1508) was active at Furness from the 1470s, and in his will left the monastery 13s stating ‘I have wroght mych wark there’.85 An excavated late fifteenth-century stained-glass angel in the style of York glaziers is likely to be from his workshop (Fig. 1.22).86 Glaziers were also active at other abbeys, for instance in 1457–58 John Folwod was paid 10s 8d and Robert Glasyar 2s for repairs at Fountains and the monastery spent a further 12d on glass in 1458–59.87 These sums would have been sufficient to pay for not inconsiderable amounts of painted figurative glass. The saints beneath canopies installed in the ante-chapel at All Soul’s, Oxford, in 1441 cost 1s per square foot, and in 1445 the cost of the figurative glass at Sheen Palace varied Figure 1.22. between 10d and 12d per square foot, the Stained-glass angel same quantity of white glass priced at 7d.88 from Furness Abbey. The Cistercians were also purchasing Late fifteenth century. books. York was a well-established centre Courtesy of Historic England. for the production and sale of manu­scripts, and by the early sixteenth century stationers were also dealing in printed books, many imported from France, especially Paris and Rouen.89 An inventory made in 1538 shows that the stock of Neville Mores, a French-born York stationer, was dominated by religious works.90 Religious houses were among his customers. In 1531 Mores was in debt to the vestment-maker Robert Lokesmyth ‘for bookes that he sende to Biland Abbey’.91 85 

Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 333. Hebgin-Barnes, Medi­eval Stained Glass of Lancashire, pp. 118–19. 87  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 56, 85. 88  Marks, Stained Glass in England during the Middle Ages, p. 49. 89  Gee, ‘The Printers, Stationers and Bookbinders of York before 1557’. 90  Palliser and Selwyn, ‘The Stock of a York Stationer, 1538’. 91  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 324. 86 

The Evidence

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Figure 1.23. Alabaster panels from Fountains Abbey, now at the Yorkshire Museum. Fifteenth century. Courtesy of York Museums Trust.

The surviving late medi­e val sculpture from the monasteries considered in this study is unexceptional in terms of its manufacture. This point can be made by citing the three fifteenth-century alabaster panels from Fountains depicting the Nativity, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin (Fig. 1.23), which likely come from a retable depicting the Joys of the Virgin. Nor was there anything exceptional about the icono­g raphy of sacred imagery present at the northern monasteries. Three sculpted depictions of the Annunciation to the Virgin dating between the mid-fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries survive from the northern abbeys: the earliest is sculpted on the door of a timber screen now at Mitton church, Lancashire, and is inscribed with the name of William Stanford, abbot of Sawley in the mid-fifteenth century (Fig. 1.24). The second dates to c. 1500 and is a sculpted limestone panel located above the doorway of the late medi­e val abbot’s house at Rievaulx (Fig. 1.25). The third is an ex situ panel at Fountains and is sculpted using the white magnesium limestone associated with the building activities of Abbot Marmaduke Huby (Fig. 1.26). Although they differ in minor points of detail, the icono­g raphy of all three

30

Chapter 1

Figure 1.24. Screen from Sawley Abbey sculpted with the Annunciation to the Virgin, now at Mitton Parish Church. Mid-fifteenth century. Photo: Susan Harrison.

Figure 1.25. Limestone panel sculpted with the Annunciation to the Virgin, Rievaulx Abbey, c. 1500.

The Evidence

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Figure 1.26. Ex situ limestone panel sculpted with the Annunciation to the Virgin from Fountains Abbey. Early sixteenth century.

images is largely standard for late medi­eval England, depicting the Angel to the left, a central pot with lilies, and at the right, the Virgin at a lectern.92

Artistic Innovation There is also evidence that the northern Cistercians were receptive to artistic innovation. The early sixteenth century saw the introduction of Italianinfluenced Renaissance ornament into England. This was partly thanks to ecclesiastical patrons such as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and successive bishops of Winchester.93 Abbot Huby appears to have been well aware of Wolsey’s appreciation of luxury manu­scripts. In c. 1520 he wrote to the General Chapter at Cîteaux advising them to send a letter of confraternity to Wolsey, the cardinal archbishop of York, ‘pulchro dictamine ornate ac formosa manu scripta’ 92 

For discussions of the developing icono­g raphy of the Annunciation, see Robb, ‘The Icono­g raphy of the Annunciation’; Mâle, Religious Art in France in the Thirteenth Century, pp. 245–56; Schiller, Icono­graphy of Christian Art, i, 33–52; Nitz, ‘Marienleben’. The sculptures from Fountains and Rievaulx are discussed by Carter, ‘Late Medi­eval Relief Sculptures’. 93  Biddle, ‘Early Renaissance Winchester’, and the articles by Riall, ‘The Early Tudor Renaissance in Hampshire’ and ‘The Diffusion of Early Franco-Italian All’ Antica Ornament’.

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(adorned with beautiful words and written in a beautiful hand).94 At approximately the same time, Huby acquired a printed breviary. Its colophon is damaged, meaning that the date of publication is unknown. Nevertheless, this does record that the breviary was printed in Paris for the Cistercian rite by Jean Kerbriand and Jean Adam at the expense of the bookseller François Regnault. It is the only copy of this edition of the Cistercian breviary known to have survived.95 Kerbriand and Adam specialized in the production of liturgical books,96 the editions normally paid for by booksellers. Regnault had well-established connections with the English book trade, commissioning numerous editions of liturgical books of the uses of Sarum and York.97 His involvement suggests Huby’s breviary is from an edition specially produced for Cistercian abbeys in England. Four of its pages have sumptuous illuminated borders, three of which are in the Italian-influenced Renaissance all‘antica style of c. 1520 (Plate 5).98 The borders are the work of a skilled illuminator and can be compared to contemporary northern French illuminations in high-status manu­scripts.99 Their ‘antique’ ornament shares characteristics with that on the choir stalls commissioned by the cardinal archbishop of Rouen, Georges de Amboise (d. 1510) for his château at Gaillon,100 and the stalls of Prior Thomas Silkstede (1498–1524) in the south transept at Winchester.101 Huby was not the only English Cistercian abbot with a taste for artistic innovation. Although other evidence from northern England is lacking, friezes of antique work adorn the residences of the southern Cistercian abbots, Thomas Chard at Forde Abbey (c. 1501–39) and Abbot Robert King (c. 1527–39) at Thame Abbey, Oxfordshire.102 94 

Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, p. 254. For the other editions of the Cistercian breviary printed by Kerbriand (none of which were in collaboration with Regnault), see Bohatta, Biblio­graphie der Breviere 1501–1850, p. 121. 96  For a summary of their activities, see Renouard, Répertoire des imprimeurs Parisiens, pp. 362–63. 97  Renouard, Répertoire des imprimeurs Parisiens, p. 362; Duff, A Century of the English Book Trade, pp. 133–34. 98  Oxford, Christ Church, e. 8. 29; the illuminations are further discussed by Carter, ‘The Breviary of Abbot Marmaduke Huby’, pp. 18–20. 99  Carter, ‘The Breviary of Abbot Marmaduke Huby’, p. 19. 100  For the Gaillon stalls, see Bos and Duboise, ‘Les boiseries de chapelle du château de Gaillon’. 101  The Silkstede stalls are discussed by Riall, ‘The Early Tudor Renaissance in Hampshire’, p. 229. 102  Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, iii, 560–65, 180–83. 95 

The Evidence

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Retrospection in Cistercian Art and Architecture The art and architecture of the Cistercians had an eye to the past as well as the present, arguably expressing a consciousness on the part of the Order’s northern patrons of their deep historic roots in the region. The use of retrospection in art and architecture and the construction of monastic institutional identity and memory has been a fruitful field of research in recent years, with much of the scholarship focusing on the Romanesque and early Gothic evidence.103 In the Cistercian context, scholars have already drawn attention to such retrospection in the planning and architecture of Rievaulx in the twelfth century, especially Aelred’s chapter house.104 Evidence of such retrospection also exists from the late Middle Ages. There is intriguing evidence of the preservation into the sixteenth century of material dating back to the time when the northern abbeys were being established. Fountains was founded in the winter of 1132 by Archbishop Thurstan of York, who granted dissident monks from St Mary’s Abbey, York, a site near Ripon in the Skell Valley.105 The archbishop did not provide the fledgling community with any shelter and the monks were forced to fend for themselves. The monastery’s foundation history tells how they first sought refuge among rocks and in caves, and later beneath an elm tree where they built a hut of wattle and turf.106 When the antiquary John Leland visited the abbey in the 1530s he recorded that this elm was still standing.107 There are sound reasons to believe that the community at Fountains would have revered and ensured the survival of a landmark which was so associated with the founding of their monastery and the heroic hardships endured by its first generation of monks. Cistercian communities were accommodated in timber structures when they first settled sites.108 The timbers from these structures were evidently held in great esteem by the founding community and later generations of religious. It is possible that the wooden grave covers at Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire, dated to c.  1150–59 using dendrochrono­logy, may 103 

See, Raguin, Brush, and Draper, eds, Artistic Integration in Gothic Buildings; McNeill and Plant, eds, Romanesque and the Past. 104  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 99 and Fergusson, ‘Three Romanesque Patrons’, pp. 198–201. 105  For the foundation of Fountains, see Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 103–07 and Coppack, Fountains Abbey, pp. 19–21. 106  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 34–35. 107  Collectanea, ed, by Hearne, iii, 105. 108  Coppack, The White Monks, pp. 23–31.

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Figure 1.27. Porch at the front of Holm Cultram Abbey. 1507.

have been timbers from the original monastery used in the burial of the monastery’s first monks.109 The earliest buildings were also on occasion preserved. When the queen of Sicily visited Clairvaux in 1517, highlights of her tour of the monastery’s precinct included St Bernard’s own cell and oratory, both built of wood.110 Additional evidence of retrospective is provided by the porch built at Holm Cultram by Abbot Robert Chamber in the early sixteenth century (Fig. 1.27). The rounded arch of the doorway is reminiscent of the arch of the abbey’s twelfth-century portal, which the porch protects. The sides of an image niche above the porch are also unusual in that they combine late medi­ eval Perpendicular blind panel tracery with archaic dogtooth ornament.111 109 

Wright, Hirst, and Astill, ‘Patronage, Memorial and Burial at Bordesley Abbey’, p. 359. I am most grateful to Dr Glyn Coppack for this reference. 110  ‘Un grand monastère du XVIe siècle’, ed. by Michelant, p. 232. 111  Harrison, ‘The Architecture of Holm Cultram’, p. 242.

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This dogtooth-ornament is similar to the thirteenth-century ornament on jambs of an image niche on the west front of the Augustinian priory of Lanercost, Cumberland.112 Equally archaic is the use of the verse inscriptions that ornament the capitals of the porch’s doorway. The inscription on the north corbel can be transcribed ‘Exultemus Domino qui hunc sanctificavit tabernaculum’ Figure 1.28. Signet ring traditionally identified as (Let us rejoice in the Lord, who that of Abbot Huby, English Heritage Museum, Fountains Abbey Mill. Early sixteenth century. blessed this house), and is taken from the office of Vigils for the feast of the dedication of a church. The inscription on the south corbel can be read ‘Non est aliud nisi Domus Dei porta caeli’ (This is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven) and occurs in the introit of the Mass for the dedication of a church.113 Both inscriptions are in the tradition of the verse inscriptions that occur on the portals of Romanesque churches, some of which allegorize the portal as the ‘gate of heaven’.114 Indeed, the text of the inscription on the south corbel at Holm Cultram is similar to that on the portal of the church of Santa Maria at Iguácel (Huesca, Spain), completed in 1072, which likewise refers to the portal as the ‘porta caeli’.115 There is also evidence of the use of verse inscriptions within an early Cistercian context. An eighteenth-century antiquarian source records that the portal of the now lost late twelfth-century church at Cîteaux was inscribed ‘Salve, sancta parens, sub qua Cistercius ordo | Militat, & toto tamquam sol fulget in orbe’ (Hail, holy Mother, under whose banner the Cistercian Order marches, and shines like the sun over the whole world).116 This ensemble of archaic styles and ornament can leave little 112 

Harrison, ‘Description of the Standing Fabric’, pp. 114–17. Both texts have a biblical source, in Psalm 45. 5 and Genesis 28. 17 respectively. The text from the office of Matins for the consecration of a church can be found in Breviarium ad usum ordinis Cisterciensis, p. lxxvi; for the introit of the Mass, see Missale ad usum insignis ecclesiae Eboracensis, ed. by Henderson, p. ccclvii. 114  For such inscriptions, see Kendall, Allegory of the Church, pp. 109–14. 115  Kendall, Allegory of the Church, pp. 110–11. 116  Kendall, Allegory of the Church, p. 213. 113 

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doubt that the porch at Holm Cultram was consciously evoking twelfth- and thirteenth-century architectural precedents. Other evidence of retrospection is provided by a signet ring that has long been associated with Abbot Huby of Fountains (Fig. 1.28). It is made of copper alloy with traces of gilding and is currently exhibited in the English Heritage museum in the mill at the abbey. It shares characteristics with English signet rings dating to the early sixteenth century, including the width of the band and the shape of the bezel, which also has the punched decoration around its rim found on similar signet rings of this period.117 The bezel is engraved with a halflength figure of a nimbed abbot with a pastoral staff resting against his shoulder. To the right is a black-letter ‘h’, possibly for Huby. It has been suggested that St Bernard is represented on the ring.118 The half-length figure on the ring does indeed evoke a seal design used by Cistercian abbots in the mid-twelfth century.119 It must be admitted that none of the documents associated with Huby are sealed with this ring and its exact provenance is uncertain. It is first mentioned in the journal of John Warburton, Somerset Herald, who saw it at Fountains Hall in 1718.120 An impression of the ring was illustrated a generation later by John Burton in the Monasticon Eboracense in 1758.121 However, what is known of Huby means that it is entirely believable that the abbot would have possessed a ring ornamented with such an anachronistic image. His long and reforming abbacy of Fountains has been described by one modern scholar as ‘a rediscovery and reapplication of past glories and standards, and a renewed expression of earlier spiritual values and teaching’.122 The abbot even corresponded with Henry VII about the revival of the lay brotherhood.123 Huby’s other corre117 

See the late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century English signet rings illustrated in Dalton, Catalogue of the Finger Rings, pp. 75, 80. 118  Clay, ‘The Seals of the Religious Houses of Yorkshire’, p. 5. A twelfth-century model is also suggested by comparison with Cistercian manu­script illuminations, such as that of an abbot in a mid-twelfth-century manu­script of the Decretum of Gratian from a northern Italian Cistercian house, the volume having an ex libris inscription showing that it was in the library at Cîteaux by the mid-thirteenth century; see Randall, ‘From Cîteaux onwards’, pp. 115–18, illustrated, fig. 6. 119  Heslop, ‘Cistercian Seals in England and Wales’, p. 268. 120  ‘Journal in 1718–19 of John Warburton’, p. 71. 121  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, pl. facing p. 141. 122  Baker, ‘Old Wine in New Bottles’, p. 210. 123  RO, iii, 36 n. 2.

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spondence reveals deep anxieties about assaults on the historic privileges of the White Monks, such as attempts to undermine the Cistercians’ exemption from episcopal authority.124 This is evident in the abbot’s letter of July 1524 to Sir Thomas, Lord Dacre (d. 1525), concerning the authority of the abbot of Newminster, a daughter house of Fountains, to oversee an election at the nunnery of St Bartholomew, Newcastle.125 Huby’s consciousness of the history of his Order and its privileges is apparent, with the abbot writing: ‘So it was abowte iiiic yeres agoo, litill over or under, our Religion was begonne and fownded in France and so shortely dyryvate and boght into Yngland and Wales’. Huby goes on to assert the long-established exemption of both Cistercian monks and nuns ‘from all manner of Jurisdiccion of the ordinaryes’.126 This deliberate use of archaic ornament was part of a wider ‘antiquarianism’ or retrospection in monastic art at the end of the Middle Ages, which occurred not only in Cistercian contexts elsewhere in England, but also at Augustinian and Benedictine monasteries.127

The Documentary Evidence The fragmentary nature of the material evidence is to some extent compensated by the documentary sources. Cartularies occasionally record instances of external patronage.128 Bursars’ accounts from Fountains, Sawley, and Whalley itemize the wages paid to craftsmen, as well as expenditure on building works, 124 

Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 108–10. For a detailed discussion of this case, see Freeman, ‘“Houses of a Peculiar Order”’, pp. 272–76. 126  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 249. 127  The nave of the Cistercian abbey of Bordesley, Worcestershire, was rebuilt in the early fifteenth century, an excavated corbel suggesting it was ornamented with Romanesque-style heads; see Hirst, Walsh, and Wright, ‘A Grotesque Corbel Head from Bordesley Abbey’. There was retrospective use of heraldry at the Cistercian monastery of Hailes, Gloucestershire; see Carter, ‘Abbots and Aristocrats’. The considerable Augustinian evidence is discussed in Luxford, ‘The Idol of Origins’. A covering from the wooden screen installed in c. 1500 around the Jesus Altar at Durham Cathedral Priory, which survived at the parish church at Brancepeth until destroyed by fire in 1998, had a panel showing the influence of a cross-carpet page from the early eighth-century Lindisfarne Gospels, one of Durham’s greatest treasures; see Wilson, ‘The Arts of the Great Church’, p. 351. 128  For summaries, see Davis, Medi­eval Cartularies, p. 32 (Byland); pp. 83–85 (Fountains); pp. 86–87 (Furness); pp. 98–99 (Holm Cultram); p. 131 (Meaux); p. 139 (Newminster); pp. 162–63 (Rievaulx); p. 176 (Sawley); p. 208 (Whalley). 125 

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glazing, and the purchase of retables and vestments.129 All are valuable sources for the study of patronage and show that during the late Middle Ages the Cistercians were spending large sums on their art and architecture. However, they are surpassed in terms of quality and value by the chronicle of Meaux Abbey, which was written in the late fourteenth century by Thomas Burton (d. 1437), who served as abbot of Meaux between 1396 and his resignation in 1399. An anonymous monk of Meaux wrote a continuation of the chronicle describing the events of Burton’s abbacy. This records that Burton was a pious and well-educated man who attended the Cistercian General Chapter held at Vienna in 1398.130 The chronicle provides important information about national events, but Burton’s main concern was his own monastery. To which end, he recorded the details of the election of each of his predecessors, their business transactions, building activities and gifts to the church, death and burials, and after 1286, the financial state in which they left the monastery.131 Burton composed his chronicle from ‘many ancient documents and long forgotten parchments’, some of which he found ‘exposed to rain, and others put aside for the fire’, or from the reports of ‘reliable witnesses’.132 Burton’s chronicle has no contemporary rival in terms of its breadth and scope.133 It is thanks to the chronicle that we know of the extraordinary miracle-working image of the Crucified Christ above the abbey’s rood screen.134 Burton also inventoried the contents of the abbey, listing the silver vessels in his own chamber, the vestments and plate stored in the vestry, the retables and panel paintings housed on the church’s altars, the abbey’s extensive collection of relics, and the contents of the monastic library.135 Taken together Burton’s work provides by far the fullest contemporary description of the furnishings and material richness of an English Cistercian abbey in the late Middle Ages. 129 

Memorials of Fountains, ed.  by Walbran and Fowler, iii; Whitaker, History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, pp. 63–69; Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, pp. 179–80; ‘The Whalley Abbey Bursars’ Accounts for 1520’, ed. by Ashmore. 130  Chron de. Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 239, 266–67. 131  Gransden, Historical Writing in England, ii, 358. 132  Chron. de. Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, 71; Gransden, Historical Writing in England, ii, 361. 133  Gransden, Historical Writing in England, ii, 361. 134  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, pp. xi, 35. 135  For the inventory and library catalogue, see Chron. de. Melsa, ed.  by Bond, iii, pp. lxxvi–c; for the relics list, see BL, MS Cotton Vitellius C VI, fols 241r–242r. The inventory of relics is transcribed in Thomas, ‘Cult of Saints’ Relics’, pp. 515–23 and is translated in Poulson, Holderness, ii, 311–13.

The Evidence

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No fifteenth- or sixteenth-century source can compare to Burton’s chronicle. The correspondence of English Cistercian abbots to the General Chapter at Cîteaux between 1442 and 1521 tells of the difficulties in finishing work on St Bernard’s College, the Cistercian college at Oxford,136 but otherwise the letters have disappointingly little to say about the Order’s art and architecture. Nevertheless they provide important context for this study and are a source for assessing the condition of Cistercian monasticism in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.137 The diligent research of Claire Cross into over five thousand medi­eval wills that survive from northern England has made an immense contribution to the study of late medi­e val monasticism. The shortcomings of this class of source material have been well rehearsed, especially the extent to which they are an expression of pious convention and emphasize the testator’s spiritual priorities at the time of their death.138 Moreover, the present study will necessarily draw upon the evidence derived from the extensive selection of wills printed in summarized form by various northern antiquarian societies, the selection and abstraction of which are liable to reflect the interests and preoccupations of their editors. Nevertheless, as Cross has shown, the wills provide invaluable insights into northern religious beliefs.139 Moreover, as will be seen, a systematic analysis of bequests to the Cistercians will demonstrate that the laity were piously motivated to make material gifts to the Order and to invest in the fabric of its monasteries. Suppression-era inventories are another important category of evidence, and several survive from northern Cistercian houses and their cells.140 Their brief descriptions of the vestments, liturgical plate, and images give an impression of the possessions and furnishings of abbeys in the final days of their existence and are also of use in reconstructing the liturgical arrangement of Cistercian churches and the planning of claustral complexes.

136  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 12–13. For the construction of St Bernard’s, see Colvin, ‘The Building of St Bernard’s College’. 137  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 6–7. 138  For a discussion of the shortcomings of wills as evidence of religious devotion, see Burgess, ‘Late Medi­eval Wills and Pious Convention’. 139  Cross, ‘Monasticism and Society in the Diocese of York’, p. 132. 140  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 288–95; Aveling, History of Roche Abbey, p. 88; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 226–31; ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott; ‘Inventory of Stanlow’, ed. by Walcott.

40

Chapter 1

Antiquarian Evidence Northern Cistercian houses have attracted antiquarian attention ever since the visits of John Leland in the years immediately before the Suppression. Leland described the shrine of Aelred in the church at Rievaulx, the contents of monastic libraries, and the legends and traditions associated with certain houses.141 Contemporary with Leland’s tours was the heraldic visitation of the northern counties conducted by Thomas Tonge (d. 1536), Norroy King of Arms, the records of which provide details of the arms of almost all the abbeys (but none of the nunneries) considered in this study, as well as gleanings about the burial of benefactors,142 important evidence of patronage and religious culture. The outstanding seventeenth-century antiquarian of northern monasticism was Roger Dodsworth (1585–1654),143 the principal collaborator with William Dugdale (1605–86) on the Monasticon Anglicanum. 144 Dodsworth transcribed numerous charters from the religious houses north of the Trent which had been gathered together at St  Mary’s Tower, York, many of which were destroyed in 1644 during the Civil War siege of the city. A Monasticon bore­ ale was projected by Dodsworth, but was never published.145 Nevertheless, his sixty manu­script notebooks provided the principal source for Dr John Burton’s Monasticon Eboracense. Burton (1710–71) was a philanthropist, physician, and man-midwife, whose Jacobite sympathies were satirized in the person of Dr Slop in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.146 The Monasticon Eboracense was conceived as a two-volume work, but difficulties financing the project meant that the first and only volume was published in 1758. This made available in printed form many of the charters transcribed by Dodsworth, or which survived only in fragments from the destruction of St Mary’s Tower.147 The Monasticon Eboracense was primarily intended to be of interest to its gentry subscribers, and Burton 141  Leland, Commentarii de scriptoribus Britannicis, ed. by Hall; Collectanea, ed. by Hearne; Itinerary of John Leland, ed. by Toulmin Smith. The books catalogued by Leland are listed and discussed by Bell, The Libraries of the Cistercians. 142  London, College of Arms, MS D.4; Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties, ed. by Longstaffe. 143  Denholm-Young and Craster, ‘Roger Dodsworth (1585–1654) and his Circle’. 144  Denholm-Young and Craster, ‘Roger Dodsworth (1585–1654) and his Circle’, p. 6; Parry, The Trophies of Time, pp. 220, 222. 145  Denholm-Young and Craster, ‘Roger Dodsworth (1585–1654) and his Circle’, p. 7. 146  Forster, ‘Yorkshire’, pp. 434–35. 147  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, pp. v–vi.

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stated in the preface that his work would be of ‘singular use in the regulating of pedigrees of the most ancient families, particularly in the northern parts, and consequently of great service to heraldry’.148 Property rights were another of his concerns.149 Like much of the antiquarian literature from this time, very little attention is given to the material remains of the monasteries. However, it does include information about the burial of benefactors and the location of their tombs and early plans of the churches and claustral buildings of Kirkstall and Fountains.150 Northern antiquaries also played a part in the preservation of the material remains of the region’s monastic past. Burton’s library included books from the former religious houses of Yorkshire, many of which he sold to the Constable family of Burton Constable, near Hull, prominent Catholics.151 Sculpture from Kirkstall Abbey was in the museum of the Leeds antiquary Ralph Thoresby (1658–1724). However, after his death its contents were sold at knockdown prices or simply left to moulder and decay.152 By the middle of the nineteenth century, most northern Cistercian monasteries were the focus of antiquarian enquiry. A classic of the genre was the Revd T. D. Whitaker’s (1759–1823) study of the parish of Whalley, first published in 1801. Whitaker was vicar of Whalley and the interest of his study is enhanced by the employment of the young J. M. W. Turner to illustrate the book. Turner visited the area in 1799 and the drawings he made at this time were engraved by James Basire (Fig. 1.29). Turner had first toured the north in the summer of 1797, when Kirkstall and Fountains were among the monastic ruins he sketched.153 The artist was to return to the north on several occasions, visiting Rievaulx (1801), Calder (1809), and Jervaulx (1815). Indeed, Turner was one of many artists who flocked to northern monastic ruins from the 1770s.154 The desolation found in the north was a powerful inspiration for the Romantic imagination.155 148 

Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. vi. Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. vi. 150  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, plans facing pp. 141, 288. 151  I am most grateful to Dr David Connell, Director of the Burton Constable Foundation, for this information. 152  Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, p. 48. For a discussion of the contents of the museum, see Forster, ‘The First Medi­evalist in Leeds’, pp. 255–61. 153  Hill, Turner in the North, pp. 22–29, 36–39. 154  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 191. 155  Fergusson, ‘Cistercian Architecture’, p. 579. 149 

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Figure 1.29. Engraving of the east range of Whalley Abbey by James Basire after a drawing by J. M. W. Turner. 1801.

The resulting drawings, watercolours, and oils describe now lost structures, such as the undercroft of the dormitory at Kirkstall, and also show the serious decay into which the abbeys had fallen by the end of the eighteenth century. It is arguable that this decay made the abbeys even more appealing to artists and tourists. Francis Grose, the author of the Antiquities of England and Wales, a standard work of reference for tourists, was pleased to note the partial collapse of the crossing tower at Kirkstall in 1779: ‘a circumstance which, far from impairing the beauty of the ruin, has rendered it rather more picturesque than before’.156

156 

Quoted in Sweet, Antiquaries, pp. 298–99.

The Evidence

43

Archaeo­logical Exploration However, by this time attention was already beginning to turn to the preservation of monastic remains and their archaeo­logical exploration. Excavations were conducted by Thoresby in the cloister alleys at Kirkstall and by Whitaker in the choir at Whalley.157 In the mid-nineteenth century, J. Richard Walbran (1817–69) excavated Fountains, and also edited many of the monastery’s manu­script sources for publication.158 But it was the decades either side of 1900 that saw the systematic exploration of Cistercian sites in the north. Indeed, Cistercian studies to this day are still indebted to the results of such excavations and the meticulous examination of Cistercian architecture accompanying them. The architect and ecclesio­logist Sir John Micklethwaite (1843–1906) was described in his obituary as a patriotic Yorkshireman, which also highlighted his formidable knowledge of the abbeys in his native county.159 This knowledge provided the basis for his seminal article ‘On the Cistercian Plan’, a pioneering discussion of the layout of Cistercian monasteries. 160 Archaeo­ logical developments were to become dominated by Sir William St J. Hope (1854–1919), assistant secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. His work spanned more than forty years, during which he excavated almost thirty sites, including four northern Cistercian abbeys. Each resulted in a scholarly mono­ graph or major article, the most important of which are arguably his accounts of Fountains and Furness.161 Hope’s researches were grounded upon knowledge of the documentary sources and an appreciation of their value.162 The depth of Hope’s scholarship is evident in his interpretation of the evidence he uncovered at Fountains and Kirkstall showing the rearrangement of their churches in the late Middle Ages, which he discussed within the context of documentary evidence from the chronicle of Meaux Abbey and the Cistercians’ statutes concerning the demise of the lay brothers and the adoption of a more elaborate

157  Stopford, Medi­eval Floor Tiles of Northern England, p. 306; Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 110. 158  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i–ii. 159  Niven, ‘The Late John Thomas Micklethwaite’, p. 60. 160  Micklethwaite, ‘Of the Cistercian Plan’. 161  Thompson, ‘Sir William St John Hope’, p. 304. Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’; ‘The Abbey of St Mary in Furness’. 162  Thompson, ‘Sir William St John Hope’, p. 305.

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liturgy by the Order.163 Hope’s collaborators included the architect Sir Harold Brakspear (1870–1934), an acknowledged authority on Cistercian monasteries, with whom he excavated Fountains, Furness, and Jervaulx,164 and John Bilson (1856–1943), whose 1907 analysis of the church at Kirkstall provided the basis for a wider analysis of twelfth-century Cistercian architecture.165 It was thanks to the efforts of Sir Charles Peers (1868–1952) that several northern Cistercian houses entered state care in the early twentieth century, thereby preserving their ruins for future generations. In 1910, Peers was appointed inspector of ancient monuments at the Office (later Ministry) of Works and also served as director of the Society of Antiquaries.166 Peers is most associated with Rievaulx, which he considered the greatest of the ruined abbeys of Britain.167 His intervention saved the thirteenth-century presbytery from collapse. However, under Peers’s direction there was a ruthless clearance of the site, with the tragic loss of much primary evidence.168 Loss of sculpture and loose stonework at Rievaulx continued until 1994 when a curated, offsite storage facility was finally built at nearby Helmsley. Of the prime worked stone uncovered by Peers less than 5 per cent now survives.169 Today Rievaulx, along with Byland, Furness, Roche, Sawley, Rufford, and the fourteenth-century gatehouse at Whalley are in the care of English Heritage, with Fountains Abbey a National Trust site. The well-maintained ruins are provided with interpretation for the visiting public. The archaeo­logical examination of Cistercian monasteries continues to this day. The ongoing excavations at Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire,170 and digs conducted at Fountains and Sawley by Coppack and others have been described as ‘a model of monastic archaeo­logical investigation’,171 and have provided valuable evidence of the constant process of rebuilding and replanning of Cistercian monasteries during the four hundred years of their occupation, including the largely neglected period after 1300. 163 

Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 310; Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 19. Thompson, ‘Sir Harold Brakspear’, p. 213. 165  Bilson, ‘The Architecture of the Church at Kirkstall Abbey’; ‘The Architecture of the Cistercians’. 166  Doggett, ‘Peers, Sir Charles Reed (1868–1952)’. 167  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 198. 168  Fergusson, ‘Cistercian Architecture’, pp. 584–85. 169  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 201, 208. 170  [accessed 7 August 2018]. 171  Fergusson, ‘Cistercian Architecture’, p. 591. 164 

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Summary and Conclusion This chapter has provided the first comprehensive survey of the material, documentary, antiquarian, and archaeo­logical evidence available for a regional study of Cistercian art and architecture in the late Middle Ages. Even allowing for centuries of loss and destruction, the sources for such a study are abundant. When assembled, they leave little doubt that there was sustained investment in art and architecture at Cistercian monasteries in northern England in the two centuries before the Suppression. It is equally clear that much of this investment was directed towards the reordering, refurbishing, and equipping of churches for the celebration of the liturgy, immediately casting doubt on traditional notions of spiritual decay. The material and documentary sources strongly suggest that the range and appearance of the religious art of the Cistercians in northern England had little if anything to distinguish it from that encountered at Cistercian monasteries elsewhere in England and the houses of other orders. The following chapter will examine how the Cistercians found the financial resources to invest in their art and architecture and the identity and motives of their patrons.

Chapter 2

Patronage

I

n 1396 Thomas Burton marked his election to the abbacy of Meaux by preparing an inventory of the treasures and possessions of his monastery. Prominent among these were the silver vessels in the abbot’s own chamber.1 Several of these were the gifts of benefactors, the most precious being ‘le Wakecopp’. Weighing three pounds and seven ounces, it was the gift of Lord Thomas de Wake (1297–1349), lord of Cottingham and second Baron Wake of Liddell. His family had been benefactors of Meaux since the twelfth century, and Burton’s chronicle includes their genealogy. Lord Thomas maintained his family’s close contact with the monastery, mediating a dispute between the abbey and Sir John Meaux concerning the payment of rents for lands flooded by the Humber.2 Several other silver vessels in the abbot’s chamber were similarly gifts from external benefactors. These included a cup and cover weighing one pound four ounces, given by Robert del Crosse (d. 1408), a merchant of Hull, who served as the town’s mayor in 1383.3 The cup was far from being the merchant’s only association with Meaux. During the abbacy of William of Scarborough (1372–96) he founded a chantry at the altar of St Peter in the abbey church, which he generously endowed with tenements in Beverley and Grimston.4 1 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxvii. Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, 100, ii, 301. In 1320 Sir Thomas founded a house of Augustinian canons at Haltemprice, where he was buried; see Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 134–35. 3  For a bio­graphy, see Kermode, Medi­eval Merchants, p. 337. 4  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 195–98. 2 

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A further silver vessel and cover, called ‘le collock’, was the gift of John Franks of Hedon, who had taken out the tenancy of the monastery’s grange at Saltagh in c. 1392.5 The inventory suggests that external patrons were major benefactors of Meaux in the late Middle Ages, and that the abbey was able to attract patronage from individuals at the highest level of society. Nor was such patronage restricted to Meaux. Recent studies of the Cistercian abbeys of Croxden, Staffordshire, and Netley, Hampshire, show that the Order esteemed their relations with external benefactors, who were patrons of the art and architecture of the Cistercian monasteries until the very end of the Middle Ages.6 Synthesizing the material and documentary evidence, this chapter will systematically analyse the contributions of all types of patron to the art and architecture of the Cistercians in northern England. It will start with an examination of internal patronage, showing that abbots, using the resources of their monasteries, were by far the most important class of patron, their attention focused on all aspects of monastic art and architecture. Although heraldry was often used to advertise this patronage, it was motivated by much more than mere self-aggrandisement and evidence will be cited showing that it was in fact viewed by the Cistercians as a pious abbatial responsibility, and that its direction and extent also testifies to the self-confidence and spiritual vitality of the Order. The precious-metal plate at Meaux referred to above clearly indicates that the Cistercians benefited from external patronage, which on occasion was extremely generous. I will show that the Order nurtured its relationship with its lay and ecclesiastical patrons at all levels of society, and was even successful at attracting the benefaction of rising aristocrat families. There is no evidence that the Cistercians did anything other than welcome the investment of the laity in their art and architecture, which was viewed by monks and donors alike as mutually beneficial. As will be shown, the arms of patrons, new and old, adorned the liturgical hearts of Cistercian churches, where they served as a prompt for the monks to piously remember their benefactors, and also as a vivid statement of the patrons’ confidence in the efficacy of the monks’ prayers. Moreover, it served as evidence of the Order’s deep historical roots in the region and was an unambiguous statement of its enduring relevance and prestige in northern society.

5  6 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 182. Hall, ‘Croxden Abbey Church’; Smith, ‘Netley Abbey’.

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Internal Patronage Julian Luxford’s study of Benedictine patronage in the western counties showed that heads of religious houses were the most important patrons of monastic art and architecture.7 All male Cistercian communities had a father abbot at their head, whose responsibilities were detailed in the Rule of St Benedict. These included caring for the material well-being of his brethren.8 Evidence will be presented showing that it was indeed abbots as the leaders and personifications of their communities who were the most energetic patrons of the art and architecture of Cistercian monasteries in the later Middle Ages. But before proceeding to a discussion of the extent, direction, and purpose of this patronage, it is first necessary to show how Cistercian abbots found the financial resources to invest in art and architecture. The answers are not as straightforward as might be assumed. Indeed, can all internal patronage at northern Cistercian abbeys indicated by heraldry or described in chronicles be safely attributed to abbots? Luxford’s examination of Benedictine patronage showed that many of the works credited to monastic superiors were in fact the fruit of more communal enterprises, funded by contributions from general monastic incomes.9 It is likely that this was true to an even greater extent for the Cistercians. The Order did not adopt the Benedictine practice of allocating specific manors for the support of the abbot and his household.10 Moreover, by the late Middle Ages the financial independence of Cistercian abbots was severely curtailed. The constitution of the Order issued by Pope Benedict XII in 1335, usually called the Benedictina, placed firm restrictions on abbatial control of finances.11 Supervisory rights were vested to monastic communities, and the consent of the General Chapter was required for loans. Two bursarii were appointed for each house, who were to receive and distribute all revenues. The bursars allocated funds for the use of abbots, who were required to account annually to the bursars and other senior office holders within their monastery for their expenditure. Any funds given directly to an

7 

Luxford, The Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 51–82. Rule of St Benedict, ed. and trans. by White, chaps 2, 64, pp. 13–15, 93–94. 9  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 56–60. 10  For the Benedictine practice, see Knowles, MO, pp. 270–80; Knowles, RO, ii, 240–44; Howell, ‘Abbatial Vacancies and the Divided Mensa in Medi­eval England’. 11  For the constitution as ratified by the Cistercian General Chapter, see Statuta, iii, 410–36. 8 

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abbot were to be handed to the bursars on pain of suspen­sion.12 The Benedictina also mandated that all houses were to obtain a conventual seal, thereby further securing communal control of finances. This had been the situation in England since the Statute of Carlisle of 1307, which required all Cistercian abbeys to possess a conventual seal which was to be deposited in the custody of the prior and four ‘worthier’ and more discreet members of the community. The abbot could no longer commit his house to a debt or obligation by means of a personal seal.13 The surviving accounts of English Cistercian monasteries show that the abbot was allocated a sum for his expenses, but that it was the convent which funded expenditure on liturgical furnishings, fixtures, and equipment, as well as the maintenance and renovations of the church and conventual buildings, and also works at appropriated churches, granges, and urban properties. The accounts of Meaux for 1393–94 allocated a mere 10s to the abbot for his expenses,14 hardly enough to fund the ambitious building programmes and the provision of the sumptuous altar furnishings lovingly described in the abbey’s chronicle. The annual allowance allotted to the abbot of Fountains in 1457–58 was more generous at £30.15 Nevertheless, this would have been a woefully insufficient amount to pay for the extensive works conducted at the monastery during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Evidence that the monastery funded these is provided by the bursar’s accounts for 1457–58, which record payments to glaziers and masons.16 Similarly the accounts of Sawley Abbey for 1481 detail payments to carpenters, glaziers, masons, plumbers, and tilers.17 Building works at Whalley were also funded from the general monastic income. The accounts for 1478 record that £10 14s was spent on the fabric of the church, which increased to £22 in 1520 and £23 in 1521.18 12 

For discussions of these financial provisions, see McDonald, ‘The Papacy and Monastic Observance in the Later Middle Ages’, p. 121; Lekai, The Cistercians, pp. 72–73 and Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p. 75. 13  Heslop, ‘Cistercian Seals in England and Wales’, pp. 273–74, 278. For the passages in the Statute of Carlisle and Benedictina regarding conventual seals, see Heslop, ‘Cistercian Seals in England and Wales’, pp. 282–83. 14  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxvi. 15  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 12. 16  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 52, 56, 57, 85. 17  The accounts are printed (but incorrectly attributed to 1381) in Whitaker, History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, pp. 63–69; this error is corrected by Coppack, Hayfield, and Williams, ‘Sawley Abbey’, p. 25. 18  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 100 (1478 and 1521); Ashmore, ‘Whal-

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It seems unlikely that abbots were able to call upon personal or familial wealth to fund their patronage. Few Cistercian abbots originated from elite families. Instead, the majority seem to have belonged to families of non-gentry, or at most minor gentry status, which often had long-standing connections with the monastery their offspring entered. An example is Abbot William Marshall of Kirkstall (1509–28), whose enduring legacy is the heightening of the crossing tower at his monastery. The Marshall family of Allerton, near Leeds, where Kirkstall had a grange, are documented as connected with the abbey from the thirteenth century.19 Marshall’s local origins are indicated by his appointment in 1519 as supervisor of the will of his brother, Christopher Marshall of Potternewton, a village in close proximity to Allerton.20 Similarly, the family of Abbot Robert Chamber of Holm Cultram were tenants of the monastery’s grange at Raby Cote from the fifteenth century.21 Northern Cistercian abbots, like the superiors of religious houses in other orders, performed valuable services for the local community until the very end of the Middle Ages.22 In 1511 Abbot Marshall of Kirkstall witnessed the will of Richard Baines of Leeds, and in 1519 Brian Palmes, serjeant-at-law, appointed Marshall his executor.23 Cistercian abbots also undertook services for the state, for example Abbot Robert Thornton of Jervaulx (1511–33) was appointed to a royal commission to gather corn in northern England.24 The secular status and influence of these Cistercian abbots was nothing compared to the position of absolute authority which they enjoyed within ley Abbey Bursars’ Accounts’, p. 72 (1520). Evidence from Cistercian abbeys outside the geo­ graphical scope of this study also underlines the point that the monastery itself funded expenditure on art and architecture. The cost of decorating the church at Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire, at the end of the thirteenth century is itemized in the bursar’s accounts; see Account Book of Beaulieu Abbey, ed. by Hockey, pp. 34, 242. The construction of the abbot’s nova aula at Sibton Abbey, Suffolk, in 1368 was funded to the tune of £24 6s 4d from the monastery’s general income, and from the same source Geoffrey le Glaswryth was paid 31s 7d for its glazing; see Sibton Abbey Estates, ed. by Denny, p. 29. 19  Barnes, Kirkstall Abbey, pp. 16, 30–31. 20  Barnes, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 84. 21  Grainger, ‘The Chambers Family of Raby Cote’, pp. 194–96. 22  Cross, ‘Monasticism and Society in the Diocese of York’. 23  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 24–25, 107. 24  L&P Henry VIII, iv.2, 3822. For discussion of the role of monastic superiors in local government, see Heale, Abbots and Priors of Late Medi­eval and Reformation England, pp. 205–12.

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their abbeys, where they lived apart from their convent in separate lodgings, attended by retainers and servants, which in the case of the abbots of Fountains and Furness included members of the local gentry community.25 As will be seen shortly, inscriptional and heraldic evidence repeatedly suggests that Cistercian abbots were active patrons. However, this patronage was only possible because of the participation of the convent and the use of the often-substantial income derived from the monastery’s estates. Indeed, in the late Middle Ages, the Cistercians were maximizing the feudal income obtained from this source.26 It is clear that abbots were spending large amounts of their monasteries’ money. Fountains can serve as an example. At the Suppression, its annual income was over £1000, wealth that was comparable to some Benedictine cathedral priories.27 Huby spent this income lavishly. In a letter to the General Chapter at Cîteaux written in April 1517 he stated that during his tenure of office he had spent 1000 marks in defence of his Order,28 money which would have been appropriated from the general income of his monastery. Such lavish expenditure could lead to conflict between abbots and their monks. Abbot John Paslew (1507–37) undertook extensive building work at Whalley, including the construction of a Lady Chapel and the rebuilding of his own lodging, and in 1520 his total expenditure amounted to £500 out of the abbey’s annual income of £900.29 He also secured the right to use the mitre and other pontificalia in 1516.30 His community clearly resented the expense involved in obtaining this privilege. After the suppression of Whalley in 1537, several of its former monks complained to the royal authorities that Paslew had for six or seven years continually diminished the plate of the house ‘since he took it upon himself to be a mitred abbot’.31 Mindful perhaps of the ill ease of their brethren about their expenditure, some Cistercian abbots were taking steps to obtain an income which was independent and distinct from their convents by securing papal permission 25 

For details of the household, see Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed.  by Michelmore, pp. xxviii–xxix. 26  For a discussion of the ways in which this was achieved, see Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. xlv–xlvi. 27  Knowles, RO, iii, 473. 28  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 242–46. 29  Ashmore, ‘Whalley Abbey’, pp. 7–9. 30  CPL, xix, 492–93. 31  L&P Henry VIII, xii.1, 621.

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to acquire benefices normally reserved for the secular clergy. One such abbot was John Burton (1489–1510) of Rievaulx. The abbot converted the twelfthcentury monastic infirmary at Rievaulx into an abbatial lodging after receiving the authorization of Pope Alexander VI in 1497 to hold a lay benefice ‘to enable him to be maintained in abbatial dignity’. 32 Abbot Thornton of Jervaulx, another patron, was granted a similar privilege in 1516.33 It is also of note that Abbot Thomas Chard of Forde in Dorset and Abbot Robert King of Thame in Oxfordshire, both of whom built palatial lodgings, likewise successfully appealed to the papacy for permission to hold ecclesiastical livings usually reserved for the secular clergy.34

The Extent of Internal Patronage The use of conventual incomes and independent sources of funding allowed generations of Cistercian abbots to be energetic and at times prolific patrons. The surviving material evidence for this is abundant, showing that the celebration of the liturgy was a priority for patronage, which was directed at the refurbishment of churches, the provision of liturgical furniture, and the acquisition of vestments. Heraldic and inscriptional evidence shows that the monastic churches at Fountains, Holm Cultram, and Kirkstall were renovated or rebuilt under the auspices of their respective abbots. John Darnton (1479–95) remodelled the east end of the church at Fountains, work which involved taking down the vaults of the great thirteenth-century eastern transept, the Chapel of the Nine Altars, and its partial refenestration, an inscription dating this work to 1483. The abbot recorded his patronage with his rebus (the eagle of St John, the letters ‘dern’, and a tun), together with the motto ‘Benedicite fontes Domino’, which punned on the name of the abbey (‘Oh you fountains, bless the Lord’). The abbot also renovated 32 

CPL, xx, 530–31. For the lodging, see Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 132–35. 33  CPL, xx, 387–78. 34  BAV, Lateran Reg. 1463, fols 334r–335r, 14 Kal Jan 1524, permission for Abbot Chard to hold secular benefices; BAV, Lateran Reg. 1477, fols 164r–169r, permission for Abbot King to hold suffragan bishopric, and grant of indult to retain the abbey of Thame and to hold a third benefice. All dated 7 Id Jan 4 Clement VII. I am extremely grateful to Dr Martin Heale for these references. For Chard’s lodging, see Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, iii, 560–65. Abbot King’s house at Thame is described and discussed by Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, iii, 180–83.

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the nave, inserting a great west window, again proclaiming his patronage with his rebus, which is accompanied by the date 1494 (Fig.  2.1). 35 Rebuilding at Fountains continued under Abbot Huby, notably the great bell tower attached to the north transept, which is ornamented with liturgical inscriptions (discussed, pp.  93–100) as well as Huby’s motto and monogram.36 At Holm Cultram, Abbot Chamber added a porch to the west front of the abbey, recording his patronage with an inscription and heraldry (Fig. 1.27),37 and an ex situ fragmentary sculpture records that the abbot covered it or some other building Figure 2.1. Rebus of Abbot John Darnton with lead.38 Abbot Marshall of on an image console in the west front Kirkstall had his initials inscribed of Fountains Abbey. 1494. on the buttresses of the storeys he added to the church’s crossing tower.39 Abbots were also patrons of the bells which hung in such towers, and a surviving example can be found at the parish church of St Peter, Kirkthorpe, near Wakefield, which is inscribed with the name of one of Marshall’s predeces35 

Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 296, 312. Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 314–16; Carter, ‘Tower of Abbot Marmaduke Huby’. 37  The architecture of Holm Cultram, including Chamber’s porch, is discussed in Harrison, ‘Architecture of Holm Cultram’, pp. 239–56. See also the description in Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, pp. 120–21. 38  The much-abbreviated inscription, which is now ex situ inside the abbey porch, reads: ‘‘Chab’ ltruxit op’ ho plubogo texit’. Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 121 gives this plausible translation: ‘Chamber erected this building, and covered it with lead’. 39  Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, p.  16; Leach and Pevsner, Yorkshire: West Riding, p.  505; Carter, ‘Abbot William Marshall (1509–28) and the Architectural Development of Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 117. 36 

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Figure 2.2. Misericord decorated with the initials of Abbot William of Whalley, now at Whalley Parish Church. c. 1418–34. Courtesy of Charles Tracy.

sors, Abbot John Bardsey (1392–1410),40 while a bell inscribed with the name of Abbot Thomas York (c. 1450–c. 1470) still hangs at Holm Cultram.41 Furnishings provided by abbots for their monastic churches also survive, notably the choir stalls from Whalley Abbey which were removed at the Suppression to the nearby parish church. The initials ‘WW’ on one of the misericords (Fig. 2.2) suggest that the stalls were commissioned during the abbacy of William of Whalley (1418–34),42 a conclusion supported by a reference to the induction of Abbot John Eccles in 1438 ‘in nova stalla’.43 Bench-ends and screens from Jervaulx Abbey survive at St Andrew’s, Aysgarth, Yorkshire. The initials ‘HM’ of an unidentified abbot decorate one of the bench-ends (Fig. 2.3) and one of the screens. A second bench-end is carved with the rebus of William Heslington, abbot of the monastery from 1475 to 1510 (fig. 2.4). A fragment of another screen has the initials of Adam Sedbar (1533–37), the final abbot of Jervaulx, and the date 1536,44 just one year before the abbot was executed and the monastery suppressed following the Pilgrimage of Grace. 40 

Wardell, Historical Account of Kirkstall Abbey, p. 34. Register and Records of Holm Cultram, ed. by Grainger and Collingwood, p. 149. 42  Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, p. 1. 43  BL, MS Harley 1830, fol. 24r. 44  The intact screen and bench-ends were formerly attributed to the workshop of the Ripon carver William Brownfelt; see Purvis, ‘The Ripon School of Carvers’, pp. 165–67. This attribution has been challenged and re-assessed; see Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, pp. 25, 72. 41 

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Figure 2.3. Bench-end with the monogram ‘HM’, an unidentified abbot of Jervaulx. Aysgarth Parish Church. Late fifteenth century. 45 

A black mourning vestment from Jervaulx decorated with Last Judgement imagery and the rebus of Abbot Robert Thornton also survives (Plate  2). 45 Other evidence of abbatial patronage of vestments is suggested by the inventory of the possessions of Whalley at the time of its Suppression, which lists an ‘old vestment of black velvet imbrioidered with doble W with all things thereunto belonging for deacon and subdeacon’.46 The initials are presumably those of Abbot William of Whalley which likewise ornament the misericord of the abbot’s stall referred to immediately above. Illuminated and decorated books showing evidence of abbatial patronage are also extant, including the richly decorated two-volume cartulary from Furness Abbey which has an introductory verse recording that the work was undertaken by John Stell, a monk of the house, in 1412 at the order of Abbot William Dalton (1406–18),47 who also purchased a decorated manu­script comprising a collection of theo­logical works for his monastery.48 An inscription in a decorated thirteenth-century manu­ script including the works of Aristotle and other authors from Whalley records

V&A, 697-1902; discussed by Carter, ‘Remembrance, Liturgy and Status’. ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 109. 47  The first part of the cartulary is, London, TNA, DL, Misc Books 3, the second, BL, MS Add. 33244. The inscription appears in Add. 33244, fol. 2r. 48  Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Jones 48. The inscription recording Dalton’s donation reads, ‘Istum librum emit frater Willelmus de Dalton abbas huius monasterii’ (This book was purchased by Brother William of Dalton, abbot of this monastery) and is on fol. 7v. 46 

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Figure 2.4. Monogram of an unidentified abbot of Jervaulx on a screen from the abbey. Now at Aysgarth Parish Church. Late fifteenth century.

that it was deposited in the abbey’s common book cupboard by Abbot Gregory of Norbury (1292– 1310), 49 whereas Abbot William Spencer of Rievaulx (1436–49) presented its library with a workaday copy of the works of Robert Grosseteste and other authors.50 Books were also acquired by abbots for their personal use. The most striking example is the breviary of Abbot Huby now in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. As has already been seen, it has added illuminated borders and initials in the Renaissance style, and the shield in the base of the opening page of the Psalter is illuminated with Huby’s monogram and motto (Plate 5).51 An enamelled roundel from Rievaulx Abbey with the arms of Abbot John Inkeley (1449–63) demonstrates that northern Cistercian abbots were patrons of luxury metalwork (Fig. 2.6).52 The 49 

Figure 2.5. Rebus of Abbot William Heslington of Jervaulx on a benchend now at Aysgarth Parish Church. Late fifteenth century.

Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS Lat. 150, fol. ir. Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 155. The inscriptions recording Spencer’s gift are on fols 2v and 274v. 51  Oxford, Christ Church, e. 8. 29. It is discussed by Carter, ‘Breviary of Abbot Marmaduke Huby’. 52  Dunning, ‘Heraldic and Decorated Metalwork’, pp. 54–55. 50 

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Figure 2.6. Copper-gilt and enamel roundel with the arms of Abbot John Inkeley. Rievaulx Abbey Museum. 1449–63. Courtesy of Historic England.

quality of liturgical metalwork in Cistercian abbeys is suggested by the morses from Warden Abbey, Bedfordshire, a daughter house of Rievaulx, which are decorated with the monogram of Abbot Walter Clifton (c. 1377–97).53 Abbot Clifton was also a patron of stained glass, panels in the parish church at Old Warden depicting both himself and St  Martha.54 Although no significant stained glass has survived from a Cistercian house in the northern counties, the fragments that survive show that there were figurative and narrative glazing schemes and it was surely the case that the abbots of these houses both commissioned and were depicted in similar panels. Abbots were also patrons of domestic architecture, improving both their own accommodation and that of their community. Cistercian abbots had always occupied a room or lodging apart from the rest of the community, and by the early thirteenth century the Order’s abbeys in England were being equipped with separate houses for the abbot.55 In the later Middle Ages these houses were renovated and completely rebuilt at several abbeys, including Fountains. There 53 

Carter, ‘Cracking the Code’. Marks, ‘Cistercian Window Glass in England and Wales’, pp.  225–26, and Marks, Stained Glass in England during the Middle Ages, pp. 11, 19, 169, 174, 180. 55  For discussion of the lodgings of Cistercian abbots and their development, see Coomans, L’abbaye de Villers-en-Brabant, p. 455; Hall, ‘East of the Cloister’. 54 

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Figure 2.7. Sculpted motto and initials of Abbot Huby on the chapel of Bewerley Grange. Early sixteenth century.

are now only scanty remains of the abbot’s house, which was situated to the east of the main monastic nucleus. However, excavations in this area by Walbran in the mid-nineteenth century uncovered evidence of its rebuilding by Huby, including ‘stones bearing the well-known initials MH’.56 Abbots were also concerned with the comfort of their communities, which included the provision of misericords, or meat refectories. Cistercian monks originally had a strictly vegetarian diet. This was relaxed by the Benedictina in 1335, and by the late fifteenth century it had become the practice to eat meat on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.57 Abbot Darnton provided the community at Fountains with a misericord adjoining his own residence at approximately the same time, its floor tiles inscribed with the abbot’s initials.58 Evidence of patronage can be found outside monastic precincts, for example at the granges of Fountains, several of which were rebuilt during Huby’s abbacy. These include Bewerley Grange where the abbot’s initials and motto appear on the east end of the chapel (Fig. 2.7).59 Fragments of similar inscriptions occur 56 

Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, p. 143. For a description of Huby’s development of the abbot’s lodging, see Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 335–39 and Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 102. 57  Lekai, The Cistercians, pp. 73, 371. 58  Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 97. 59  Pevsner and Radcliffe, Yorkshire: West Riding, p. 100; Platt, Monastic Grange in England, p. 189.

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Figure 2.8. Piel Castle. Courtesy of Historic England.

at Brimham Grange,60 the monastery’s accounts for 1457–58 recording the expenses incurred by the abbot during his visits there.61 At the Suppression silver plate for the abbot’s use at Brimham included a chalice, a goblet, and salt of silver and seven silver spoons.62 Several of the granges of Newminster Abbey were also rebuilt, but here the architecture appears to have been concerned with defence rather than luxury, evidence of the fear of Scottish raids discussed in the Introduction to this book. Abbot John Butler (c. 1453–79) erected a tower at Rothley,63 and by the Suppression the granges at West Ritton and Nunnykirk had also been fortified.64 The abbot and convent of Furness were granted, in 1327, a licence to crenellate ‘their dwelling house’ on Piel Island in the harbour of Barrow, which guarded the passage to and from the abbey’s estates in Ireland and the Isle of Man (Fig. 2.8). Piel Island formed part of the original grant of King Stephen to the abbey on condition that the abbot ‘make, sustain, repair and guard a fort’ there. However in 1407, Abbot John of Bolton was accused of not maintaining the castle and it was seized by the king. It was returned to the custody of 60 

Platt, Monastic Grange in England, p. 192. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 25, 52, 67. 62  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 293–94. 63  Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 262; Hodgson, History of Northumberland, ii, 305. 64  Bates, ‘The Border Holds of Northumberland’, p. 21. 61 

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the abbey in 1411, but was badly decayed when the abbey was suppressed in 1537. 65 The estates of Furness Abbey at Dalton were administered from a fortified tower, which was built c.  1350 (Fig.  2.9). 66 The windows in the upper storeys have fine, if much restored, tracery of that date, and on each corner of the parapet are eroded figures of knights.67 These are in the tradition of the figures on the battlements such as those at Micklegate Bar and Bootham Bar, York.68 Only earthworks now remain of Wolsty Castle, Cumber­ land, a manor of Holm Cultram. Figure 2.9. Dalton Castle. Its abbot received licence to crenellate Wolsty in 1348.69 As late as 1507/08, the community at Holm Cultram sought refuge there due to incursions by the Scots and ‘other perverse men’.70 There is also evidence of conventual or abbatial patronage at appropriated churches. The bursar’s account of Fountains Abbey for 1457–58 records the purchase of a retable for the church at Crosthwaite costing 26s 8d.71 In 1488, the abbot of Fountains accepted responsibility for the upkeep of the chancel there.72 In the nineteenth century there was ‘ancient stall work’ with the arms of Kirkstall Abbey at the church of St Mary, Barnoldswick, the original site of the £

65  Harrison, Wood, and Newman, Furness Abbey, pp. 37–39; Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, i, 240; Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 576. 66  Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, i, 167. 67  Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 328. 68  Though these are nineteenth-century replacements; see Pevsner and Neave, York and the East Riding, pp. 193–94. 69  CPR, Edward III, 1348–50, viii, 194. 70  L&P Henry VIII, xix, 57, no. 98. 71  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 52. 72  Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 1–7.

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abbey.73 In 1620 Roger Dodsworth recorded the arms of Byland Abbey glazed into the east window of Bubwith church, accompanied by the inscriptions ‘Orate Pro Abbate de Biland, qui fieri fecit medietatem hujus finestre’ (pray for the abbot of Byland, who made half this window) and ‘Arma domus de Biland’ (arms of the house of Byland).74 There are also instances of abbots contributing to buildings in which their monasteries had no direct interest. During his short tenure as abbot of Kirkstall, Robert Killingbeck (1499–1501) contributed to the rebuilding of nearby Leeds Parish Church, a now lost inscription from its east end recording that he donated stone for the construction of ‘Our Lady’s service’, or Lady Chapel.75 The abbot’s toponym suggests that he was from a hamlet within the parish of Leeds. Sepulchral monuments of abbots and monks will be discussed in Chapter 4. It will therefore suffice to say here that the tombs of several Cistercian abbots provide interesting evidence of patronage, ranging from the humble cross slab in a nave chapel at Rievaulx of Abbot Henry Burton (1423–29),76 to the tomb chest of Abbot Chamber at Holm Cultram, which is sculpted with the abbot’s rebus and depicts the abbot and his entire community.77 In contrast to the extensive evidence of abbatial patronage, little survives to suggest that obedientaries or individual cloister monks made a significant contribution to the art and architecture of their monasteries. Unlike their Benedictine contemporaries, the Cistercians did not allocate separate manors and incomes to obedientaries and therefore evidence of patronage in the discharge of their duties by office holders such as the sacrist is lacking. For instance, the bursar’s accounts dating to 1457–58 from Fountains document expenditure on materials for vestments and their repair,78 whereas the accounts of Whalley Abbey for 1520 records that £4 10s was allocated from the general

73 

Cox, Bench-Ends in English Churches, p. 179. The bench-end is no longer there, but the arms of the abbey are sculpted in ex situ stonework which is now incorporated into the east wall of the chancel. For the grange, see Platt, Monastic Grange in Medi­eval England, p. 189. 74  Dodsworth, Yorkshire Church Notes, ed. by Clay, p. 247. For Byland’s appropriation of Bubwith, see Cartulary of Byland Abbey, ed. by Burton, pp. xxv, lxxvi–lxxvii, 106–14. At the Suppression the monastery derived an annual income of £9 from the church; see Valor, v, 93. 75  Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, p. 50. 76  Fergusson and others, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 7. 77  Carter, ‘“hys…days here lyven was”’. 78  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 49, 51.

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income of the monastery for the purchase of vestments.79 Therefore, unlike the Benedictines in western England, there are no inscriptions in stone or glass to record the patronage of obedientaries. However, individual Cistercian monks did contribute to the possessions of their monasteries, especially by the acquisition and donation of books. The early fifteenth-century ex libris inscription in a thirteenth-century manu­script of the works of Duns Scotus from Whalley records that it was obtained for the monastery by Brother William of Singleton, sometime scholar.80 Monks were also buying books for their own personal use. According to the Rule of St Benedict the ‘vice of personal property must by all means be cut out in the monastery by the very root’. The ownership of books was explicitly forbidden.81 The Cistercian constitution issued in 1335 forbid all forms of personal property, books included.82 Nevertheless, by the late Middle Ages the ownership of decorated and illuminated books by northern Cistercian monks was widespread. For instance a fifteenth-century treatise on musical theory from Byland Abbey has an ownership inscription stating that it was the book of Brother John Gilling, and was purchased by him in 1477 (Fig. 2.10).83 The acquisition of this and other books was in part made possible by the wages which were paid to monks. Such wages were introduced for Benedictine monks in the thirteenth century.84 By the early fifteenth century those paid to ordained monks at Westminster were substantial, amounting to £10 or £11 a year, sufficient in secular society to maintain a substantial independent household.85 However, Westminster was an exceptionally wealthy house, and the wages paid to Cistercian communities were somewhat more modest and reflected the income of their abbeys. Quarterly expenditure on wages for the twenty or so monks at Whalley Abbey in 1520 amounted

79 

Ashmore, ‘Whalley Abbey Bursars’ Accounts’, p. 68. At Sibton Abbey, Suffolk, the bursar likewise funded the purchase of plate; see Sibton Abbey Estates, ed. by Denney, p. 31. 80  Canterbury, Cathedral Library, MS Lit. B. 1 (73), fol. ir. 81  Rule of St Benedict, ed. and trans. by White, chap. 33, p. 55. 82  ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation’, ed. by Norton, p. 391. 83  ‘Liber fratris Johannis Gillyng monachi Bellalande, emptus a quodam carpentario, nomine Sproxton, Anno Domini. 1477º. sexto KL’ Junii’ (Book of Brother John Gilling, monk of Byland, bought from a certain carpenter called Sproxton, 6 June, year of Our Lord 1477); Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 842, fol. 1r. 84  For wages and their origin, see Knowles, RO, i, 287–89; Knowles, RO, ii, 240–44; and Harvey, Living and Dying in England, p. 153. 85  Harvey, ‘A Novice’s Life at Westminster Abbey’, p. 56.

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Figure 2.10. Ex libris inscription of John Gilling, monk of Byland, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 842, fol. 1r. 1477. Courtesy of the Bodleian Library.

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to £11 6s 8d.86 Supplementing this income were gifts and bequests from family members, such as that of John de Rodam who left his brother, a monk of Fountains, one mark in 1390,87 and payments for obits, a typical example being the 23s which Christopher Conyers, rector of Rudby, bequeathed to the community of Jervaulx in 1483.88 It is doubtful if the ownership of books would have been viewed as a breach of monastic vows. Like the volumes in the possession of individual Benedictine monks, they are likely to have been considered part of a monk’s personal spiritual armoury.89

Cistercian Attitudes towards Internal Patronage The surviving material evidence can be augmented by documentary sources, especially the chronicle of Meaux Abbey. The author, Thomas Burton, stated in its preface that his intention was the glorification of his predecessors. Burton was concerned that ‘the memory of the illustrious men, the abbots of Meaux, is almost lost on account of sloth and neglect, and I grieve that their light is obscured’.90 He describes how almost all his predecessors added to or improved the buildings and furnishings of their monastery in some way. The abbey’s church was rebuilt under successive abbots between c. 1200 and the consecration of the high altar in 1247.91 At the same time, Meaux’s abbots devoted resources to the construction and equipping of the claustral and domestic buildings to serve the needs of the monks and lay brethren. This work is described in as much detail as grander architectural projects, an indication that the paternal responsibility of an abbot was to focus his building activities on the physical needs of his community. The chronicle also describes the furnishings which individual abbots commissioned for the church. These included the stalls for the monks provided by Abbot Michael Brun (1235–49).92 Abbot Roger of Driffield (1286–1310) 86 

Ashmore, ‘Whalley Abbey Bursars’ Accounts’, p. 67. There is comparative evidence from southern England. In 1465–66 the fourteen monks of Sibton Abbey each received 15s 10d, little more than pocket money; see Sibton Abbey Estates, ed. by Denney, p. 33. 87  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 137. 88  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 289. 89  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, p. 48. 90  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, 71; Gransden, Historical Writing in England, ii, 361. 91  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, 326. 92  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 63.

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placed two retables decorated with pictures on the high altar,93 which Abbot Adam de Skyrne (1310–39) further decorated with an altarpiece painted with the Evangelists, prophets, and Apostles.94 Abbot Hugh of Leven (1339–49) commissioned a remarkable figure of the Crucified Christ for the rood.95 The altars of St Benedict and St Peter were embellished with painted retables by Abbot William of Scarborough (1372–96), who also installed the Jesus bell in the abbey’s campanile.96 The continuation of the chronicle details Burton’s own contributions to the art and architecture of Meaux, which included the provision of three more bells for the tower, the repair of the cloister, the construction of a mill, and the fitting out of a chamber for his predecessor.97 Burton’s comments about the patronage of Abbot William (1249–69) provide important insights into the attitudes of late medi­e val Cistercian abbots towards patronage. Burton describes how the abbot built a bell tower and placed within it a great bell called Benedict.98 The Order’s legislation prohibiting bell towers with multiple storeys has already been alluded to in the Introduction and Chapter 1. The General Chapter at Cîteaux decreed in 1157: ‘Turres lapideae ad campanas non fiant’ (let stone towers with bells not be built).99 This prohibition was expanded upon in a codification of Cistercian legislation in 1237 to state: ‘let stone towers with bells not be built nor [wooden] towers of extravagant height [be built]’.100 This decree was repeated in the codification of the Order’s legislation issued in 1257, approximately the time when the tower was built at Meaux.101 However, this regulation was replaced in 1289 with a general decree prohibiting ‘novelty’ and ‘superfluity’ in the Order’s buildings. This clause was again ratified in 1316 and was so vague that it could be interpreted as allowing towers.102 Burton was therefore writing his chronicle at a time 93 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 237. Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 312. 95  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, pp. xi, 35. 96  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 224. 97  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 240–42. 98  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 119. 99  ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 328. 100  ‘Turres lapidee ad campanas non fiant, nec lignee altitudinis immoderate’; ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 368. 101  ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 378. 102  Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, p. 8; ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 384. 94 

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when the Order’s legislation on towers no longer applied. Indeed, it is clear that he saw nothing wrong in the building of the bell tower by his mid-thirteenthcentury predecessor. Far from admonishing Abbot William for contravening the legislation which was current in the mid-thirteenth century, he praised his sanctity, virtue, and maintenance of discipline within his monastery. Moreover, he records that Abbot William was buried in a prestigious location, before the lectern in the chapter house and that miracles were attributed to him.103 The so-called President Book of Fountains Abbey provides further insights into the attitudes of late medi­eval Cistercian abbots towards patronage. A gesta abbatum written in the mid-fifteenth century, it records the election, death, and burial of the monastery’s abbots from its foundation in 1132 to 1442.104 It is possible that its author was the scholarly Abbot John Greenwell (1442–71), who himself initiated a programme of repair and renovation of the abbey church.105 Only very brief details of the deeds of individual abbots are provided in the President Book, but the abbacy of John of Kent (1219–47) is described in unusual detail, the author recording that ‘he built and finished the Nine Altars, the cloister, the infirmary, the pavement, and guesthouse, to receive Christ’s poor as well as the great ones of the world’.106 Patronage was still considered estimable by Cistercian abbots at the very end of the Middle Ages. In 1517 Abbot William Helmsley of Rievaulx (1513–30) wrote to the abbot of Cîteaux asking to be allowed to join Marmaduke Huby as one of the reformers of the northern province, noting the ‘many good things’ Huby had undertaken at Fountains, where he was ‘the cultivator of discipline, the planter of piety […] and the new repairer of his church’. The abbot of Rievaulx also commented favourably on Huby’s patronage of St Bernard’s, the Cistercian college at Oxford, writing: We can say for sure, he built a hall, a very beautiful chapel with glass in the windows, and he erected the walls of the fourth and last part of the forementioned college until the roof […] because the forementioned abbot of Fountains had a strong 103 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 119. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 170–95; translated in Oxford, Ruins of Fountains Abbey, pp. 127–41. 105  Archaeo­logical excavations at Fountains have unearthed stratified numismatic evidence dating the tiling of the south transept floor to Greenwell’s abbacy; see Gilyard-Beer and Coppack, ‘Excavations at Fountains Abbey’, p. 160. The payments to glaziers and masons recorded in the bursar’s accounts for 1457–58 also date to Greenwell’s abbacy. 106  Oxford, Ruins of Fountains Abbey, p. 134. 104 

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love and desire to build and raise this college, and to provide it with vestments, ornaments and the foretold necessities, and above all other things for books from a charitable collection among the fathers of the kingdom to establish a library for the use of the students there.107

The Purposes of Patronage: Memory, Commemoration, and Status The comments of Abbot Helmsley can leave little doubt that patronage was seen as a pious act, a component of the competent and fatherly administration of his house by an abbot. The chronicles from these northern houses also suggest that Cistercian communities had an awareness of the architectural and artistic development of their monasteries, and the specific contributions of individual abbots. Their patronage provided a visual reminder of the history of Fountains, Meaux, and doubtless other houses. Grateful generations of monks no doubt rewarded the generosity and diligence of deceased abbots with prayers for their eternal rest.108 Abbots appear therefore to have been eager to make a distinct contribution to their monastery’s art and architecture. Burton records that several of his predecessors at Meaux discontinued work commenced by a predecessor, instead focusing their attention and resources on a project of their choosing. For instance, Abbot Adam of Skyrne (1310–39) started work on a chapel above the monastery’s great gate, but work on the structure was discontinued and removed by Abbot Hugh of Leven (1339–49), whose own patronage included

107 

Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 239–41. In 1503, Huby entered into an agreement with the architect William Orchard for ‘the structure of the building of Bernard College’; see Stevenson and Salter, Early History of St John’s College, p. 28. Orchard (fl. 1468–1505) was a prominent Oxford architect, who also worked at Baliol and Magdalen; see Harvey English Mediaeval Architects, pp. 220–22. Contemporary evidence from elsewhere in Britain also shows that abbatial patronage was esteemed. Abbot Thomas Crystall of Kinloss (1505–28; d. 1535) oversaw the restoration of many of the buildings at his abbey, also investing in vestments, altar vessels, bells, and a choir screen, sending a monk to France and Flanders to make purchases at great cost, with his donation of a silver monstrance to his monastery praised in the Life written by the monk Ferserius; see Dilworth, ‘Crystall, Thomas’, and Jamroziak, Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe, p. 265. 108  An inscription on the west front of the church at the Cistercian abbey of Valle Crucis, Denbighshire, provides explicit evidence of the commemorative purpose of patronage, recording as it does the benefaction of Abbot Adam (c. 1330–40) with a request that his soul may rest in peace; see Robinson, Cistercians in Wales, pp. 141, 290.

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the commissioning of the crucifix for the rood and the covering of the monks’ dormitory with lead.109 Patronage of a new project appears to have been a rite of passage for a Cistercian abbot and a way of announcing his election to office.110 Robert Chamber was elected to the abbacy of Holm Cultram in 1507.111 He com­ memorated the start of his abbacy by constructing a porch at the west front of his monastery’s church.112 An inscription on the doorway arch records (Fig. 1.27) that it was the product of Camber’s patronage and dates the work to 1507 (‘Robertus Chamber fecit fieri hoc opus, A o. Dni. M’D’VII’; Robert Chamber caused this work to be made, A[nn]o D[omi]ni 1507). The abbot also recorded his patronage by placing his rebus, a chained bear, punning on his first name and surname, beneath a crosier with his initials to the side, on a corbel to the south of the door.113 The use of inscriptions and heraldry by monastic superiors to advertise their patronage and status was common in the late Middle Ages.114 Examples can be cited from across the English Church and throughout the period under discussion. For instance, Abbot Nicholas Litlyngton of Westminster Abbey (1362–86) ornamented the borders of his beautifully illuminated missal with his arms and badge;115 Cardinal John Morton (1480–1500) decorated his luxurious cope with his rebus.116 The evidence suggests that Cistercian abbots were using institutional and personal heraldry from at least the mid-fourteenth century. The seal used by Abbot John Lindley of Whalley in 1362 was decorated with the arms of his abbey.117 In 1417 Richard Gower of Jervaulx (1399–1425) was using a signet ring inscribed with his personal arms.118 109 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 35–36. For comparable Benedictine evidence, see Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, p. 55. 111  Summerson, Medi­eval Carlisle, ii, 471. 112  For a description, see Harrison, ‘Architecture of Holm Cultram’, pp. 244–45. 113  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, pp. 120–21. 114  For discussions of the use of heraldry by late medi­e val abbots and priors, see Heale, ‘Mitres and Arms’; Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 65–66; and Marks and Payne, British Heraldry, pp. 58–76. 115  For example the leaf illustrated in Alexander and Binski, eds, Age of Chivalry, p. 518. 116  Woolley, ‘Cope of Cardinal Morton’, p. 369. 117  Ellis, Catalogue of Seals, p. 97. 118  Ellis, Catalogue of Seals, p. 44. 110 

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This heraldry also asserted ecclesiastical status. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, abbots of several northern Cistercian abbeys acquired the right to the mitre and other ornaments and privileges normally reserved for bishops. Benedictine abbots had been mitred since the eleventh century, and by the end of the Middle Ages the majority of that order’s superiors in Britain had the right to use the episcopal insignia.119 However, it was not until the early fifteenth century that any Cistercian abbots in England were granted the pontificalia. The first appears to have been Abbot Gower of Jervaulx who received the privilege when attending the Council of Pisa in 1409,120 and soon after he was depicted wearing the mitre on his seal (Fig. 2.11). Figure 2.11. Seal of Abbot In c.  1413, the anti-pope John  XXIII granted Richard Gower of Jervaulx, similar rights to Abbot John Ripon (1410–34) c. 1410. London, TNA of Fountains. However, Pope Martin V revoked E329/138. Courtesy of TNA. these privileges in 1429.121 It was not until 1459 that Abbot Greenwell once again secured the right to the episcopal insignia for the abbots of Fountains.122 One side of a sculpted late fifteenth-century window head in the Chapel of the Nine Altars at Fountains depicts a cleric wearing a mitre (Fig. 2.12). This is probably Abbot Darnton as on the other side it is carved with the abbot’s rebus.123 Huby’s monogram also incorporated a mitre, and symbols of his status and office feature prominently on a stone carved with his rebus (Fig. 2.13). The letters of his name are composed of a twisting dragon-like creature and the ‘h’ incorporates a bird, probably a hobby, a small bird of prey, punning on 119 

For a discussion of the acquisition of the pontificalia by monastic superiors in the British Isles, see Heale, ‘Mitres and Arms’, pp. 99–109. 120  CPL, vi, 159. 121  CPL, vii, 144. 122  CPL, xii, 34. Ripon possibly received this grant when eliciting the anti-pope’s support in his disputed election as abbot of Fountains in c. 1413–14, for which, see Jacob, ‘One of Swan’s Cases’. 123  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 296; France, Cistercians in Medi­eval Art, pp. 119–21.

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the abbot’s surname. In the centre is a crosier fitted with a sudarium, a cloth attached near the knop to protect the metal of the staff from tarnishing and the abbot’s hand from its cold touch. It is also notable that the mitre depicted on Huby’s rebus, like that of an unidentified abbot of Jervaulx on a bench-end at Aysgarth (Fig. 2.4), is a jewel-encrusted mitre preti­ osa (jewelled mitre). Papal grants for abbatial use of the pontificalia became Figure 2.12. Fountains Abbey, Chapel of the Nine Altars, more generous in the later sculpture of a mitred abbot, probably John Darnton. Middle Ages, and often, as Late fifteenth century. Drawing by Judith Dobie; in the case of Abbot John reproduced with permission. Paslew of Whalley, gave permission for the use of the jewelled mitre.124 Such mitres, with edges of silver and gilt, set with pearls, stones, and silver, are listed in inventories from both Fountains and Whalley, as are silver crosiers.125 There are also numerous instances from elsewhere in Europe of Cistercian abbots using their patronage as a way of asserting their status. The breviary of Johannes Stattenaut, who was abbot of Salem, BadenWürttemberg, between 1491 and 1510, is decorated with a full-page miniature depicting a jewelled mitre and crosiers, his personal arms and those of Clairvaux,126 the later blazon (sable à la bande echiquetée d’argent et de gules)127 124 

CPL, xx, 492–93. For grants to use the jewelled mitre, see Heale, ‘Mitres and Arms’, p. 103. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 289–90; ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 107. 126  Die Zisterzienser, ed. by Elm and Roth, pp. 590–91, colour plate 8 (facing p. 256). 127  These arms were in use by Clairvaux by the fifteenth century and are painted in a manu­script of the Etymo­logies of Isidore of Seville, which originates from the abbey (Troyes, Bibliothèque de Troyes, MS 167, fol. 29r). 125 

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Figure 2.13. Limestone panel sculpted with the rebus of Abbot Marmaduke Huby and incorporating a jewelled mitre. English Heritage Museum, Fountains Abbey. Early sixteenth century.

also ornamenting the base of the opening of the offices of Cistercian use in Huby’s breviary. Abbot Christiaan de Hondt of Ten Duinen (1495–1509), near Bruges, is depicted on the wing of a diptych kneeling in adoration of the Virgin and Child on the opposite wing. Next to the abbot is his jewelled mitre, and his richly ornamented crosier rests on the wall of a well-appointed and comfortably furnished apartment, the roof corbels of which are carved with his monogram and arms.128 In light of the evidence assembled above, it does not seem in the least dangerous to suggest that northern Cistercian abbots resided in chambers similarly adorned with personal heraldry. Yet much as Cistercian abbots used patronage to advertise their status, their patronage was also an act of piety, and as has been seen, was clearly seen as such by their fellow Cistercians. Huby’s motto was ‘Soli Deo Honor et Gloria’ (to only God be honour and glory), the biblical source of which is i Timothy 1. 17. The motto appears on all Huby’s extant architectural projects, such as the tower at Fountains, the chapel at Bewerley (Fig. 2.7), as well as on floor 128 

For detailed illustrations and a discussion, see Hand, Metzger, and Spronk, Prayers and Portraits, pp. 140–49.

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tiles from Fountains,129 and is also illuminated with his monogram in his breviary (Plate 5). The motto had a dual purpose, not only recording the abbot’s patronage, but also dedicating the object to the praise and glory of God. Other instances of patronage as an expression of piety are considered in the following chapter on religious art.

External Patronage What of the contribution of external patrons? There is extensive evidence that the building and furnishing of northern Cistercian abbeys in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was made possible by this source of patronage. In 1146 Eustace Fitzjohn granted large estates to Fountains for the building of its church.130 The rebuilding of the east end of the church at Rievaulx in the early thirteenth century was funded by loans from William and Robert de Roos, descendants of the founder.131 Rufford received nine gifts before the mid-thirteenth century for the fabric of its church.132 Reiner de Daiville made a grant in 1240 for the ‘building of the new church’ at Byland, a gift which, like so many others, was made ‘for the salvation of his soul’.133 However, Luxford showed that external patronage was rarely crucial to the building, decoration, and furnishing of Benedictine monasteries in the late Middle Ages, and that patronage of art and architecture was a relatively minor aspect of the relationship between monasteries and the lay world.134 It has been clearly demonstrated above that the rebuilding and refurbishing of Cistercian abbeys in the north between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries was also largely the product of internal patronage. This is not to deny that the northern Cistercians, like their Benedictine contemporaries in western England, welcomed and benefited from external patronage, which was laden with significance for both the monks and the benefactors. There were generous contributions by lay benefactors to building work at Newminster Abbey in the early fifteenth century. Roger of Thornton, a citizen of Newcastle and lord of Witton (d. 1429) contributed towards the cover129 

Stopford, Medi­eval Floor Tiles of Northern England, pp. 54, 236–38. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, pp. 54–55. 131  Jamroziak, Rievaulx Abbey and its Social Context, p. 48. 132  Rufford Charters, ed. by Holdsworth, i, p. xlv. 133  Cartulary of Byland Abbey, ed. by Burton, p. 135. 134  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, p. 115. 130 

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ing of the nave with lead.135 There are few standing remains at Newminster, but these show that the church was partially refenestrated in the later Middle Ages. Archaeo­logical excavations at the abbey in the 1960s also found evidence of significant rebuilding in the late Middle Ages.136 Documented instances of patronage can be connected with archaeo­logical or architectural evidence of rebuilding at Kirkstall and Fountains. In 1459 Thomas Tyndhede of Leeds left 6 s 8d for the making of a window in the cloister at Kirkstall.137 The excavation of the cloister in 1963 showed that the western arcade was extensively remodelled in c. 1464.138 Sir John Pilkington left £10 to the ‘making of the abbay kirke at Fountance’ in June 1479.139 As has been seen, inscriptional evidence in the Nine Altars, the church’s great eastern transept, shows that Abbot Darnton started a major programme of building works by 1483,140 and the bequest may therefore represent a contribution to a fabric fund for this work. Gifts and bequests from local elites also added to monastic collections of luxury metalwork. The abbot of Fountains was bequeathed a silver-gilt cup in 1435 by John Dene, a canon of Ripon.141 In 1480, Richard Hamerton left the abbot and convent of Sawley a gilt standing mazer.142 In the same year, Rievaulx received two silver salts with covers of gilded silver from William Overton of Helmsley.143 Other bequests were clearly intended to assist the monks with their devotions. Isabella Hamerton of York left her brother, William, a monk of Fountains, her silver crucifix with an image of Christ attached,144 while in 1483, the abbots of Byland and Rievaulx were both bequeathed rosaries by Christopher Conyers, rector of Rudby.145

135 

Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 303. Harbottle and Salway, ‘Excavations at Newminster Abbey’, pp. 151–53. 137  Brigg, ‘Wills of Leeds and District’, p. 102. 138  Pirie, Kirkstall Abbey Excavations, p. 4; Moorhouse and Wrathmell, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 146. 139  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 239. Sir John Pilkington was a tenant of several of the monastery’s estates; see Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. xxxvi, xli, lxv. 140  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 296. 141  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 44. 142  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 258. 143  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 262. 144  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 23. 145  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 289. 136 

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There is no hint that the Cistercians viewed external patronage of their art and architecture as anything other than desirable. The fact that the monks of Newminster recorded the generosity of their benefactors in the monastery’s necro­logy shows that the Order esteemed their external patrons and rewarded their generosity with prayers, and doubtless such intercession was a major, arguably the principal, motive for gifts and bequests as much in the late Middle Ages as in earlier centuries. Patronage also served to emphasize the maintenance of historic links between patron and monastery,146 and affirmed the belief of the benefactor in the efficacy of the prayers of Cistercian monks.147 It was an expression of what Karen Stöber has called ‘dynastic confidence’ in the health of the monastery,148 while simultaneously granting the Order’s abbots ‘more clout in their dealing with the secular world’.149 With their often vast estates and wealth, northern Cistercian monasteries were already a significant presence in the secular world. This appears to have been a motive for patronage. Ralph Snaith was a tenant of Fountains Abbey, the holder ‘under seal’ of the monastery’s grange at Bradley, and in 1477 he bequeathed the monastery 20s for repairs to the abbey church.150 In 1527 Geoffrey Procter, tenant of the estates of Fountains Abbey at Bordley left the monastery 26s 8d for the purchase of a ‘vestymente with all things to it belongyng’ for use at the altar in the Chapel of the Nine Altars where the Mass of Our Lady was sung daily. The abbey was also custodian of £20 of his gold coin and six silver spoons, which he wanted the abbot to return to his son.151 Doubtless this desire for the restitution of his property acted as another spur for his generosity. Patronage also provided an opportunity for individuals to affirm their status as office holders at Cistercian monasteries. An inscription in a late four146 

Members of the Graystock family, descendants of the founder, made generous bequests to the monastery in the fifteenth century; see Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, pp. 302–03. 147  For a discussion of the esteem which the descendants of founding patrons attached to the prayers of religious houses, see Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 72–74. 148  Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, p. 93. 149  Hall, ‘Croxden Abbey Church’, p. 91. 150  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 203. For his tenancy of Bradley, see Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, p. 83. 151  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 182. For Geoffrey Proctor’s tenancies of the estates of Fountains, see Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 50–54.

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teenth-century manu­script from Fountains Abbey (works of John of Abbeville with homilies for Sundays), records that it was written by John de Munkgate, a scribe and clerk of York, and procurator of the abbot of Fountains,152 an office he also held at Furness.153 Sir Tristram Lee received an annuity in 1478 of 13s 4d for his services on behalf of Whalley Abbey.154 There is no evidence showing that he held any particular office at Whalley, but his family had connections with the monastery dating back to the early fourteenth century.155 On his death in 1479, he presented the abbey his lavishly illuminated Psalter.156 It is also clear that clergy who held churches appropriated by the Cistercians were also patrons of the art and architecture of the Order’s monasteries. A fragmentary inscription removed from Holm Cultram to the nearby farm at Raby Cote suggests that the extensive building works at the monastery undertaken by Abbot Robert Chamber were in part the product of the patronage of John de Bothill, vicar of Burg,157 the advowson of which was owned by the abbey.158 A finely decorated fourteenth-century copy of the important medical treatise the Lilium medicinae by Bernard de Gordon (fl. 1270–1330), has an inscription on a flyleaf recording that William Pecke, or Peck a vicar at Ripon Minster, presented it to Abbot Huby of Fountains in 1516, by the hand of the Fountains monk, Thomas Kydde,159 who was later to serve as prior.160 The motive for Peck’s gift is likely to have been a pre-existing familial relationship with Fountains, a John Peck was tenant of the abbey’s grange at Bramley

152 

BL, MS Arundel 231, ii, fol. 229v. Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, ed. by Atkinson and Brownbill, ii.3, 793. 154  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 86. 155  For instances of Lee benefaction, see Coucher Book or Cartulary of Whalley Abbey, ed. by Hulton, pp. 116, 814, 822, 860, 865. In c. 1320 the monastery owed Gilbert de Leigh £100; see Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 57. 156  BL, MS Add. 35283. The inscription recording the donation is on fol. 4v. 157  The inscription is now badly eroded. However it was transcribed in the early twentieth century thus: ‘Gilbert Lamotte, John de Bothill vicar of Burg. The year was the VIth Robert, Abbot of Holm, and the year of our Lord MDXIII. VIII: Henry King’; see Grainger, ‘The Chambers Family of Raby Cote’, p. 195. 158  For charters granting the abbey the church and other estates at Burg, see Register and Records of Holm Cultram, ed. by Grainger and Collingwood, pp. 4–9. 159  BL, MS Add. 62129, fol. iv. 160  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns, p. 125. 153 

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in 1363, and a Robert Peck was documented in 1506 as having held lands of the monastery at North Stanley.161 However, it is arguable that the most valuable contributions of external benefactors were more subtle, indirect, and largely historic. It was their grants of estates and privileges, in most cases centuries before, which provided the financial resources for the rebuilding and refurbishment of the monasteries under discussion here in the late Middle Ages. There is substantial late medi­eval evidence that Cistercian monasteries were acutely aware of their historic benefactors. The heraldry which ornaments the transcribed charters recording gifts to Furness Abbey in its magnificent cartulary has been described by one author as ‘antiquarian’.162 For instance, the grant of Robert de Boyvill, and his cousin Arthur, of estates before 1152 are decorated with their family’s later arms.163 Also illuminated in the manu­script are ‘portraits’ of long-dead benefactors. These include that of Alicia de Staneley (Fig. 2.14), which decorates the charter whereby she granted the abbey her pastures at Southscales in 1251.164 The chartulary of Fountains Abbey commissioned by Abbot Huby in 1509 contains pedigrees of the de Fontibus, Mowbray, and Percy families; 165 all were among the great noble and knightly families which were benefactors of the monastery in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.166 The early seventeenth-century antiquarian Roger Dodsworth recorded a Percy genealogy in a manu­script from Sawley Abbey.167 In the fifteenth century, the monks of Whalley wrote a history of their by then extinct patronal family, the de Lacys.168 The de Lacys were also the founding patrons of Kirkstall, and a genealogy of the family was written by one of its monks in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.169 Abbot 161 

Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 157, 177. Goodall, ‘Heraldry in the Decoration of English Manu­scripts’, p. 191. 163  BL, MS Add. 33244, fol. 200r; Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, ed. by Atkinson and Brownbill, ii.2, pp. 53–54. 164  BL, MS Add. 33244, fol. 120r; Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, ed. by Atkinson and Brownbill, ii.2, p. 325. For a discussion of the Benedictines’ use of art and architecture as a statement of their antiquity, see Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, p. 147. 165  BL, MS Add. 18276, fol. 256r. 166  Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, pp. 133–70. 167  Monasticon, v, 515–16. 168  BL, MS Cotton Cleopatra C III, fol. 329r–330v. 169  BL, MS Cotton Titus A XIX, fol. 62r–62v. For this manu­script and other historical 162 

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Figure 2.14. Cartulary of Furness Abbey, ‘portrait’ of Alicia de Staneley, BL, MS Add. 33244, fol. 120r. Early fifteenth century. Courtesy of the British Library.

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Thomas Burton went to great lengths to list the relatives and descendants of the local lord, Richard of Ottringham, who was buried at the monastery in c. 1300 to ensure that the monks knew who to pray for.170 Such genealogies were testament not only to the illustrious history of monastic houses, but also served as forms of commemoration and legitimized the role of monasteries in late medi­ eval society by stressing their intimate connections with major families.171 In some instances the descendants of historic patrons maintained these connections by intervening in the aid of a monastery or by renewing charters.172 The arms ornamenting Huby’s tower are suggestive of these enduring relationships. The heraldry includes the arms of the abbey, but also present are arms of the see of York (a cross pallwise; Fig. 2.15), which doubtless refer to the abbey’s founding patron, the archbishop of York. 173 In 1502 Archbishop Thomas Savage of York issued an indulgence benefiting all those who contributed to the rebuilding of the abbey’s grange at Winksley,174 and the antiquary John Leland described Huby as being well acquainted with the archbishop.175 The tower is also ornamented with the arms of Norton (a maunch overall a bend; Fig. 2.16).176 The Norton family had been benefactors of Fountains since the early thirteenth century. By marriage they had assumed the arms, estates, and seat of the Conyers, who also had a long tradition of benefaction at Fountains.177 The relationship between the Norton family and Fountains was maintained well into the later Middle Ages. However, as is the case with any long-term relationship, there was occasional conflict. In 1499 the services of the local gentlemen Robert Wyvill and William Dyneley were called upon to mediate a dispute between Abbot Huby and Sir John Norton concerning pasture rights at contested estates at Hetton and Rystone.178 Matters appear to have improved by writing at Kirkstall in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, see Krochalis, ‘History and Legend at Kirkstall Abbey’, esp. p. 233. 170  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 194; Gransden, Historical Writing in England, ii, 370. 171  Jamroziak, ‘Genealogy in Monastic Chronicles in England’, pp. 104–05, 108, 121–22. 172  For the importance of such activity in the Benedictine context, see Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, p. 115. 173  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 316. 174  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 421–23. 175  Itinerary of John Leland, ed. by Toulmin-Smith, i, 80. 176  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 316. 177  Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, pp. 37, 246–47. 178  Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 64–66.

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Figure 2.15. Sculpted arms, probably those of the see of York, on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century.

Figure 2.16. Arms of Norton on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century. Images from Oxford, Ruins of Fountains Abbey.

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1503 when Sir John reconfirmed a charter issued in the early thirteenth century by his ancestor, William Cressuner, granting the abbot and convent of Fountains the right to quarry his estates at Stainbane for building work and repairs at the monastery and its granges.179 Luxford was cautious in his use of heraldic evidence in his study of patronage at Benedictine monasteries.180 It is sensible to be similarly wary when considering such evidence at northern Cistercian abbeys. There are few instances where it can be securely and directly tied to external patronage of art and architecture. Nevertheless, heraldic evidence is still significant, not least because it is testimony to an enduring relationship between the monasteries and their founding families and other benefactors. Two Cistercian monasteries in northern England – Furness and Holm Cultram – could claim royal founders. 181 There is no evidence of royal patronage of art and architecture at either of these houses in the late Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the abbeys’ historic connections with the king continued to find artistic expression. The first volume of the cartulary of Furness Abbey has a lengthy metrical introduction by the scribe, Richard Esk, a monk of the abbey, which refers to King Stephen as the monastery’s founder: ‘Hanc hac valle domu[m] Stephanus Comes [a]edificavit | Quem gens Anglo[rum]

Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 163–64. For the original grant, see Abstracts of the Charters and Other Documents Contained in the Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of Fountains, ed. by Lancaster, ii, 622–23. 180  Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 14–15. 181  VCH: Lancs., ii, 114 (Furness). Register and Records of Holm Cultram, ed. by Grainger and Collingwood, pp. 117–26; Monasticon, v, 594–95, 602–06; Jamroziak, ‘Holm Cultram Abbey’, p. 28 (Holm Cultram). For a discussion of the identity of the founders of Cistercian monasteries in England and Wales, see Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 39–42.

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Regem sibi posttitulavit’ (In this vale Count Stephen did build this house | The peer whom the people of England after | Entitled their king).182 Many of the charters issued for the abbey by its royal patrons, from the reign of Stephen to Henry IV, are illuminated with their arms (fictive in the case of Stephen) or royal portraits. The artist has also carefully represented the royal arms.183 Robert Chamber secured his election to the abbacy of Holm Cultram in 1507 after the payment of £100 to Henry VII.184 As has been seen, he marked the start of his abbacy by building a porch at the west front of the abbey church. The royal arms feature prominently in its heraldic decoration and are located to the right of the image niche above the entrance (Fig. 1.27). The arms in the plaque to the south are eroded, but may have been carved with the arms of the abbey. A similar arrangement occurs on the west front of the Augustinian priory of Lanercost, Cumberland, where the arms of Sir Thomas, Lord Dacre (d. 1525), the patron of the monastery are to the north (the right being superior in heraldry), and a second set of arms, probably those of the priory, are positioned to south, the less prestigious heraldic left.185 In 1510, Chamber secured confirmation by the Crown of twenty-eight earlier charters, letters, and exemplifications issued to the benefit of his monastery.186 Mindful of his royal patron, Chamber established a chantry in the church at Holm Cultram at the altar of the Holy Saviour Jesus where a priest was provided with an annual stipend of £6 16d to sing Masses for his soul, those of his successors, as well as the soul of Henry II (regarded as its founder), and the good estate of Henry VIII.187 The other northern Cistercian monasteries had a noble founding patron (or in the case of Fountains, the archbishop of York). It was his responsibility to provide the fledging community with buildings necessary for their monastic life. The foundation charter of Sawley issued by William Percy in 1148 refers

182 

Transcription and translation from Gaythorpe, ‘Richard Esk’s Metrical Account of Furness Abbey’, pp. 102–03. 183  London, TNA Misc Books 3, fols  47r–84v; Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, ed.  by Atkinson and Brownbill, i.1, 122–217. BL, MS Add. 33244, fol. 70v. 184  Summerson, Medi­eval Carlisle, ii, 471. 185  Harrison, ‘Description of the Standing Fabric’, pp. 114–17. Sir Thomas, Lord Dacre, was buried at Lanercost. For a discussion of his tomb and other Dacre monuments at the priory, see Lindley, ‘Heraldic Tomb Monuments’. 186  L&P Henry VIII, i.1, p. 353. No. 632/14. 187  Valor, v, 282.

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Figure 2.17. Engraving of ex situ stonework sculpted with the arms of Percy at Sawley ­Abbey. From Harland, His­ tor­ical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley.

to his building of the abbey.188 His descendants retained an intimate relationship with the monastery until its suppression. Percy burials at the monastery are recorded in 1245 and 1272.189 Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland also requested burial at the monastery in 1351.190 Although he was buried at Alnwick Priory, his son established a chantry at Sawley in 1356,191 and in 1396 Henry, Lord Percy, granted the monastery the rents from his manors at Gisburn.192 When the monastery was suppressed in 1536 the abbot turned to the brother of the earl of Northumberland, Sir Thomas Percy, to whom the patronage of the abbey had descended, for succour and support.193 Sawley Abbey was extensively remodelled in the late fourteenth century.194 There is no documentary evidence that these works were the result of direct Percy patronage. Nevertheless, the rebuilt abbey was adorned with the Percy arms. The ancient blazon of Percy (azure, five fussils in a fess or) was adopted by the monastery as its arms and these are carved on (badly eroded) ex situ stonework at the abbey. By the early fourteenth century the arms of Percy had changed to or, 188 

Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, i, 1. Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, ii, 200–01. 190  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 57. 191  Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, ii, 201. 192  Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, p. 38. 193  L&P Henry VIII, xii.1, 491. 194  Coppack, Hayfield, and Williams, ‘Sawley Abbey’, pp. 73–74. 189 

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a lion rampant azure. This shield, together with the family’s badge, the crescent, also occurs in sculpture at the abbey (Fig. 2.17).195 The original context of this heraldry is uncertain. However, it was possibly in the same location and served the same purpose as the Espec and de Roos arms on the early fourteenth-century gatehouse of the Augustinian priory of Kirkham and identified the monastery as a family possession.196 Heraldry at Jervaulx Abbey similarly attests to the enduring relationship between the monastery and its patronal family. Jervaulx was founded in 1150 by Randulf Fitzbarndolf, who was buried there. 197 This tradition of burial was maintained by his descendants, the Fitzhenrys, later the Fitzhughs, barons of Ravensworth, well into the fifteenth century. The arms of Fitzhugh are sculpted on ex situ stonework at the abbey and occur on the seal used by Abbot Richard Gower in the early fifteenth century (Fig. 2.11).198 The blazon of Henry Fitzhugh, fourth Baron Ravensworth (d. 1452), is also illuminated in a copy of the Polychronicon of Ralph Higden, which Abbot John of Brompton (1436–66) acquired for the abbey.199 The arms of non-patronal benefactors also ornamented Cistercian monasteries. Ex situ stone shields at Sawley are carved with the arms of Lucy, Tempest, and Vavasour. All these families are documented as benefactors of the monastery’s estates, and on occasion were buried there. But explicit evidence 195 

Whitaker, History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, p. 54; Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley, p. 52. For the arms of Sawley and Percy, see Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties, ed. by Longstaffe, p. 89. With the exception of Fountains and Furness, all the other northern Cistercian abbeys adopted the arms of the patronal family or those of another major benefactor; see Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties, ed. by Longstaffe, p. 45 ( Jervaulx); p. 61 (Byland); p. 84 (Kirkstall); p. 90 (Whalley); p. 93 (Calder); p. 101 (Holm Cultram). The arms are also illustrated and their origin described in Notitia monastica, ed. by Tanner, pls xlv–xlvii and accompanying notes. 196  The gatehouse has traditionally been dated on the basis of its heraldry to the late thirteenth century. However, Professor David Park, in a talk delivered at the Uni­ver­sity of York in 2007, demonstrated that it in fact dates to c. 1310–20. He intends publication in due course. For further discussion of the date of the gatehouse, see Coppack, Harrison, and Hayfield, ‘Kirkham Priory’, pp. 107–08, and Harrison, Kirkham Priory, pp. 14–15. For discussion of the gatehouse’s heraldry as evidence of the de Roos family association with the monastery, see Burton, Kirkham Priory from Foundation to Dissolution, p. 23. 197  Foundation History of the Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx, ed. by Burton, pp. 35–36. 198  Ellis, Catalogue of Seals, p. 44. 199  Cam­bridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 96, fol. 1r. The inscription recording the acquisition of the book by Abbot Brompton occurs on fol. 237v. For a discussion of this manu­ script, see Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books, p. 285.

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for their investment in the buildings and possessions of the monastery is lacking.200 Similarly, the stonework removed from Holm Cultram to nearby Raby Cote includes a panel sculpted with the arms of William Dacre, third Baron Dacre of Gilsland (c. 1493–1563), who has no documented association with the abbey.201 The profusion of heraldry within the precincts of Cistercian monasteries is further suggested by documentary evidence, notably the proceedings of the famous dispute between Sir Richard Scrope and Robert Grosvenor in the court of chivalry between 1385 and 1390. The controversy concerned the right to the blazon azure, a bend or to which the knights laid claim. Both called witnesses in support of their claim, including the heads of numerous religious houses, among whose number were several northern Cistercian abbots. The abbots of Byland, Jervaulx, Roche, and Rievaulx all gave evidence in support of the Scrope claim, as did the cellarer of Fountains. In addition, the abbots of Combermere and Vale Royal, both in Cheshire, testified in support of Robert Grosvenor whose estates were concentrated in this county.202 The abbots of Rievaulx and Jervaulx and the cellarer of Fountains all exhibited charters recording the benefaction of the Scropes and sealed with their arms.203 Each witness also testified to the presence of the claimants’ heraldry within their abbeys. The location and antiquity of the arms described by these abbots is highly instructive. The abbot of Byland testified that the arms of Scrope were on the wall of the chapel near the gatehouse dedicated to Mary Magdalene and were depicted there more than a century before, ‘beyond memory’.204 This would mean that their depiction pre-dated the heraldic adornment on the gatehouse at Kirkham Priory.205 200 

Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, i, 35 (Lucy); ii, 144 (Vavasour), 188, 191, 197 (Tempest). 201  Hodgson, ‘Note on Armorial Stones at Raby Cote’, pp. 232–33. 202  For a discussion of this case as evidence of religious houses coming to the aid of their patron, see Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 79–80. 203  Controversy between Sir  Richard Scrope and Sir  Robert Grosvenor, ed.  by Nicolas, pp. 272–73, 346. The cartularies of Byland and Rievaulx record instances of Scrope benefaction as late as the fourteenth century; see Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, i, pp. 165–66; Cartularium abbathiae de Rievalle, ed. by Atkinson, pp. 103–06. 204  Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor, ed. by Nicolas, p. 276. 205  There is evidence from Cistercian abbeys elsewhere in England of the decoration of gatehouse chapels with heraldry. The chancel of the capella ante portas at Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, was decorated between c. 1320–30 with the painted arms of Richard of Corn-

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It is also clear from this case that the arms of benefactors were not restricted to peripheral locations, but also decorated the interior of Cistercian churches, in close proximity to where the liturgy was celebrated, the heraldry doubtless acting as a prompt for the prayers of grateful monks. The abbot of Roche stated that the arms of Sir Geoffrey le Scrope, a cousin of Sir Richard, were painted in glass in the north part of the church; at Jervaulx the Scrope arms were at ‘divers places […] in glass and paintings’; and at Fountains the arms of Scrope decorated the altar of St Lawrence in the Chapel of the Nine Altars.206 The walls of the church at Vale Royal were adorned with the arms of Grosvenor,207 at Combermere they were painted on an altarpiece.208 The profusion and prominent location of these arms can leave no doubt that the Cistercians esteemed their benefactors. The depositions of these abbots also provide evidence of the antiquity of the heraldry that was found within their churches, and in this respect the deposition of the abbot of Jervaulx is especially instructive. The abbot stated that Thomas le Scrope, a monk and later abbot of his monastery, had caused a painted tablet to be put up in the church, on which were the arms of his family. According to an inscription accompanying the shield this had occurred ‘eight-score years ago’.209 Abbots called Thomas presided at Jervaulx between c. 1258–66 and again between c. 1279–88.210 It therefore seems likely that the arms of benefactors were decorating the interior of Cistercian churches as early as the mid-thirteenth century, at which time the nave aisles at Westminster Abbey were being painted with the arms of noble families.211 At York Minster the late thirteenth-century chapter house and vestibule had heraldic glazing, the vestibule also painted with alms, and the nave, rebuilt after 1291, has heraldry in the spandrels of the main arcade and in its glass.212 The heraldic ornawall, the founder of the monastery; see Park, ‘Cistercian Wall and Panel Painting’, pp. 200–01. The early fifteenth-century glazing of the capella ante portas at Merevale Abbey, Warwickshire, includes the arms of the Ferrar and other benefactors; see Marks, ‘Cistercian Window Glass in England and Wales’, p. 222. 206  Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor, ed. by Nicolas, pp. 276, 346. 207  Stewart-Brown, ‘The Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy’, p. 19. 208  Stewart-Brown, ‘The Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy’, p. 18. 209  Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor, ed. by Nicolas, p. 274. 210  HRH, ii, 286. 211  Binski, Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets, pp. 76–86. 212  Brown, York Minster, pp. 47–55, 83–85, 122–36.

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ment of Cistercian churches was therefore neither an innovation of the late Middle Ages, nor any different from that encountered elsewhere. Heraldic ornament at Cistercian abbeys was not simply antiquarian. It also testified to changes in the patronal family and the ability of the Order to attract new benefactors. At the end of the fifteenth century the titular patronage of Jervaulx Abbey passed via marriage from the Fitzhughs to the Parrs of Kendal. This involved the monastery adopting the arms of Parr.213 In 1517 Sir Thomas Parr appointed Abbot Thornton of Jervaulx as one of his executors and left the monastery £100 for the purchase of vestments with ‘myn armes and my wyfes to be sett upon them’.214 The Suppression inventory of Whalley Abbey records that the monastery possessed three copes, each embroidered with the arms of Lord Mounteagle.215 The embroidering of arms on vestments has clear liturgical significance, ensuring that these new patrons and benefactors were remembered by Cistercian communities in their prayers and during celebration of the Mass. It is worth discussing the benefaction of Lord Mounteagle in some detail as it shows that Cistercian monasteries were able to attract the patronage of a rising aristocratic family, which appears to have been eager to acquire the prestige that accompanied association with a well-established and locally important monastery.216 In 1514 Edward Stanley, fifth son of Thomas Stanley, first earl of Derby, was raised to the peerage in his own right as Lord Mounteagle and created a knight of the Garter after distinguishing himself at Flodden. The Stanleys were originally a gentry family with substantial estates in Lancashire and Staffordshire. There was a meteoric rise in the fortunes of the family in the later fifteenth century, and they were raised to the peerage in 1456. Thomas, the son of the first Lord Stanley, married Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, and the title of earl of Derby was conferred on him in 1485.217 Whalley appears to have cultivated its relations with the Stanleys. The monastery’s accounts for 1478 lists an honorarium of £6 13s 4d paid to Thomas, Lord Stanley, who served as the abbey’s lay steward.218 He in turn rewarded the 213 

Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties, ed. by Longstaffe, p. 45. North Country Wills, ed. by Clay, pp. 88–89. 215  ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 108. 216  Prestige was among the motives for noble patronage of the art and architecture of the Benedictines in western England; see Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 172–78. 217  Coward, The Stanleys, pp. 1–27. 218  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 86. 214 

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monastery with a bequest of £20 in 1504.219 Lord Monteagle also received payments from Whalley of £2 in 1520 and 1521.220 When he made his will in 1524 he requested burial at Hornby chapel, which he had rebuilt.221 Nevertheless, he clearly esteemed his relationship with Whalley, which at the time of its suppression owned a ‘large stonginge pownced bowlle with a couer pcell gilte of my lord Mont Egles gifte’.222 He also bequeathed 40s to Sawley Abbey together with a crimson gown of his wife or one of his ladies for the making of a vestment.223 However, Cistercian monasteries could pay a high price for this generosity, which in the case of Furness Abbey involved a violent attack on the monastery by the earl of Derby in 1514 to assert his claim to its stewardship, during which the community was forced to seek shelter within ‘the sanctuary’, a secure chamber in the dormitory, and was roundly humiliated, with some of the monks subjected to physical violence,224 an early indication of the role which former benefactors, even those with conservative religious preferences, were to play in the events leading up to the Suppression and the plundering of monastic property.

Summary and Conclusion The material and documentary evidence assembled in this chapter shows that it was abbots who were by far the most important patrons of the art and architecture of their monasteries. However, the new constitution of the Order promulgated in 1335 severely restricted the financial independence of Cistercian abbots. Bursars’ accounts from the Order’s monasteries after this date consistently indicate that abbots were provided with an allowance for their personal use which would have been woefully insufficient to fund the works attributed to them on the basis of heraldry or contemporary documents. Rather, the rebuilding and refurbishment of northern Cistercian abbeys in the later Middle Ages was paid for out of general monastic incomes, which were being maximized in this period. When it did occur, lavish expenditure by abbots on grand architectural projects and the acquisition of emblems of status such as 219 

Testamenta Vetusta, ed. by Nicolas, ii, 459. Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 86. 221  Testamenta Vetusta, ed. by Nicolas, ii, 601–02. 222  ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 104. 223  Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, ii, 190. 224  Hoyle and Summerson, ‘The Earl of Derby and the Deposition of the Abbot of Furness in 1514’. 220 

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the mitre could arouse the ire of monastic communities. It is therefore significant that notable northern patrons such as Abbot Thornton of Jervaulx and Abbot John Burton of Rievaulx were obtaining papal permission to acquire the income of benefices normally reserved for the secular clergy, thereby providing them with an income which was independent of that of their monasteries. However, patronage of art and architecture was much more than an exercise in self-aggrandisement. It was a rite of passage, an abbatial duty and a vehicle for expressing piety, with the contributions of individual abbots enshrined in the institutional memory of their houses. The financial arrangements of the Cistercians mean that, unlike their Benedictine contemporaries, there is no evidence of the official patronage of obedientaries. However, the wage system which was a feature of late medi­eval monasticism, together with bequests, were sufficient to fund unofficial patronage by individual monks, most notably the acquisition of books, which were ultimately destined for the communal library. External benefactors also continued to contribute to the fabric and possessions of Cistercian monasteries until the very end of the Middle Ages. The community at Newminster, and doubtless all the other monasteries, commemorated their benefactors in the abbey’s necro­logy, meaning that their generosity was rewarded with the prayers of an appreciative community. The Cistercians were also conscious of their historic patrons whose centuries-old support provided the basis for the wealth which the abbeys diverted to rebuilding and refurbishment in the late Middle Ages. This is arguably best illustrated by the heraldry of long-dead benefactors which adorns the Furness cartulary, the most splendid of all surviving Cistercian manu­scripts from the late Middle Ages. The arms of historic benefactors also ornamented the precincts and churches of the Cistercians. Such heraldry appears to have been highly prevalent and to have been first introduced at a similar date as the heraldry encountered at the monasteries of other orders. But the heraldry present at Cistercian abbeys was not simply antiquarian. It was also a visual expression of the Order’s ability to attract new sources of benefaction. Whalley Abbey had vestments ornamented with the arms of Lord Mounteagle. Such generosity was not entirely benign and it is clear that noble families, regardless of their antiquity, felt that their patronage of the Cistercians provided them not only with an entitlement to prayers of intercession, but also with the right to intervene in the internal affairs of monasteries. Once again, it has been shown that what was happening at northern Cistercian monasteries had clear parallels at the Order’s houses elsewhere in England, indeed Europe, including the extent, funding, and motives for

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internal patronage and the use of heraldry by all classes of patrons. The evidence discussed in this chapter is also strongly suggestive of the material and financial prosperity of the Cistercians in northern England in the late Middle Ages, as well as their self-confidence and the esteem in which they were held by their external patrons. Luxford reached a similar conclusion in his study of the Benedictines in western England. He also concluded that patronage was an indication of the vitality of the religious life maintained within these Benedictine houses. Evidence from northern Cistercian abbeys showing that patronage was considered a pious act was briefly discussed in this chapter. However, all too often scholars have looked unfavourably on the rebuilding that occurred at Cistercian monasteries in the late Middle Ages, which along with their religious art, has been regarded as evidence not of vitality, but largely because of comparison with a mythical twelfth-century golden age, of decline and deviation from Cistercian precepts. Discussion will now turn to this subject, and consider the religious identity which the Cistercians asserted in their art and architecture in the period after 1300.

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vidence from northern England can leave little doubt that the full panoply of religious art was present at Cistercian monasteries in the late Middle Ages.1 Inventories describe a ‘new Missal with Gradual’ for the high altar at Meaux,2 alabaster, stone, and painted retables at Rievaulx,3 fifteen silver-gilt chalices and other precious metal altar plate at Whalley,4 and seventy copes, many with richly embroidered orphreys, at Fountains.5 For some scholars, all this is evidence of the Order’s decline, showing that the Cistercians had ‘departed widely from the stern ascetic rule laid down by [its] ancient 1 

Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, p. 8. ‘Missale novum cum graduali’, Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, pp. lxxxii–c; Bell, Libraries of the Cistercians, Gilbertines and Premonstratensians, pp. 34–82. No late fourteenthcentury missals survive from northern English Cistercian monasteries. However, an idea of the sumptuousness of liturgical manu­scripts for use at the high altar present at Cistercian monasteries in the late Middle Ages can be gleaned from the mid-fifteenth-century missal from an unidentified southern English monastery now at Stonyhurt College, Lancashire (MS2), which has historiated and decorated initials and elaborate illuminated borders. 3  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 227–28. 4  ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 107. In 1396, there were twenty-three chalices at Meaux, one of gold, the others of silver gilt, whereas at Fountains there were twenty silver chalices on the eve of the Suppression; see Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxx; Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, pp. 288–91. These numbers are by no means excessive and would have been barely sufficient to serve the altars in these monasteries. 5  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 291. 2 

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use’.6 The screens and other liturgical furnishings adorning Cistercian churches have been dismissed as ‘clutter’,7 with the use of coloured and figurative window glass cited as evidence of the ‘failure on the part of the order to maintain a distinctive visual tradition’.8 This chapter will present the opposing case. Rather than viewing the religious art of the Cistercians through the prism of a twelfthcentury ‘golden age’ of austerity and rigour, it will analyse the late medi­eval evidence on its own terms. It is therefore important to emphasize at the outset that, as explained in the Introduction to this book, Cistercian monasticism evolved significantly over the course of the Middle Ages and that all the Order’s earlier restrictions on art and architecture (which were never universally applied and were capable of differing interpretations) had ceased to apply by the turn of the fourteenth century, the starting point for this study.9 The detailed analysis of the material and documentary evidence to follow will show evidence of this evolution and the enduring spiritual vitality of the Order. The monastic day centred around the chanting of the Divine Office in the abbey church, and the correct and dignified celebration of the liturgy was a major preoccupation of reforming Cistercian abbots in this period. Discussion will therefore start with a case study, showing the importance of the monastic liturgy to the architecture and adornment of Abbot Huby’s great tower at Fountains. It has recently been argued that the religious art present in German Cistercian monasteries was intimately linked to the Order’s spirituality.10 The evidence presented here will indeed demonstrate that the Cistercians’ traditions of Christ-centric piety, devotion to the Virgin, and veneration of the Order’s own saints did find artistic expression in their monasteries in northern England. Nevertheless, it will also become apparent that, by and large, this aligned with the late medi­e val mainstream, meaning that although there was nothing ‘un-Cistercian’ about the religious art of the abbeys discussed here, there was also little that can be confidently said to have asserted a specifically Cistercian identity. 6 

‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 103. Coldstream, ‘Cistercian Architecture from Beaulieu to the Dissolution’, p. 154. 8  Lillich, ‘Recent Scholarship concerning Cistercian Windows’, p. 242. 9  Evidence from northern England shows that the legislation mandating that liturgical plate was to be without gold was not being observed. The early thirteenth-century foundation history of Kirkstall Abbey records that during the reign of Abbot Ralph (1182–c. 1190), the monastery was in possession of a gold chalice; see Barnes, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 60. 10  Kratzke, ‘“Ornamenta ecclesiae cistercienses’”, p. 200. 7 

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Liturgy and Architecture: Abbot Huby’s Bell Tower From the outset, the Cistercians were characterized by their attitude towards the liturgy. Not only was every monastery required to possess the basic texts necessary for the celebration of the Divine Office and the Mass, but the Exordium magnum, an important early twelfth-century Cistercian foundation text, mandated a return to the liturgical simplicity envisioned in the Rule of St Benedict. This involved a paring back of the liturgy to its essentials, rejecting the elaborate services sung by the Benedictines and Cluniacs.11 The liturgy of Cistercians changed little over the course of the Middle Ages, remaining notably simpler than that of many other monastic and religious orders.12 There was also an enduring preoccupation with the purity and uniformity of liturgical observance, with the Order’s General Chapter issuing a decree in 1504 to ensure that printed editions of its liturgical books were of the correct standard.13 Moreover, the evidence outlined in Chapters 1 and 2 concerning the reordering of Cistercian churches, including the multiplication of altars, the provision of new screens and choir stalls, and also investment in liturgical books, demonstrates the importance of the liturgy to northern English Cistercian patrons in the period after 1300. This also found architectural expression in what is arguably the greatest, and also the most misunderstood, Cistercian building project from the late medi­eval north, the bell tower of Abbot Marmaduke Huby at Fountains (Fig. 1.16). The tower continues to be viewed through the prism of the twelfth century, a recent discussion of Cistercian architecture in the British Isles suggesting that ‘it stands as a symbol of the power and influence of the individual, something unimaginable to Britain’s pioneering White Monk communities of the 1130s’.14 As Norton and Park have recently observed, the old canard that this tower contravened the 1157 decree of the Cistercian General Chapter that said ‘Turres lapideae ad campanas non fiant’ (let stone towers with bells not be built)15 continues to have currency.16 Not only had this 11  For an examination of the early Cistercian liturgy, see Kerr, ‘An Essay on Cistercian Liturgy’. 12  The Order’s liturgy and its evolution are discussed by Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medi­eval England, pp. 248–63. Also useful is King, Liturgies of the Religious Orders, pp. 68–132. 13  King, Liturgies of the Religious Orders, p. 74. 14  Robinson, ‘Cistercian Architecture in Great Britain and Ireland’, p. 156. 15  ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 328. 16  See the comment in Norton and Park, ‘Preface to the Paperback Edition’, p. xviii.

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Figure 3.1. Unfinished western tower at Bolton Priory. Early sixteenth century.

legislation ceased to apply centuries before Huby initiated the grandest of his architectural projects,17 but as will be shown, aspects of its ornament show that this was very much a ‘monastic’ building, and that the tower should be interpreted within the context of the abbot’s dedication to his Order, his deeply rooted Cistercian identity, and tireless efforts as a reformer, especially his focus on rigorous monastic observance. Built in four storeys, the tower still stands to its original height of fortyeight metres and is in an unusual position adjoining the north transept. In building such a grand tower Huby was acting no differently from contemporary prelates in other orders. Richard Mone, prior of the Augustinian priory of St Mary, Bolton-in-Wharfedale between 1513 and 1539, commenced work on an impressive western tower in 1520 (Fig. 3.1), the structure remaining unfinished at the Suppression.18 Richard Redman, abbot of the Premonstratensian 17  Norton and Park, ‘Introduction’, p.  8; ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 384. 18  Thompson, History and Architectural Description of the Priory of St Mary-in-Wharfedale, pp. 154–55.

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Figure 3.2. Western tower at Shap Abbey. Late fifteenth to early sixteenth century. Courtesy of Historic England.

abbey of Shap in Cumberland between 1458 and 1505, also built a large western tower in the early sixteenth century (Fig. 3.2).19 Although the ornament on Abbot Huby’s tower is relatively restrained especially when compared to the contemporary tower at Bolton Priory, and arguably reflects something of the spirit of earlier Cistercian architectural traditions, it is nevertheless adorned with images, grotesques, and personal heraldry. As such it is in many respects a typical example of late Perpendicular architecture, and as has already been seen (p. 27), has been plausibly attributed to the master mason Christopher Scune, who was active at several great churches in the north, including Durham Cathedral, York Minster, and Ripon Minster.20 The scale of the tower at Fountains means that it is often regarded as an expression of the power and status of both Fountains Abbey and Abbot Huby. In the words of 19  Colvin and Gilyard-Beer, Shap Abbey, pp. 8–9; Gribbin, Premonstratensian Order in Late Medi­eval England, p. 192. 20  Harvey, An Introduction to Tudor Architecture, p. 33; Harvey, English Mediaeval Archi­ tects, p. 270.

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Figure 3.3. Inscriptions on the upper storeys of Huby’s tower at Fountains. Early sixteenth century.

William St J. Hope, the tower was ‘built to impress’.21 It is indeed an imposing presence in the landscape and this should not be discounted as a motive for its construction. That towers were used to locate Cistercian abbeys within their environs is suggested by the comment of Robert Southwell, one of the commissioners charged with the suppression of Furness Abbey in 1537, that it was ‘incontinent’ to visit the abbey again, the ‘stepull being clere dissolvede’.22 However, the tower at Fountains was not just a landmark in the landscape or an expression of status. It was also an assertion of Huby’s credentials as a reforming abbot and a powerful statement of his personal piety. An unusual aspect of its ornament is the three bands of sculpted inscriptions located around the upper storeys (Fig. 3.3), a detail seemingly without a surviving parallel from medi­eval England. The liturgical source of these inscriptions has long been recognized, Hope suggesting that all the texts on the tower were ‘from the 21  For a detailed description of the tower, see Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p.  316. It is reinterpreted by Carter, ‘The Tower of Abbot Marmaduke Huby of Fountains Abbey’. 22  Hope, ‘The Abbey of St Mary in Furness’, p. 224.

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Cistercian Breviarium’.23 All the texts do indeed occur in the Order’s breviary, including the abbot’s own copy, printed in Paris in c. 1520 and now at Christ Church, Oxford,24 and as will be shown, come from the Office sung on Sundays at various times in the liturgical year, specifically the first Vespers of Sunday, Lauds, Prime, and Nones. A detailed examination of these inscriptions can provide valuable insights into the motives of Huby as a patron and the enduring importance of the liturgy at Cistercian monasteries. The inscriptions in the upper band, just below the parapet, are all badly eroded and largely illegible. However, Hope partially transcribed some of them at the turn of the twentieth century.25 The inscription on the east face then read: ‘Sit nomen dom[ini] ih[es]u xpi benedictum [ex hoc nunc et usque in secula]’ (Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from this time forth and evermore). This text is an adaptation of Psalm 113. 2, sung at the first Vespers of Sunday, as found in the Order’s breviary.26 The adaptation to include mention of the name of Jesus is noteworthy since, as will be discussed presently, this makes the text an expression of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, a popular cult in the late Middle Ages. Hope transcribed the inscription on the north side as reading: ‘In no[m]ine ih[e]su xpi[…]g[…]autur [i]nf[er]nor[um]’ (the complete text being: ‘In Nomine Jhesu Christi omne genu flectatur celestium terrestium et infernorum’). Translated as: ‘At the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth’, this text comes from Philippians 2. 10 and was sung at the conclusion of Nones on Palm Sunday, one of the most solemn days in the liturgical calendar.27 Moreover, it is the key Pauline text expressing devotion to the Holy Name and, in the uses of York and Sarum, formed the introit for the Mass of this feast.28 Hope transcribed the text on the west of the tower thus: ‘Benedicamus p[at] rem & fil[ium] cu[m] s[a]nc[to] sp[irit]u laudem[us] et sup[er] exaltem[us] 23 

Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 316. Oxford, Christ Church, e.8.29. This book is used as a convenient example of the authorized text of the Cistercian breviary from a northern English monastery. It is not my argument that Huby turned to this specific volume as the source for the inscriptions on the tower. More­ over, although the texts would have been sung in the liturgy of other orders, it would have been through the Office sung at his own monastery that they were familiar to Huby. 25  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 315–16. 26  Oxford, Christ Church, e.8.29, fol. iiir. 27  Oxford, Christ Church, e.8.29, fol. viv. 28  Missale ad usum insignis ecclesiae Eboracensis, ed. by Henderson, ii, 216. 24 

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eum in secula’. The translation is ‘Let us bless the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; let us praise Him and exalt Him forever’. This text is from Daniel 3. 57–58 in the Vulgate and was sung as a canticle at the end of Lauds on a Sunday.29 On the south side of the tower, the texts were badly eroded even in Hope’s time, and he was therefore only able to make a partial transcription: ‘[…]& d[…]celi[…]stia’. The absence of a complete word means that efforts to identify a possible source for this inscription have so far proved fruitless. The middle band of inscriptions is located at the top of the third storey. The texts on the east and north sides run together and read: (east) ‘Benediccio et claritas et sapiencia et graciarum accio honor’; (north) ‘Et fortitudo deo nostro in secula seculorum amen’. The translation is ‘Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power and might be unto God for ever and ever. Amen’. This text comes from Revelation 7. 12. As with the text of the upper band of inscriptions on the west face, this was sung at Lauds. The texts on the west and south sides also run together and read: (west) ‘Regi autem seculorum immortali invisibili’; (south) ‘Soli deo honor et gloria in secula seculorum amen’. These are translated: ‘Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen’. In this case the source is i Timothy 1. 17, sung at Prime on a Sunday.30 The text contains Huby’s personal motto, ‘Soli Deo Honor et Gloria’. The lower band of inscriptions is located at the top of the second storey. The inscription on the east side reads: ‘Soli deo ihesu xpo honor et gloria in sec[u] la seculpr[u]m’; that on the north reads ‘Soli deo ihesu xpo honor et gl[or]ia sec[u]la sec[u]lor[u]m am[en]’; and the west reads ‘Soli deo ih[es]u xpo honor et gl[or]ia in sec[u]la sec[u]lor[u]m’. There are no inscriptions on the south face of the tower because of the pitch of the roof. All three of the lower inscriptions can be translated: ‘To the only God Jesus Christ be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen’. This is a variation of Huby’s motto found in the middle band of inscriptions on the south side. It is noteworthy that all the inscriptions at this level include the name of Jesus, and thus, as with some of the inscriptions in the upper band, express devotion to the Holy Name. It is important to interpret these texts and their location on the tower within the context of Huby’s activities as abbot and reformer. As has already been seen (pp. 67–68), there is considerable evidence that the abbot was devoted to his Order and deeply conscious of his Cistercian identity and heritage. He 29 

Oxford, Christ Church, e.8.29, fol. ivr. 30  Oxford, Christ Church, e.8.29, fol. vv.

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was Reformator of the Cistercians in northern England and commissary of the abbot of Cîteaux.31 Huby’s letters to the General Chapter at Cîteaux tell of his efforts to reinvigorate life at his monastery at Fountains, which he increased in size from twenty-two to fifty-two monks.32 Evidence from northern England also shows the importance which Cistercian reformers such as Huby placed on the correct and dignified chanting of the Divine Office. In 1481, the articles issued after the visitation of Rufford mandated that no novice was to be professed until he knew the Psalter by heart, and that young monks must correctly learn antiphons and hymns, the entire community reminded to direct their eyes to the ground, their heart lifted to the Holy Trinity and the Mother of God when singing the Office.33 With this emphasis on the dignified singing of the Office in mind, it is highly significant that Huby had inscriptions from the liturgy placed on his bell tower. The bells of a monastery were used to regulate the life of the abbey, one of their most important functions being the summoning of the community to the celebration of the offices.34 Observing the rhythm of the monastic bells was regarded as highly important by reforming Cistercian abbots in the late Middle Ages. In 1526, the monks of Thame Abbey, Oxfordshire, were reminded by their visitor: ‘All and everyone will come together in the church and after the usual sound [i.e. the ringing of the bell] to sing the Salve Regina […] and when this is sung […] will go to the dormitory, where they will lie asleep until the ringing of Vigils’.35 Moreover, placing the inscriptions at the top of the tower meant that they were in proximity to the bells that summoned the community to the offices containing the relevant texts. Indeed, it is notable that several of the texts inscribed on the tower do indeed occur on late medi­e val bells.36 31  For discussions of Huby’s abbacy and his dedication to reform, see Talbot, ‘Marmaduke Huby, Abbot of Fountains’ and Baker, ‘Old Wine in New Bottles’. 32  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 258–60. 33  Rufford Charters, ed. by Holdsworth, iii, 551–61. 34  Thomas Burton’s 1396 inventory of Meaux Abbey itemizes seven bells used to regulate the liturgical life of the monastery; see Chron. de Melsa ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxxii. At the time of its suppression there were nine bells hanging in the tower at Roche Abbey; see Aveling, Roche Abbey, p. 92. 35  Perry, ‘Visitation of the Monastery of Thame’, p. 713. 36  ‘Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum’ is inscribed on bells at Kea, Cornwall, Hadleigh, Suffolk, and Ashby West and Mumby St Thomas, Lincolnshire; see Orme, Saints of Cornwall, p. 150; Pigot, Hadleigh, p. 41; North, The Church Bells of the City and County of Lincoln, pp. 289, 587. The text ‘In nomine Jesu Christi omni genu flectatur’ also appears on bells, for instance at

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It therefore seems that Huby selected texts for the inscriptions on his tower which were considered especially appropriate for the bells which played such an important part in regulating the liturgical day in his monastery. Evidence from elsewhere in Europe can also leave little doubt that Cistercian patrons considered the erection of bell towers to be an act of piety. A wall painting in the abbey church at Bebenhausen, Baden-Württemberg, depicts Abbot Peter von Grosmaringen (1393–1412) presenting the Virgin with a model of the remarkable filigree bell tower erected during his rule.37 The bell tower at Fountains can therefore be interpreted as an architectural statement of its patron’s reforming credentials, his concern for the dignified singing of the Divine Office, and as an assertion of his personal piety, with the inscriptional evidence of Christ-centric focus deeply rooted in the spiritual traditions of the northern monasteries.

Christ-centric Piety Cistercian spirituality always had a strong Christ-centric emphasis, especially in relation to the humanity and sufferings of Christ.38 This form of piety was nurtured and developed by Cistercian authors in northern England, notably Aelred of Rievaulx.39 An emphasis on Christ’s Passion and sacrifice found expression in the art and architecture of the Order from the earliest times. The Order’s monasteries were always allowed an image of Christ the Saviour.40 The importance of such images as aids to contemplation and spiritual development was recognized by Aelred. He cautioned his sister, who was a recluse, against the adornment of her cell with pictures or images. However, as an aid to her devotions she was permitted ‘an image of the Saviour hanging on the cross’. The Eucharistic significance of Christ upon the Cross was stressed by Aelred: ‘His

Corby Glen, Lincolnshire; see North, The Church Bells of the City and County of Lincoln, p. 366. Huby’s own motto, ‘Soli Deo Honor et Gloria’, is also sometimes found on late medi­eval bells, including one at Llandaff Cathedral; see Walters, Church Bells of England, p. 319. 37  Jamroziak, Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe, p. 265. 38  An excellent and accessible examination of the Christ-centric piety of the Cistercians can be found in Constable, Three Studies in Medi­eval Religious and Social Thought, esp. pp. 189–94, 204–12. 39  Dutton, ‘The Face and Feet of God’. 40  ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 324; Park, ‘Cistercian Wall and Panel Painting’, p. 197.

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outspread arms will invite you to embrace him, his naked breast will feed you with the milk of sweetness to console you’.41 It is clear from Suppression-era inventories and other documents that Cistercian abbeys in northern England possessed multiple images of Christ and that these played an important part in the religious life of monasteries, even shaping their identities. Roche Abbey derived its name from ‘de Rupe’, its origin a miraculous sculpture of the Crucifixion found by one of the monks on a rock, close to where the abbey was built.42 This image was venerated until the very end of the Middle Ages.43 Starting in the mid-thirteenth century, monumental images of Christ Crucified became common within Cistercian churches, where they were usually located above the screen at the east end of the lay brothers’ choir, and were often part of wider decorative schemes focused on the Passion and Crucifixion.44 Such an image was commissioned at Meaux in the middle of the fourteenth century by Abbot Hugh of Leven. The image was highly realistic, the abbey’s chronicle recording that its sculptor, a lay brother of the monastery, made the image from a nude model, ‘secundam cuius formosam imaginem crucifixum ipsum aptius decoraret’ (so that he might learn from his shapely form and carve the crucifix all the fairer).45 The creation of the image was in itself an act of piety. The abbey’s chronicle records that the lay brother shed tears of emotion while he worked reverentially on the finer points of the image on a Friday after fasting on bread and water.46 The intense emotion of the Meaux brother was very much in keeping with the Christ-centric piety and focus on Christ’s sufferings, associated with the Cistercians since the twelfth century. St Bernard used a crucifix during his private devotions, which he kissed, and the saint believed that the greatest wisdom was to fear God and to know Christ Crucified.47 41 

Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 103. Monasticon, v, 505. 43  L&P Henry  VIII, x, 364; Cross, ‘Monasteries and Society in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, p. 230. 44  For surviving images of this type in Scandinavia and northern Germany, see Jamroziak, Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe, pp. 172–73 and Laabs, Malerei und Plastik, pp. 71–74. 45  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 35. 46  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 35. 47  Constable, Three Studies in Medi­eval Religious and Social Thought, p. 210. The contemplation of Cistercian monks on the sufferings of Christ found visual expression in the fourteenth century in two remarkable manu­script drawings, both originating in German-speaking regions in Central Europe, depicting crucified Cistercian monks; see Seebohm, ‘The Crucified Monk’. 42 

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The community at Meaux would also have had the opportunity to contemplate its rood image during processions, the number of which proliferated at Cistercian monasteries in the late Middle Ages. There were just two processions in the earliest uses of the Order: Candlemas (2 February) and Palm Sunday. In 1151, a procession was added for Ascension Day, with the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin celebrated with a procession from 1223. 48 The General Chapter decreed in 1441 that all Sundays and sermon feasts (the highest grading in the Cistercian calendar) were to be marked with a procession. 49 The rood had an important role in such processions. Nineteenth-century excavations at Fountains uncovered a series of twenty-three paired limestone slabs on either side of the nave, with a further slab before the west door (Fig. 3.4). Dating to the abbacy of Marmaduke Huby, they are known from other great churches and were used for the ordering of processions, marking the position mem-

Figure 3.4. Plan of the church at Fountains Abbey showing its liturgical arrangement in c. 1500. Courtesy of Glyn Coppack.

48  Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 58. 49  Statuta, iv, 512; Bell, ‘Liturgy’, p. 265.

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bers of the community should adopt during the Station before the Rood during the Sunday procession.50 Christ-centric piety was also dynamic. As has been seen, inscriptions on the tower at Fountains Abbey provide evidence of Huby’s devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. The cult of the Holy Name was widespread across late medi­ eval Europe, and by 1500 was well established in northern England, as demonstrated by the presence of a Jesus Altar at Durham Cathedral Priory,51 and the collegiate foundation with the same dedication at Rotherham.52 St Bernard was an influential proponent of the cult and expressed his veneration of the Holy Name in his fifteenth sermon on the Song of Songs.53 Moreover, an English Cistercian has been suggested as the author of the hymn Jesu dulcis memoria.54 One scholar has called this hymn ‘the most famous medi­eval meditation on the sweetness of Jesus’.55 Veneration of the Holy Name was popularized in England by the writings of the Yorkshire hermit, Richard Rolle (d. 1349), who spent the final years of his life at the Cistercian nunnery of Hampole.56 Rolle was deeply affected by the teachings of St Bernard as well as by the spiritual traditions of the Yorkshire Cistercians, especially their adoration of Christ.57 The focus of the cult of the Holy Name in late medi­eval England was originally a votive Mass celebrated on a Friday. The liturgical feast of the Holy Name was promulgated in the province of Canterbury in 1488 for 7 August, the northern province adopting the feast on the same day in the following year.58 One scholar has recently suggested that, by 1500, the feast was kept ‘at the average parish church and certainly in the great collegiate and monastic churches’.59 Despite St Bernard’s importance in the early development of the cult, the feast 50 

Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 307–08. The markers at Fountains and those at other great churches are discussed by Vallance, Greater English Church Screens, pp. 15–19. 51  Rites of Durham, ed. by Fowler, pp. 32, 34. 52  The college at Rotherham was founded in 1486 by archbishop Thomas Rotherham of York; see Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, p. 207. 53  Biasiotto, History of the Development of Devotion to the Holy Name, p. 27. 54  Raby, A History of Christian Latin Poetry, p. 329. 55  Carsley, ‘Devotion to the Holy Name’, p. 161. 56  Whiting, ‘Richard Rolle of Hampole’. 57  For Rolle and his Cistercian influences, see Watson, Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority, p. 55; New, ‘The Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus in Late Medi­eval England’, pp. 12, 24. 58  Pfaff, New Liturgical Feasts, p. 77. 59  Brantley, Reading in the Wilderness, p. 47.

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of the Holy Name was not officially adopted by the Cistercians until 1644.60 Nevertheless, it is clear that the Mass of the Holy Name was celebrated at northern English Cistercian abbeys, as its propers according to the use of York have been written out in full on leaves inserted at the back of a printed missal from one of the Order’s monasteries in Yorkshire.61 The inscriptions on Huby’s tower are far from being the only material evidence of devotion to the Holy Name at northern Cistercian houses. The IHS monogram, the key icono ­ graphic emblem of the cult of the Figure 3.5. An oak panel, probably from Holy Name, was found etched Whalley Abbey, sculpted with the Sacred Monogram. London, V&A W.10-1936. into one of the cells beneath the Mid-fifteenth century. Courtesy of the V&A. late medi­e val abbot’s lodging at Fountains. 62 A mid-fifteenthcentury heraldic wooden panel sculpted with this monogram and now at the V&A is by credible tradition said to originate from Whalley (Fig. 3.5).63 Naming a bell ‘Jesus’ was also an expression of devotion to the cult. Thomas Burton’s chronicle records that Meaux Abbey was provided with a bell with this dedication during the abbacy of William of Scarborough (1372–96),64

60 

Cabassut, ‘La devotion au nom de Jesus dans l’eglise d’Occident’, p. 48. With thanks to Professor Terryl Kinder for this reference. 61  Carter, ‘Unanswered Prayers’, p. 269. 62  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p.  337. For discussion of the significance of the IHS monogram in devotion to the Holy Name, see Lutton, ‘“Love This Name That Is IHC”’. 63  Nelson, ‘Some Fifteenth-Century Carvings from Whalley Abbey’, p. 272. 64  Chron de. Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 240.

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and the Jesus bell dated 1410 at Thirsk Parish church is supposed to have originated from Fountains.65 The Christ-centric piety of the Cistercians meant that the Order was an early and enthusiastic promoter of the feast of Corpus Christi. The feast had its origins in the visions of Juliana of Mont Cornillon (1193–1258), an Augustinian nun in the diocese of Liège. Much of what is known about Juliana comes from her vita, written in c. 1280. She was one of several holy women from the region around Liège who occur in thirteenth-century Cistercian hagio­g raphy. Her vita describes her piety, obedience, humility, and devotion to the Eucharist and how at an early age, she learnt twenty sermons of St Bernard. Juliana spent her final years in a cell provided by the cantor of the Cistercian abbey of Fosses, and she was buried in the section of the cemetery of the Cistercian monastery at Villers reserved for saints.66 The cult of Corpus Christi was rooted in the Christ-centric piety of the Cistercians. Matthew, cantor of Rievaulx (d. 1220), composed hymns on this subject and Baldwin of Forde (c.  1125–90) was author of two works on the Eucharist. The feast of Corpus Christi was formally sanctioned by the Cistercian General Chapter in 1277, which decreed in 1318 that it was to be kept with two conventual Masses.67 The earliest surviving evidence for its observance by the English Cistercians is the Office in a mid-fourteenth-century breviary from a Yorkshire Cistercian house.68 Thomas Burton’s catalogue of the library and service books at Meaux Abbey compiled in 1396 records that the monastery possessed five processionals for Corpus Christi day.69 Among the many treasures listed in the 1530s inventory of Fountains 65 

Memorials of Fountains, ed.  by Walbran and Fowler, i, 294. Elsewhere in England, Garendon Abbey, Leicestershire, had a Jesus altar, which at the time of the Suppression accommodated a retable with thirteen images; see Nichols, History of the County of Leicester, iii.2, 797. A daily Jesus Mass was celebrated at Swineshead, Lincolnshire; see Williams, Tudor Cistercians, p. 20. As recently as 1992 graffito of the sacred monogram was discovered in the south range of Vale Royal Abbey, Cheshire, and has been dated to the fifteenth century; see Ramsay, ‘Medi­eval Graffiti at Vale Royal Abbey’, p. 165. 66  Walters, ‘The Feast and its Founder’, pp. 3–11. 67  Jamroziak, The Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe, p. 257. 68  BL, MS Burney 335, fol. 329r. For comment on this manu­script, including its evidence for the office and likely provenance, see Chadd, ‘Liturgy and Liturgical Music’, pp. 312–13 and Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medi­eval England, p. 259. Fountains is given as the most likely house of origin for this manu­script by both authors, but there is nothing in the calendar, litany, or office to confirm such a precise localization. 69  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxxiii.

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is ‘j gretter manse [monstrance] for Corpus Christi day, silver and gilt’, which was valued at the not inconsiderable sum of £22 19s 6d.70 Arguably the most important manifestation of the cult of Corpus Christi in northern England was the guild with that dedication, founded in York in 1408.71 Its membership came to comprise many of the leading figures in northern society, secular and ecclesiastical, including abbots and senior monks of several Cistercian houses. In 1469, Robert Myton, prior of Meaux and two of his brethren joined the guild.72 Abbot Thomas Swinton of Fountains was admitted to its membership in 1471–72, and his immediate successors, John Darnton and Marmaduke Huby, joined the guild while still monks in 1472–73 and 1493–94 respectively.73 Abbots of several other houses were also granted membership, including William Wymbersley of Kirkstall in 1489–90, John Paslew of Whalley in 1492–93 (while still a monk), and Robert Thornton of Jervaulx in 1527–28, the latter with eight of his brethren, an indication of the popularity of the cult among the Cistercians in the north.74 An annual pageant was staged in York to celebrate the feast.75 It is likely that the payments listed in the account book of Fountains Abbey between 1457 and 1459 to one Thomas Barbour for the staging of a Corpus Christi play were contributions to this event.76 All this evidence can leave little doubt that Christ-centric piety found considerable visual expression at the abbeys discussed in this book. Undoubtedly, this was in keeping with the spiritual and theo­logical traditions of the Order, but the cults of the Holy Name and Corpus Christi were ubiquitous in the late Middle Ages, meaning that evidence for their associated imagery at Cistercian monasteries is exactly what would be expected in the late Middle Ages. Important as the Cistercian abbeys of northern England were in the development of these cults, by the late Middle Ages they were just part of the mainstream. Was the same true of other aspects of the religious art of the Cistercians? 70 

Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 290. For a history of the guild, see Crouch, Piety, Fraternity and Power, pp. 160–95. 72  Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi, ed. by Skaife, p. 72. 73  Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi, ed. by Skaife, pp. 81, 83, 135. 74  Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi, ed. by Skaife, pp. 124, 132, 166. 75  King, The York Mystery Cycle, pp. 10–30. 76  Memorials of Fountains, ed.  by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 65, 90. For Barbour’s involvement with the staging of Corpus Christ plays, see The York Corpus Christi Play, ed. by Fitzgerald, p. 388. 71 

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Queen of Heaven and Earth: Veneration of the Virgin More than any other monastic order, the Cistercians are associated with veneration of the Virgin. Several of the northern monasteries provide evidence of the importance of images of the Virgin in the construction of monastic selfidentity, the liturgy, and also the wider devotional culture of the Cistercians. From the very beginning the Virgin had a special place in the religious life of the Order.77 Following the example set by Molesme, from which the founding fathers of the Cistercians had originated, all Cistercian monasteries were dedicated to the Virgin under the title of the Assumption, ‘Queen of Heaven and Earth’, and in 1281 the Virgin was named as patron of the Order. She enjoyed a special place in the Cistercian liturgy. From 1152, she was commemorated in the daily offices, and her liturgical significance increased throughout the Middle Ages. The Little Office of Our Lady was approved by the Order for communal observance in 1185, and from 1220 a votive Mass in her honour was celebrated every Saturday.78 By the end of the Middle Ages, there were six feasts of the Virgin in the Cistercian calendar, all sermon feasts with a high grading in the Order’s liturgy.79 St Bernard was deeply devoted to the Virgin and was buried before her altar at Clairvaux.80 In his sermons, he stressed the openness and willingness of the Virgin to come to the aid of mankind. By bearing Christ, the Virgin had a special intercessory role, standing between Him and all humanity.81 She was even believed to have personally intervened in aid of northern Cistercian communities. The foundation history of Kirkstall Abbey was written in the thirteenth century and survives in a fifteenth-century manu­script. It describes how the hermit Seleth was instructed by the Virgin, who appeared to him in a dream, to travel into Yorkshire and seek ‘a certain spot named Kirkstall […] there wilt thou provide a habitation which shall be for the brethren serving my son’.82 In 77 

Discussed by Rubin, Mother of God, pp. 149–57. Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, p. 127. 79  The Visitation, Assumption, and Nativity were ranked as festa sermonis majora, the highest rank of feasts. The Annunciation, Presentation, and Conception were all festa sermonis minora, the second highest rank. For an explanation of the rank of Cistercian feasts, see King, Liturgies of the Religious Orders, p. 99. 80  ‘Un grand monastère au XVIe siècle’, ed. by Michelant, p. 226. 81  For an examination of the significance of St  Bernard’s writings on the Virgin, see Gambero, Mary in the Middle Ages, pp. 131–41. 82  Fundacio Abbathie de Kyrkestall, ed. by Clark, pp. 176–77. 78 

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Figure 3.6. Dalmatic from Whalley Abbey, with an orphrey decorated with scenes from the life of the Virgin. Glasgow, Burrell Collection, mus n. 29.2. Early fifteenth century. Courtesy of the Burrell Collection.

1150 a group of monks left Stocking (then home to the community that would ultimately settle at Byland Abbey) to colonize the site which would eventually become Jervaulx Abbey. The monastery’s foundation history (which again was transcribed in the fifteenth century) recounts how the leader of the party had a vision of the Virgin and Child before setting off to found the daughter house. The colonizing monks became lost in a wood, but the Virgin and Child reappeared, consoling the monks and directing them to their destination.83 The enduring importance of the Virgin in the religious life of the northern Cistercians is shown by the frequency with which her image adorned altars in their churches. Images of the Virgin are recorded as standing on four separate altars within the church at Rievaulx alone. One was positioned on the high altar, a second stood on an altar in the east end, the other two located in nave chapels.84 Tiles laid in the floor around altars at Rievaulx are inscribed with 83  Foundation History of the Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx, ed. by Burton, pp. xxxiv–xxxv, 58–60. 84  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 227–28.

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the opening words of the Ave Maria.85 Her image seems to have been equally ubiquitous within other northern Cistercian churches. Three alabaster panels from a retable depicting the Joys of the Virgin were excavated at Fountains in the mid-nineteenth century (Fig. 1.27),86 and an inventory of c. 1535 records that the abbey possessed ‘j ymage of our lady in a cayse of silver and gilt’. 87 In the south part of the church at Roche there was an altar dedicated to the Virgin with her image standing upon it.88 Marian imagery adorned the vestments worn for the celebration of Mass at these altars. Scenes from the life of the Virgin are embroidered on the orphreys of the sumptuous early fifteenthcentury Mass vestments from Whalley Abbey (Fig. 3.6),89 and the inventory of the monastery’s possessions at the Suppression also lists copes with M (for Maria) ‘embroydered on the brist’.90 The significance of the Virgin and her veneration to the self-identity of the Cistercians is shown by the design of their seals. In 1307, a meeting of the English parliament at Carlisle required that houses of the Cistercians and other monasteries should keep a communal seal. In response, Byland, Jervaulx, Rievaulx, and Fountains adopted virtually identical seals, each depicting the Virgin and Child within a canopied niche at the top, with adoring monks beneath.91 The new constitution issued by Pope Benedict XII for the Cistercian Order (the Benedictina) in 1335 also had implications for the Order’s seals, instructing that conventual seals must be circular and depict the Virgin. Within a decade or so, seals that conformed to these regulations were in use at Furness, Kirkstall, and Whalley.92 The seal of Fountains struck in 1410 makes explicit the centrality of the Virgin to the community’s identity and religious culture, depicting as it does the community and abbot kneeling in veneration of an image of the Virgin and Child with the conventual church and its founders above (Fig. 3.7).93 85 

Stopford, Medi­eval Floor Tiles of Northern England, pp. 141–43. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 91. For alabaster retables of the Joys of the Virgin, see Cheetham, Alabaster Images of Medi­eval England, pp. 165–70 and Cheetham, English Medi­ eval Alabasters, pp. 70–71. 87  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 290. 88  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 120–22. 89  Monnas, ‘Opus Anglicanum and Renaissance Velvet’. 90  ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 109. 91  Heslop, ‘Cistercian Seals in England and Wales’, pp. 273, 276. 92  Heslop, ‘Cistercian Seals in England and Wales’, pp. 278–79. 93  Clay, ‘Seals of the Religious Houses of Yorkshire’, p. 17, pl. III. 86 

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The adornment of gatehouses with images of the Virgin would have left visitors with little doubt that they were entering the Virgin’s domain. The remains of the gatehouse at Sawley were still standing in the mid-nineteenth century and were ornamented with an elaborate image niche which contained a headless image of the Virgin and Child, below which ‘Sc’ta Maria Ora pr’ nobis’ (Holy Mary, pray for us) was inscribed in a black-letter script.94 The niche above the entrance to the late fifteenthFigure 3.7. Seal of Fountains Abbey. 1410. century inner gatehouse at Courtesy of Durham Cathedral. Whalley is documented as similarly accommodating the Virgin’s image,95 so too the canopied tabernacle above the entrance of the gatehouse at Furness’s grange at Hawkshead Hall, Westmorland.96 Her image was also above the entrances of several northern Cistercian churches, all of which were dedicated to her glory and honour. In the gable of the west front at Fountains, Abbot John Darnton (1478–95) inserted an image niche, containing a statue of the Virgin holding the Christ Child, with his rebus on the supporting bracket (Fig. 2.1).97 The porch built by Abbot Chamber at Holm Cultram was drastically altered in the early eighteenth century, but an engraving made shortly before these alterations shows that there was originally an elaborate canopied image niche above the doorway (Fig. 3.22). This likely housed the large fragmentary and defaced stone sculpture of the Virgin and Child in a mandorla surrounded by angels that is still preserved at the abbey.98 94 

Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley, p. 51. Hartwell and Pevsner, Lancashire: North, p. 693. 96  Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales, i, 209. 97  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 312. 98  The drawing on which the engraving is based is now Oxford, Bodleian Library, 95 

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The late medi­e val image niche cut into the apex of the twelfth-century portal at the west front of the church at Kirkstall also doubtless once contained her image. The niche above the entrance of the capella ad portas at Furness (Fig. 3.8) must also have housed a statue of the Virgin.99 The chapel itself accommodated an image of the Virgin which was the focus of pilgrimage. 100 In December 1344 Bishop Thomas of Lincoln granted a forty-day indulgence to those who devoutly visited this chapel (or the abbey church) to venerate the image of the Virgin and to hear the preaching of the monks, and a pedestal at the east end of the chapel may have supported this image.101 Abbot William Dalton (1406– c. 1418) of Furness nurtured veneration of the Virgin by his community. In 1407, he secured permission from the General Chapter of English abbots meeting at Combe Abbey, Warwickshire, for the celebration of daily Mass of the Virgin

111

Figure 3.8. Image niche above the entrance of the capella ad portas at Furness Abbey. Fourteenth century.

St Edmund Hall Todd MSS, 7/3. For the porch and its alterations, see Harrison, ‘The Architecture of Holm Cultram’, pp. 242–43; Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 89. 99  Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 359. 100  Dickinson, ‘Furness Abbey’, pp. 61–63. The capella ante portas at Merevale Abbey, Warwickshire, also accommodated an image of the Virgin which in 1351 attracted so many pilgrims that some were almost crushed to death; see Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, p. 135. The image was still attracting pilgrims and oblations in 1535; see Austin, Merevale Church and Abbey, pp. 5–6. 101  The bishop was among a group of prelates issuing similar indulgences; see Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, ed. by Atkinson and Brownbill, ii.3, 803–04.

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in the choir at Furness.102 The central role of the Virgin in the self-identity of Furness is demonstrated by the abbey’s cartulary, commissioned by Dalton in 1412. Each volume has a metrical verse introduction by Richard Esk, a monk of the abbey. The opening verses of the second volume ask the Virgin to accept the cartulary as her property: ‘Mater virgo pia titulo domus ista maria | Est tua dos propria sua sis rectrix ope dia’ (This House, Holy Mary, Virgin Mother | Is by its title your property | By help divine may you be its ruler | May you bestow your name on this book).103 A large miniature in the first volume depicts an abbot, presumably Dalton, kneeling before an image of the seated Virgin with the Christ Child on her knee, with an accompanying inscription reading, ‘Protege me servum, Virgo Maria tuum’ (Virgin Mary, protect me your servant) (Plate 6).104 Figure 3.9. Sculpture of the Virgin The depiction of the Virgin in the minand Child from Holm Cultram. Early sixteenth century. iature in the Furness cartulary and also her icono­g raphy in the few surviving sculpted images from northern Cistercian abbeys are typical of that found in later medi­eval England.105 For instance, a stone sculpture from Holm Cultram is now at the site of the abbey’s grange at Raby Cote where it was probably removed after 1600.106 This depicts the Virgin crowned and seated on a throne, gazing to the front with the Christ Child on her knee. The name of Abbot Robert Chamber is inscribed beneath, therefore dating the 102 

Beck, Annales Furnesienses, pp. 95, 282. BL, MS Add. 33244, fol. 1v. See also, Gaythorpe, ‘Richard Esk’s Metrical Account of Furness Abbey’, pp. 104–05. 104  London, TNA, DL Misc Books 3, fol. 7v; Gaythorpe, ‘Richard Esk’s Metrical Account of Furness Abbey’, p. 108; Scott, Later Gothic Manu­scripts, i, 121–22. 105  For the wider context of Marian imagery, see Mark, Image and Devotion, esp. pp. 38–63. 106  Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria, p. 90. 103 

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image to the early sixteenth century (Fig. 3.9). A similar depiction of the Virgin and Child is provided by the silver relief ornamenting one of the copper-gilt and enamel morses from Warden Abbey, Bedfordshire, which can be dated to the abbacy of Walter Clifton (c. 1377–97).107 In both instances, the close juxtaposition of the image of the Virgin and heraldry emphasizes the personal and institutional veneration of the Virgin by the Cistercians. The range of Marian imagery present at northern Cistercian monasteries is further suggested by the late fourteenth-century inventory of Meaux. This records an ivory image of the Virgin containing the relics of various saints which was flanked by silver-gilt angels.108 Several statuettes of this kind survive, typically with hollow cavities in the back or base for the storage of relics, and a thirteenth-century English example depicting the Virgin and Child and the Adoration of the Magi is in the collection of the British Museum.109 Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century ivory statuettes of the Virgin are extant from Cistercian abbeys on the Continent,110 and the two fourteenth-century diptychs from Cumberland which by credible local tradition are said to come from Furness Abbey, give a sense of the quality of ivory carvings present at northern Cistercian monasteries.111 There is no apparent extant evidence from the northern monasteries, indeed from any English Cistercian abbey, of two types of depiction of the Virgin widely found in Europe that especially emphasized her association with the Cistercians: the Mater Misericordiae, which shows Cistercian monks and nuns sheltering under her out-stretched cloak, and the Lactatio, which depict St Bernard kneeling before the Virgin and Child, a stream of milk shooting from the Virgin’s breast towards the saint.112 Despite the lack of surviving material evidence, there can be no doubt that Cistercian monks in northern England were familiar with at least the former of these images. An engraved image of the Mater Misericordiae formed the frontispiece of an 107 

London, British Museum, MLA 53, 67, 1–3. For a description and discussion of these morses and their icono­graphy, see Carter, ‘Cracking the Code’, pp. 175–93. 108  ‘Item, imago Beatae Mariae de ebore, cum duobus angelis collateralibus argenteis et deauratis, cum diversorum Sanctorum reliquiis inclusis.’ Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxix. 109  Dalton, Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, p. 91. 110  Notably the early thirteenth-century Virgin and Child group from Ourscamp. 111  Fair, ‘Two Medi­eval Ivory Diptychs from Cumberland’. 112  Jamroziak, Cistercian Order in Medi­eval England, pp. 174–75. France, Medi­eval Images of St Bernard of Clairvaux, pp. 205–37.

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edition of Cistercian privileges prepared by Abbot John de Cirey, abbot of Cîteaux, which was published in 1491. That this book was present at northern English Cistercian houses is clearly shown by the extensive extracts faithfully copied in a cartulary dating to c. 1500 from Fountains.113 A significant development in the cult and icono­graphy of the Virgin in the later Middle Ages was the emergence of devotion to Our Lady of Pity, or the Pietà. Depicting the grieving Virgin with her dead Son on her lap (Fig. 3.10), this powerful and moving image was universally popular in late medi­e val Europe, and is a reflection of the shift towards self-focused, affective piety. The earliest extant images are Figure 3.10. Nottingham alabaster from southern Germany and Our Lady of Pity. London, V&A.  date to c. 1320, and it was preFifteenth century. Courtesy of the V&A. sent in England by the end of the fourteenth century.114 The Rites of Durham records that the Benedictines at Durham Cathedral Priory had an altar with this dedication which accommodated ‘ye picture of o’ Lady carrying o’ saviour on her knee as he was taiken from ye crosse verey lamentable to behoulde’.115 Images of Our Lady of Pity often acted as the focus for burials, partly because this depiction combined belief in her as a grieving Virgin 113 

Oxford, Bodleian, Univ. Coll. MS 167; see also, Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 63 n. 2. I am most grateful to Dr Mike Spence for these references. 114  Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, pp. 123–24. 115  Rites of Durham, ed. by Fowler, p. 38.

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mother, steadfast in the loss of her son with her role as mediatrix for mankind.116 Depictions of Our Lady of Pity are known to have existed at a number of Cistercian abbeys, showing not only the importance of the Virgin to the Order, but also the dialogue between their spirituality and use of images and the wider Church. Such an image is documented at Rievaulx in 1515 and was located at the entrance to the choir, where it was the focus for burials.117 Byland was bequeathed an alabaster Pietà in 1432 by John Raventhorp, priest.118 There was also a wall painting of Our Lady of Pity at the monastery, which was recorded as late as the 1950s on the north wall of the north aisle of the nave.119 The Cistercians’ intense veneration of the Virgin can explain why her image was not only found within the churches of northern Cistercian monasteries, but also on domestic buildings within the monastic complex, as shown by the relief sculpture of the Annunciation to the Virgin located above the entrance of the late medi­eval abbot’s house at Rievaulx (Fig. 1.25).120 There can be little doubt that the sculpture has always been in this location. The earliest evidence of the sculpture in this location is provided by an early nineteenth-century watercolour by John Sell Cotman (1782–1842).121 The shape of a near-contemporary sculpture from Fountains suggests that it also originally had an architectural context (Fig. 1.26). It has similar sloping sides to the relief sculpture of the Annunciation from the Benedictine abbey of Dunfermline, Scotland, which also dates to the early sixteenth century and was originally positioned above a window of the guest range.122 116 

Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, pp. 123, 140. Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 63. 118  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 28. The image is also recorded at numerous other Cistercian abbeys in England. In c. 1511–12 Sir John Huddlesdon requested burial before the image of Our Lady of Pity ‘within the monastery at Hailes’. His will is quoted in Winkless, Hailes, p. 50. There was also a wall painting of the image in the abbey’s capella ante portas; see Park, ‘Cistercian Wall and Panel Painting’, p. 201. The image is also recorded at Stratford Langthorne in 1522; see Barber and others, The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Strat­ ford Langthorne, p. 94. The image is also among those listed in the Suppression inventory of Pipewell Abbey, Northamptonshire; see Monasticon, v, 440. 119  Peers, Byland Abbey, p. 6; discussed by Park, ‘Cistercian Wall and Panel Painting’, p. 205. 120  Pevsner, Yorkshire: North Riding, p. 306; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 135. 121  Hill, Cotman in the North, pp. 27–29, pl. 24. 122  Fawcett, Scottish Architecture from the Accession of the Stewarts to the Reformation, p. 123. 117 

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As has already been seen, the icono­g raphy of the sculptures at both Rievaulx and Fountains is typical for depictions of the Annunciation in late medi­e val England. The position of the sculpture at Rievaulx above a doorway is, however, of great significance. The early sixteenth-century gatehouse at the Cistercian abbey of Kingswood, Glouces­ tershire, was orna­mented with an An­n unciation scene (Fig. 3.11).123 There are num ero us e x amples above the entrances to parish churches in England and elsewhere; a typical fifteenth-century example is above the entrance of the south porch at All Saints, Adlingfleet, Yorkshire.124 The location of the scene close to entrances and other openFigure 3.11. Fragmentary Annunciation to the Virgin on ings was of theo­logical the gatehouse of Kingswood Abbey. Early sixteenth century. importance. Nicholas Photo: Dave Napier. Love’s English translation of the Meditationes vitæ Christi includes passages on the devotional importance of the Annunciation. The text describes how the doors of heaven, closed by the sinfulness of Eve, were reopened by the Virgin’s humility and obedience at the 123  124 

Coldstream, ‘Cistercian Architecture from Beaulieu to the Dissolution’, p. 156. Pevsner and Radcliffe, Yorkshire: West Riding, p. 73.

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Annunciation.125 Positioning Gabriel and Mary in close proximity to doorways and other openings therefore emphasized the symbolic reopening of heaven at the Annunciation. The Annunciation was the subject of several sermons by St  Bernard. 126 Moreover, the image at Rievaulx was part of a long history of veneration of the Annunciation at the abbey. When John Leland visited the abbey in c. 1538 he noted that its library included a copy of an exposition by Walter Daniel, the bio­grapher of St Aelred, on ‘Missus est angelus Gabriel’.127 Aelred himself composed sermons on this theme.128 These emphasized the Virgin’s virtues: ‘No one has a truer humility, a more powerful obedience; no one has a purer justice, a more abundant mercy, a more fruitful purity, a richer charity’.129 There is also explicit documentary evidence of veneration of the Annunciation at Fountains. In March 1515 Abbot Huby and his brethren agreed to pay John Sober, chaplain of the chapel of the ‘glorious Annunciation’ of the Virgin at Ripon Minster, an annuity ‘on account of the reverence and special devotion which they bear for the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary’.130 The evidence assembled here can leave little doubt that the multiplication and prominent location of images of the Virgin at northern Cistercian monasteries was because of her importance to the liturgy, devotional culture, and self-identity of these abbeys and the wider Cistercian Order. But the Virgin occupied such an important part in late medi­e val religion that the evidence equally demonstrates that the icono­graphy of Marian imagery present at these abbeys, and their liturgical and devotional uses, once again aligned with the mainstream.

The Cults of Local Cistercian Saints An aspect of religious art where the Cistercians in the northern counties unambiguously asserted a self-conscious identity was through the veneration of their own saints. There is evidence for the cults of three twelfth-century 125 

Love, Nicholas Love’s ‘Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ’, ed. by Sargent, pp. 21–22. Gambero, Mary in the Middle Ages, p. 133. 127  Collectanea, ed. by Hearne, chap. 4, p. 38. 128  For Aelred’s devotion to the Virgin, see Agius, ‘St Aelred and Our Blessed Lady’. Aelred’s sermons on the Annunciation are discussed by Gambero, Mary in the Middle Ages, pp. 162–66. 129  Quoted in Gambero, Mary in the Middle Ages, p. 164. 130  Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, p. 153. 126 

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Figure 3.12. Inscription from the shrine of Abbot William. Fourteenth century (?).

Cistercian abbots in northern England, two of whom were early abbots of Rievaulx. Cistercian sources from the early seventeenth century give William (1132–45), the founding abbot, the status of beatus with a feast on 2 August, the day of his death. He was never formally canonized but there can be little doubt that he was the focus of local veneration soon after his death. A largely overlooked late twelfth-century verse epitaph in a manu­script from Rufford, a daughter house of Rievaulx, praises William as ‘eminent in virtue and faith’ and ‘wholly Apostolic’.131 There is also material evidence of William’s cult at Rievaulx. In the mid-thirteenth century his relics were translated to a shrine, which was later inscribed ‘SCS Williamus Abbas’ (Fig. 3.12).132 Complete with an altar, the shrine was located at the entrance to the chapter house in the north opening. An inscription on the sill of the window in the south of the chapter house fixes the date of the translation to the year 1250, on 5 March, the anniversary of the foundation of the abbey. The shrine became 131  William’s epitaph is in BL, MS Cotton Titus D XXIV, fol. 81v: ‘Epitaphium domini Willelmi Abbatis Rieuallensis | Dormit in hoc tumulo quondam celeberrimus ille | Ordinis interpres, religionis odor; | Sol patriae, pater ecclesiae, lux fusa per orbem; | Cuius fundator et patriacha domus; Insignis virtute, fide, spectabilis ortu, | Abbas Willelmus totus apostolicus’ (Epitaph of Lord William, abbot of Rievaulx. In this tomb sleeps the late very celebrated expounder of the order, the fragrance of religion; the sun of his native land, the father of the church, the light poured forth through the world; the founder and father of his house; eminent in virtue, in faith, in the dawning [or rise] of what is admirable, Abbot William, the wholly apostolic man). The epitaph has received little scholarly comment, but see Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 70 and Mozley, ‘The Collection of Mediaeval Latin Verse in MS Cotton Titus D. XXIV’, pp. 33–34. 132  This inscription, on ex situ stonework now in the English Heritage store at Helmsley, is in a combination of black-letter and Lombardic scripts, suggesting a date after the fourteenth century.

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Figure 3.13. Life of Aelred in Nova legenda Angliae, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde, 1516, fol. XIr.

a focus of burials, and several grave slabs can still be seen adjacent to it in the cloister walk.133 There is substantial evidence for the late medi­eval cult of Aelred, the third abbot of Rievaulx (1147–67), at the monastery and elsewhere. The magnificent architecture of the thirteenth-century presbytery can best be understood not as an expression of the abbey’s pride but as a fitting setting for Aelred’s translated relics. Shortly before the Suppression, the antiquary John Leland saw the tomb of Aelred in the church at Rievaulx, describing it as ‘decorated with gold and silver’. This was probably the gilded shrine over the high altar mentioned in the Suppression-era inventory.134 In 1476, the Cistercian General Chapter granted formal permission for the observance of Aelred’s feast at Rievaulx, citing ‘old and new miracles’ in the church there. The feast was of high status and observed with twelve lessons.135 By the late fifteenth century, the Order’s saints were being ‘codified’ and were becoming an important presence in the self-identity of the Cistercians.136 In 1491, Jean de Cirey, abbot of Cîteaux, published a cata133 

Evidence of William’s cult is discussed in Peers, ‘Rievaulx Abbey’, pp.  20–28 and Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 99, 166–67. 134  Medi­eval evidence for the cult of Aelred at Rievaulx is discussed in Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 167–69. 135  The decree of the General Chapter approving Aelred’s cult is printed in Statuta, v, 348–49. 136  Jamroziak, Cistercian Order in Medi­eval Europe, p. 257.

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logue of seventy-five Cistercian saints and beati, including Aelred.137 The saint’s Vita was among those gathered by the chronicler John of Tynemouth in 1330. This formed the basis for the life of the saint in the Nova legenda Angliae, an edition of which was published in 1516 by the London printer Wynkyn de Worde (Fig. 3.13),138 and which doubtless helped widen veneration of the saint across England. The Nova legenda also includes the life of Robert, first abbot Newminster (1138–59).139 This was probably first written at St Albans Abbey and later copied by John of Tynemouth. A second extant life occurs in a fourteenth-century collection of forty-seven saints’ lives once belonging to the Benedictine nuns at Romsey Abbey, Hampshire. Miracles were attributed to Robert, his legend describing how he twice saved a Newminster monk. On the first occasion, the brother was cured of fevers after praying at Robert’s shrine in the abbey church. Later, while whitewashing the monks’ dormitory, the same monk tumbled from a ladder towards the stone steps of the night stairs but was miraculously saved from injury after crying out to Robert for assistance.140 Evidence for the veneration of these three saints by the late medi­eval laity will be considered presently.

The Cult of Saints: Liturgy and Monastic Life Images of saints were ubiquitous at late medi­eval Cistercian monasteries. At first sight, this appears to be more evidence of alignment with the mainstream. The interior and exterior of Melrose Abbey, a Scottish daughter house of Rievaulx and the mother house of Holm Cultram, was richly decorated with sculpted images during the rebuilding of the early fifteenth century. The surviving examples include a strikingly beautiful stone sculpture of the Virgin, and also present are images of several saints, including Andrew, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, and Thomas.141 In her analysis of late medi­eval Cistercian architecture in the British Isles, Nicola Coldstream argued that the identities of these saints ‘have no obvious relevance to the Cistercian tradition’.142 Indeed, these saints would 137 

Les monuments primitifs de la règle cistercienne, ed. by Guignard, p. 652. John of Tynemouth, Nova legenda Angliae, fols xir–xiiiv. 139  John of Tynemouth, Nova legenda Angliae, fols cclxxiiir–lxiiiiv. 140  Leyser, ‘Robert [St Robert] (d.1159)’; Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, pp. 134–35. 141  For these images, see Fawcett and Oram, Melrose Abbey, pp. 142–56. 142  Coldstream, ‘The Mark of Eternity’, p. 61. 138 

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have been found in the calendars and litanies of any religious order or local use in the late Middle Ages and their images proliferated across Europe. Evidence from Fountains, however, suggests a relationship between the liturgy of the Cistercian Order and the placement of images. There are seven image niches on the facades of Huby’s tower (two each on the eastern, northern, and western facades, and one on the southern facade). A total of three images still survive in their original position. Two of these are located on the northern facade. The first is located above the lowest window and is of a female saint (Fig. 3.14). She is crowned, an indication of both martyrdom and royalty, holding a palm of martyrdom in her right hand and a book is in her left hand to show her learning. On the basis of these attributes, Hope identified her as St Katherine.143 The statue has neither the wheel nor the sword with which the saint is usually depicted,144 and the attributes of the crown, book, and palm were shared with other virgin martyrs. Nevertheless, there is evidence of the veneration of St Katherine at other Cistercian monasteries in the late Middle Ages, her image recorded at Roche Abbey in Yorkshire and also at Whalley’s cell at Stanlow in Cheshire.145

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Figure 3.14. Image of a female martyr, probably St Katherine, on Huby’s tower at Fountains. Early sixteenth century.

143  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 314; Carter, ‘The Tower of Abbot Marmaduke Huby of Fountains Abbey’, pp. 281–84. 144  For the saint’s usual icono­g raphy, see Milburn, Saints and their Emblems in English Churches, pp. 49–50. For veneration of the saint, see Lewis, The Cult of St Katherine of Alexan­ dria in Late Medi­eval England; Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, pp. 96, 159, 163–64, 240; and Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 173–74. 145  Cross, ‘Monasteries and Society in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, p. 230; ‘Inventory

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Figure 3.15. Image of St James the Great on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century.

The second statue on the north facade is housed within a niche above the window of the second storey. The image is a typical late medi­eval representation of St James the Great, showing the saint with a pilgrim’s staff, hat, and cloak (Fig. 3.15). There is considerable evidence of veneration of St James at Fountains in the late Middle Ages. A now lost inscription recorded the dedication of an altar to the saint in the Chapel of the Nine Altars, and Abbot Darnton inserted an image of the saint carved upon a keystone in the arch of a window above this altar (Fig. 3.16).146 An inventory of the abbey’s contents, which was made just before the Suppression, shows that it possessed a silvergilt image of the saint valued at £13 7s 4d.147 The final image is situated in the only image niche on the southern face of the tower, above the third-storey window. It shows an abbot holding a crosier in his right hand and a book in his left (Fig. 3.17). Various identities have been suggested for this image: St Bernard, St Benedict, or even Huby, but the statue is so similar to other late medi­e val sculptural representations of St  Bernard that it seems plausible that it is a representation of this great Cistercian saint.148

of Stanlow’, ed. by Walcott, p. 54. The image is likewise documented at Pipewell, Northamptonshire and Garendon, Leicestershire; see Monasticon, v, 440, Nichols, History of the County of Leicester, iii.2, 798. 146  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, pp. 296, 299; Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 60. For the saint’s icono­graphy in medi­eval England, see Milburn, Saints and their Emblems, p. 136. 147  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 290. 148  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 314. For comparative images suggesting this is indeed St Bernard, see France, Medi­eval Images of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

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Fewer saints were commemorated in the calendar of the Cistercians than in those of other orders, and the calendar remained sparsely populated in the late Middle Ages.149 Like other orders and the wider church, the Cistercians graded feast days according to their status in the liturgical calendar. There is a discernible relationship between the position of the images on the tower and the status of the feasts of the saints they depict in the Cistercian calendar.150 The feasts of virgin martyrs had a lower liturgical grading than feasts of the apostles, which in turn were kept with less solemnity than the feast of St Bernard. Moreover, St  Bernard’s image was also in a highly appropriate position, high on the south face of the tower. Its location meant that the likeness of this most important of all Cistercian saints overlooked, and could be seen from, the claustral nucleus of the abbey, a constant reminder of St Bernard’s importance in guiding the daily life of the community. Other evidence shows, however, how the Order’s use of sacred imagery intersected with the religious mainstream. An extant inscription in stone in the north transept at Fountains Abbey records the dedication of an altar to St  Michael the Archangel (‘Altare sci michaelis arch’’). It is in a blackletter script and in the white magnesium limestone used by Huby, and is at first-floor 149 

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Figure 3.16. Image of St James in the Chapel of the Nine Altars. Late fifteenth century. Drawing by Judith Dobie; reproduced with permission.

The addition of saints to the Cistercian calendar is described and discussed by Backaert, ‘L’évolution du calendrier cistercien’. 150  For an explanation of the rank of Cistercian feasts, see King, Liturgies of the Religious Orders, p. 99. The description provided here is also based on correspondence with Fr Hilary Costello, to whom I am grateful for clarifying certain points not discussed by King.

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level, where it is accompanied by a console, doubtless to accommodate an image of the saint (Fig.  3.18). 151 There is further evidence of veneration of the saint related to the monastery. The grange chapel at How Hill, which is located on a hill to the south of the abbey, was dedicated to St Michael and an inscription records its rebuilding by Huby.152 The saint was often associated with high places, explaining the location of the inscription and image in the church and the dedication of the chapel. His legend tells how he appeared at Mount Gargano in southern Italy ‘to keep it safe’. St Michael’s protection was necessary because high places were considered to be between heaven and earth, and his legend explains that, after their expulsion from heaven by St Michael, Lucifer and the rebel angels

Figure 3.17. Image of an abbot, probably St Bernard, on Huby’s tower. Early sixteenth century.

were not allowed to live in heaven […] nor on the earth with us […] they are in the air between heaven and earth […] By God’s design they come down to test us, and, as has been shown by some holy men, they fly around us like flies.153

Huby also expressed his devotion to this saint in letters to Cîteaux written in 1517 and 1520. Both times he praised the protective powers of St Michael against evil.154 There is evidence of veneration of St Michael at a number of other English Cistercian monasteries. The Suppression inventory of Whalley Abbey lists a vestment of ‘grene velvett with an image of Seinte Michell imbriodered on the bak’.155 151 

Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 287. Memorials Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 152. 153  Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, ii, 202, 205. For the saint in medi­eval England, see Johnson, Saint Michael the Archangel in Medi­eval English Legend. 154  Letters from the English Abbots to the Chapter at Cîteaux, ed. by Talbot, pp. 245–46, 254. 155  ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 109. 152 

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Figure 3.18. Image console and associated inscription in the north transept of the church at Fountains recording the dedication of an altar to St Michael. Early sixteenth century.

An ‘image of wode of Saynt Michell’ was among the possessions of the abbey’s cell at Stanlow when it was suppressed.156 Northern Cistercian houses contained likenesses of equally popular saints, including St George. An image of the saint ‘Apon horsebak’ at Kirkstall Abbey was mentioned in a contract between John Ratcliffe and the prominent Ripon carver William Brownflet in 1518 and was to serve as a model for a similar statue in an oratory at Ripon Minster.157 Partly as a consequence of the Crusades, the cult of this archetypal warrior saint had become widespread in the Western Church. Royal support in late medi­e val England contributed to the growth of this most patriotic of cults, with devotion to St George ubiquitous at a parish level, and a large number of guilds were founded in his honour.158 In the fifteenth century, the equestrian image of St George, or ‘rydyng George’, came into fashion, showing the mounted and armoured saint in combat with the dragon.159 The icono­g raphy of such images is suggested by the 156 

‘Inventory of Stanlow Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 54. At the Suppression, Pipewell Abbey, Northamptonshire, had a chapel dedicated to the saint which contained ‘ij tables paynted’; see Monasticon, v, 440. 157  Memorials of the Church of SS Peter and Wilfrid, Ripon, ed. by Fowler, iv, 294–96; see also, Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, p. 235. 158  For the origins and dissemination of the cult of St George in late medi­eval England, see Riches, St George, esp. pp. 101–39 and Good, The Cult of St George, esp. chaps 1–4. 159  For the icono­graphy of the saint in late medi­eval England, see Marks, Image and Devo­ tion in Late Medi­eval England, pp. 114–15.

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mid-fifteenth-century polychromed oak group that survives from Gosford Gate Chapel, Coventry.160 The contract between Ratcliffe and Brownflet specified that the image for Ripon was to have ‘towo hedes and thre Armes’.161 It is therefore probable that the St George at Kirkstall, which was the model for this image, had similar removable parts, suggesting that in addition to its devotional functions, the sculpture may also have been used in a pageant or similar ceremony, the celebration of which characterized celebration of the saint’s feast in the late Middle Ages.162 Images of St  Christopher also were prevalent at northern Cistercian abbeys. The Rievaulx inventory records that ‘an image of Saynt Christopher in a tabernacle’ was located in the south transept.163 Incisions into the pier dividing the northern and middle chapels of this transept to accommodate the image can still be seen.164 Fittings for an image can also be seen in similar locations at Fountains and Kirkstall,165 and there is also an image niche in the south transept at Furness.166 It seems likely that these also housed images of St Christopher. This position would have ensured that the community saw a depiction of the saint as they entered the church via the night stairs to sing the office of Vigils. Hope suggested that this was because of the popular belief that viewing an image of the saint was considered to be a protection against a ‘bad’, or unshriven, death that day,167 and this is indeed an explanation for the positioning of the image at Rievaulx and the other abbeys. An additional reason for the location of St Christopher’s image at these northern monasteries is likely to have been the protection which viewing the saint’s image was thought to provide against tiredness. A late thirteenth-century wall painting of St Christopher can still be seen on the south wall of the south transept at Westminster Abbey, close to where the night stairs from the monks’ dormitory were located. The painting is accompanied by a Latin inscription, which 160 

Marks and Williamson, eds, Gothic, p. 397. Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, p. 235. 162  For these celebrations, see Good, The Cult of St George, pp. 83, 87, 89, 91. 163  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 227. 164  Fergusson and others, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 15. 165  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 284; Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 13. 166  Harrison, Wood, and Newman, Furness Abbey, p. 8. 167  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 284; Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 13. For the belief that St Christopher afforded protection against a bad death, see Whaite, St Christopher in English Medi­eval Wall Painting, p. 9; Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, p. 100. 161 

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reads in translation: ‘Whoever seeth the representation of St Christopher on that day will certainly not be worn out with weariness’.168 Similarly, a lost inscription at Pakefield Parish Church, Suffolk, also referred to the sustaining power of the saint against fatigue in daily toil. 169 Rising in the middle of the night to sing the night office, tiredness must have been a concern for monks. A senior monk patrolled the stalls, ensuring the community remained awake, and shone a lantern in the face of any individual who looked likely to fall asleep. There were stories in Cistercian devotional literature of the unfortunate fates of monks who succumbed to sleepiness during the night office.170 Evidence from elsewhere in Europe similarly shows that late medi­ eval Cistercians sought the assistance, protection, and friendship of saints, including Christopher.171

Saints: The Local Context Veneration of saints especially associated with northern England likewise provides parallel evidence of Cistercian traditions and conformity with local trends. The chronicle of Meaux Abbey lists the monastery’s extensive array of relics, many housed in ivory or precious metal containers.172 Present were the relics of saints of unimpeachable Cistercian credentials such as St Bernard and St Malachy.173 However, the monastery was also in possession of the relics of a number of more local saints. Especially notable are the relics of several northern English Anglo-Saxon monastic saints. 168 

‘Sancti xpofori speciem quicumque tuetur illa nempe die nullo languore tenetur.’ For a discussion of the inscription, see Howe, ‘Painting and Patronage at Westminster Abbey’, p. 6. 169  Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medi­eval England, p. 100. 170  Caesarius of Heisterbach, The Dialogue on Miracles, i, chap. XXXIV, p. 231. With thanks to Professor Janet Burton for bringing this reference to my attention. 171  During an outbreak of plague Abbot George Kastner (1490–1509), of Kaisheim Abbey near Augsburg in southern Germany, commissioned exquisite silver images of St Christopher and St Sebastian to accommodate their relics. The reliquary of St Sebastian is at the V&A, M.272001, [accessed 15 October 2017]. 172  BL, MS Cotton Vitellius C VI, fols 241r–242r, transcribed in Thomas, ‘The Cult of Saints’ Relics in Medi­eval England’, pp. 515–23. The inventory is translated in Poulson, Hold­ erness, ii, 311–13. 173  Thomas, ‘The Cult of Saints’ Relics in Medi­eval England’, p. 275; Poulson, Holderness, ii, 311.

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From the time of their arrival in the region, the Cistercians were tied into the ancient religious and monastic traditions of the north. William, first abbot of Rievaulx, who led the founding colony of monks from Clairvaux, was himself a Yorkshireman who had entered the monastic life at Clairvaux in 1119 and was Bernard’s own secretary. Two early abbots of Fountains, Henry Murdac (1144–47) and Richard (1150–70), were also Yorkshiremen who had first joined the Cistercians at Clairvaux. 174 But it was arguably through Aelred that the Cistercians became integrated with the north’s Anglo-Saxon monastic traditions. His father and grandfather were priests of Hexham.175 Aelred was the author of a treatise on the lives of several northern Anglo-Saxon saints, including St Ninian, and the saints of Hexham and their miracles.176 Aelred’s great-grandfather had been custodian of the shrine of St Cuthbert (d. 687), monk, bishop, and hermit, at Durham and Aelred himself also had a deep personal devotion to the saint.177 This no doubt explains why the catalogue of Rievaulx’s library, made c.  1190 to 1200, includes a life of this saint.178 Also in the catalogue was a treatise by Maurice, the second abbot (1145–47), on the translation of the saint’s relics. 179 A relic of St Cuthbert is among those listed in the late fourteenth-century inventory of the relics at Meaux Abbey.180 There was also an altar at Meaux dedicated to St Cuthbert, which was clearly the focus of veneration in the later Middle Ages as Stephen Coppendale, chaplain of the altar of St Cuthbert at Beverley Minster, established a chantry there of twenty years’ duration in 1486. 181 174 

Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 99. Squire, Aelred of Rievaulx, pp. 12–15. 176  Aelred of Rievaulx, Lives of the Northern Saints. 177  Burton and Kerr, The Cistercians in the Middle Ages, p. 134; Lives of the Northern Saints, p. 14. 178  Bell, The Libraries of the Cistercians, Gilbertines and Premonstratensians, p. 139. An exceptionally fine early thirteenth-century copy of Roger of Howden’s Historia Anglorum from Rievaulx provides further evidence of devotion to Cuthbert at the abbey. Late medi­eval annotations draw attention to mentions of the peregrinations of the saint’s body across northern England and its eventual burial at Durham (London, Inner Temple, MS 511.2, fol. 19v). Other annotations to the manu­script (fol. 58r) also demonstrate that the monks of Rievaulx had a keen awareness of the history of their house: the founding of the monastery on 5 March 1132 by Walter Espec is noted in a neat Gothic book-hand; next to this is a record of the pillaging of the abbey by the Scots on 14 October 1322. 179  Bell, Libraries of the Cistercians, Gilbertines and Premonstratensians, p. 139. 180  Poulson, Holderness, ii, 311. 181  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 8. 175 

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From an early date, Cuthbert was also venerated at Furness, where an altar was dedicated to the saint.182 There is textual and material evidence dating to the late Middle Ages of the veneration of other local Anglo-Saxon saints. The feasts of several English saints, including St Oswald on 5 August and St Wilfrid on 12 August, have been added in manu­script to the calendar of Huby’s printed breviary.183 Wilfrid and other early English saints have also been added to the calendar of a printed missal, most probably from Jervaulx Abbey,184 and several Anglo-Saxon saints have also been appended to the calendar of a recently discovered printed missal from an as yet unidentified northern Cistercian house.185 The inclusion of St Oswald (d. 642) in the calendar of Huby’s breviary is especially noteworthy as there is interesting additional evidence of the veneration of this saint at Fountains in the late Middle Ages. Oswald was king of Northumbria and before his death in battle did much to promote Christianity within his kingdom. He soon became the focus of a cult that achieved international fame, his head and other relics ultimately enshrined in Durham Cathedral Priory. His cult remained popular after the Norman Conquest and was enthusiastically promoted by the twelfth-century archbishop of York, Henry Murdac, who had been abbot of Fountains (r. 1144–47).186 Huby and the community at Fountains appear to have had a special devotion to this saint. From the early fifteenth century, the abbey was using the saint’s fictional arms as its own. They first appear on the abbey’s counter-seal in 1424, consisting of a shield emblazoned with a cross between four lions, surrounded by the monastery’s motto, ‘Benedicite Fontes Domino’ (Oh you fountains, bless the Lord).187 They are also recorded as the arms of the abbey in two early sixteenthcentury heraldic manu­scripts, both of which date to Huby’s abbacy, and give the arms as gules, a cross between four lions argent (Plate 7).188 The abbey possessed a relic of St Oswald, and Huby obtained official permission from the 182 

Fergusson, Architecture of Solitude, p. 61. Carter, ‘The Breviary of Abbot Marmaduke Huby’, p. 27. 184  Carter, ‘Renaissance, Reformation, Devotion and Recusancy in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, pp. 132–37. 185  Carter, ‘A Printed Missal from an English Cistercian Abbey’, p. 246. 186  Rollason, ‘St Oswald in Post-Conquest England’, pp. 164–74. 187  Clay, ‘Seals of the Religious Houses of Yorkshire’, 1928, p. 17, illustrated pl. III.2. 188  London, College of Arms, MS Vincent 162, p. 167 and MS L10, fol. 64v. The use of these arms by Fountains is discussed by Carter, ‘Azure, Three Horseshoes Or’, pp. 234–36. 183 

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Figure 3.19. Inscription recording Huby’s patronage and naming SS Cuthbert and Oswald at Winksley Parish Church. Early sixteenth century.

Cistercian General Chapter in 1495 for the liturgical celebration of his feast at Fountains; a year later he sought authorization for the observance of the feast at the daughter houses of Fountains and all Cistercian monasteries in the province of York.189 Huby rebuilt the chapel at Winksley, Yorkshire, a grange of the monastery, which was dedicated to SS Cuthbert and Oswald. He recorded his patronage by inscribing his initials and motto, which expresses his devotion to the two saints: ‘MH, In Honore Dei Santo Cuthberti et Oswaldi’ (Fig. 3.19). The indulgence for the rebuilding of the chapel at Winksley records the site’s ancient association with the cult of Cuthbert and Oswald.190 There is also considerable evidence of northern Cistercian veneration of St Wilfrid (c. 633–709). This saint was an appropriate focus for the Order’s devotion as he was credited with the introduction of Benedictine monasticism to northern England at the monastery he founded in Ripon. The medi­e val minster in the town was jointly dedicated to St Peter and St Wilfrid. In 1457, Abbot John Greenwell (1442–71) incurred expenses of 8d during his journey to Ripon to celebrate St Wilfrid’s Day and also spent 7d on the purchase of a signum,191 the ‘sign’ or pilgrim badge of the saint.192 Ripon Minster was exten189 

Statuta, iv, 108, 143; Rollason, ‘St Oswald in Post-Conquest England’, pp. 164, 177. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 422. The site of Fountains itself also appears to have had religious associations long before the arrival of the Cistercians, as suggested by the discovery of a fragmentary late Saxon cross head at the monastery as recently as 1994; see Coatsworth, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, p. 152. I am indebted to Dr Glyn Coppack for alerting me to the existence of this cross head. Indeed, the Cistercians appear on occasion to have consciously established their abbeys on sites with pre-existing associations of sanctity. A community of hermits was occupying the site of what was to become Kirkstall Abbey when it was settled by the Order; see Burton, The Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 120. Kirkstead Abbey, Lincolnshire, was likewise founded on a site originally occupied by hermits; see Coppack and Harrison, ‘Reconstructing Kirkstead Abbey’, p. 2. 191  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 103, 246. 192  For pilgrimage to Ripon and the relics of St Wilfrid, see Webb, Pilgrimage in Medi­eval England, pp. 83–84. 190 

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sively rebuilt in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. 193 There are numerous references to Fountains in the Minster’s fabric and chamberlain’s rolls from this period. 194 Evidence of the abbey’s association with the Minster is also provided by the appearance of its later arms (azure, three horse­ hoes or) on a corbel supporting the south transept’s early sixteenthcentury timber roof, and also on a corbel in the north aisle of the nave Figure 3.20. Coat of arms of Fountains Abbey, Ripon Minster, north aisle of the nave. (Fig. 3.20), the rebuilding of which 195 Early sixteenth century. started in 1512. Abbot Huby even appropriated St Wilfrid’s cult for his abbey. The antiquary John Leland visited Ripon in c. 1538 and recorded in his Itinerary that Huby had taken steps to establish a cell of monks from Fountains on the site of Wilfrid’s monastery, the ‘old abbay’ at Ripon, based around the Lady Chapel. According to Leland: One Marmaduke […] abbate of Fountaines, a man familiar with Salvage Arche­ bissop of York, obteinid this chapelle of hym and prebendaries of Ripon: and having it given onto hym and his abbay pullid down the est end of it, a pece of exceding auncient wark, and buildid a fair pece of new werk with squarid stones for it, leving the west ende of the very old werk stonding.196

Fragments of the precinct wall built by Huby still survive and archaeo­logical investigation of the site has revealed two phases of Anglo-Saxon monastic settlement and also building work dating to Huby’s time.197 Leland also records the presence of some inscriptions on the new wall of the chapel built by Huby naming Cuthbert, Eata (d. 681), Wilfrid, and Willibrord (d. 739), all Anglo-

193 

Wilson, ‘Ripon Cathedral’, pp. 645–46, 655–58. Memorials of Ripon, ed. by Fowler, iii, 165, 169, 172, 186. 195  Wilson, ‘Ripon Cathedral’, p. 655. 196  Leland, Itinerary, ed. by Toulmin-Smith, i, 80. 197  Hall, ‘Antiquaries and Archaeo­logists in and Around Ripon Minster’, pp. 14–15. 194 

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Figure 3.21. Feast of St William of York on 8 June added to the calendar of a missal printed in 1516 from a Yorkshire Cistercian Abbey.

Saxon monastic saints associated with the site.198 Therefore, as was the case with the inscriptions at Winksley, Huby used his veneration of Anglo-Saxon saints to root both himself and his Order into the ancient religious traditions of the region. Post-Conquest northern English saints were also venerated by the Cister­ cians, with Meaux possessing multiple relics St William of York (d. 1152).199 The cult of this saint, who was an archbishop of York, was largely confined to Yorkshire and especially York.200 Thanks to the cult’s promotion by clerical supporters of the Lancastrians, devotion to St William revived from the late fourteenth century, culminating in the translation of the saint’s relics to a magnificent new shrine in York Minster in 1471.201 A spectacular manifestation of his late medi­eval cult that is still visible is the early fifteenth-century St William window in the northern presbytery aisle of York Minster. This provides a narrative of William’s life and death and of the miracles at his tomb. Included in the glazing scheme are panels that refer to St William’s conflict with St Bernard 198 

Leland, Itinerary, ed. by Toulmin-Smith, v, 143. Thomas, ‘The Cult of Saints’ Relics in Medi­eval England’, pp. 517, 522. Early evidence from a Cistercian abbey of devotion to the relics of St William is a charter dated to before 1219 whereby Alice, widow of Adam of Crideling, confirmed the possessions of Sawley at Halton by swearing on the body of the saint; see Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, ii, 63. 200  Norton, St William of York, p. 202. 201  Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, pp. 299–319. 199 

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and the Cistercian Order in Yorkshire over his election as archbishop. This led to William being deposed in 1147 and his replacement as archbishop by Henry Murdac, abbot of Fountains. Violent disorder ensued and Fountains was attacked by William’s supporters and badly damaged by fire.202 William subsequently made reparation to Fountains and to its daughter house, Meaux.203 The saint’s feast on 8 June appears in a fourteenth-century breviary from a Yorkshire Cistercian house and has also been added to the calendars of several printed liturgical books from northern English Cistercian houses (Fig. 3.21).204 This late medi­e val evidence of Cistercian veneration of local saints shows the Order was continuing traditions established from almost the very moment its monks first arrived in northern England. The acquisition of relics, dedication of altars, devotional inscriptions, and use of heraldry, all testify to a belief by the monks at Meaux, Fountains, Furness, and elsewhere that they were inheritors of an ancient monastic culture. It also testifies to how well integrated the Cistercians were with local and regional saintly devotions. As has been seen (p. xli), Cistercian communities were composed of locally recruited monks. It is not surprising that on entering the cloister, these monks retained the devotions familiar to them in their formative years. Given the importance of Cistercian monasteries in northern society, it is legitimate to examine what impact the religious needs and devotions of the laity had on the Order’s religious art.

The Laity and Cistercian Churches It is well known that the Cistercians strictly regulated the access of the laity to their churches.205 But as will be shown, one of the northern churches, uniquely for England, also served a parish, and this had implications for aspects of its late medi­eval ornament. Moreover, evidence will be detailed showing that relics and images at several of the churches were the focus of pilgrimage and offerings. It has already been seen that Holm Cultram frequently suffered from Scottish incursions. Due to its exposed border location, its church served both a monastic community and a parish. When the abbey was dissolved in 1538 the ‘eighteen hundred houselynge people’ of Holm Cultram petitioned 202 

Norton, St William of York, p. 120. Norton, St William of York, p. 139. 204  Carter, ‘A Printed Missal from an English Cistercian Abbey’, pp. 246, 249–50. 205  Access was generally restricted to the westernmost section of the nave and then only for special guests and hired workers; see Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p. 174. 203 

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Figure 3.22. James Cole’s engraving of the west front of Holm Cultram. Early eighteenth century.

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Figure 3.23. Early sixteenth-century sculpted eagle re-set on the west gable of Holm Cultram Abbey.

Thomas Cromwell for the preservation of the monastic church, explaining that it was ‘not only unto us our parish Churche […] but also a great ayde, socor and defence for us agent our neghbors the Scots’.206 The sculpture on Abbot Chamber’s porch testifies to this parochial function. As has been noted, the porch was drastically altered in the eighteenth century when a second storey was added. However, an engraving made in the early eighteenth century shows that the porch originally had a large canopied image niche, flanked by crocketed pinnacles with an eagle above (Fig. 3.22); the latter is now reset on the church’s western gable (Fig. 3.23). One of the few surviving books from the abbey is a twelfth-century copy of the bestiary of Philippe de Thaon, and its Anglo-Norman text includes a description of an eagle, stating that it is the king of birds, and therefore signified Christ, king over all people.207 The volume was clearly in use during the later Middle Ages as the ex libris inscriptions which record its ownership by Holm Cultram are in a black-letter script.208 Like the 206 

Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 130. BL, MS Cotton Nero A V, fols 67r–68v. For a recent discussion of this manu­script, see Carruthers, The Book of Memory, pp. 159–60. 208  BL MS Cotton Nero A V, fols 1r, 84r. 207 

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eagles ornamenting late medi­eval church lecterns,209 the sculpture on the porch also signified the dissemination of the gospel and therefore the evangelizing role of the church at Holm Cultram. The church at Holm Cultram was unique in England in having this parochial function. Despite their general reluctance to admit the laity to their churches, images and relics within northern Cistercian churches were the focus of veneration on the part of the laity. This is best illustrated by the well-known case of the sculpted crucifixion commissioned by Abbot Hugh of Leven (1339–49) at Meaux.210 The monastery obtained permission from the abbot of Cîteaux to allow men and women of honest character access to the miracle-working image. This was with the proviso that women were not to enter the cloister, dormitory, or other claustral buildings. However, the abbey was to regret the admission of women. Many came merely to look upon the church without making any offering to the image, and the provision of hospitality was a drain on the abbey’s resources.211 Meaux was not the only Cistercian church to which the female laity had access. In 1401 the abbot of Fountains issued a licence confirming a papal indulgence allowing women to enter the church of Kirkstall Abbey on certain days, provided that the abbot and monks did not grant them access to other parts of the monastery.212 At Furness, the laity were allowed into the chapter house to hear sermons, as shown by an indulgence issued by the bishop of Cashel (Ireland) in 1345.213 Clearly the laity were a frequent presence in the churches and even the cloisters of the northern Cistercians, though none became major pilgrim destinations on the scale of Boxley, Kent, with its animated Rood image, or the Order’s monastery of Hailes, Gloucestershire, home to a famous relic of the Holy Blood.214 Nevertheless, the bursar’s book of Fountains Abbey records that in 1457–58 oblations to the value of 6s 2d were made at the chapel of St Michael and 9s 6d was offered to the monastery’s rel209 

A monastic example from the Augustinian abbey of Newstead, Nottinghamshire, is now at Southwell Minster; see Marks and Williamson, eds, Gothic, p. 364. Lecterns are listed in the inventories of several English Cistercian houses including Dieulacres in Staffordshire and Sawtry in Cam­bridgeshire; see ‘Inventories and Valuations of Religious Houses at the Time of the Dissolution’, ed. by Walcott, pp. 215, 239. 210  Meaux Chronicle, ed. by Bond, iii, 35–36. 211  Meaux Chronicle, ed. by Bond, iii, p. xi. 212  Barnes, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 70. 213  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 266. 214  For Hailes, see Vincent, The Holy Blood, pp. 137–54, 206–09.

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ics of St Anne and St Aelred.215 The shrine of Aelred in the church at Rievaulx was still receiving offerings as late as 1526 when it was left a pair of beads in the will of John Rogerson of Rievaulx.216 The shrine of St Robert in the church at Newminster was likewise the focus of lay veneration. In the late thirteenth century, John de Plessey appropriated five marks to be paid annually to the abbey. Out of this, the keeper of the lights at the saint’s shrine was to spend two marks on wax candles to burn at the shrine, with the residue allocated to ‘proper food and drink’ and pittances for the convent on St Robert’s feast day (7 June).217 Newminster was not the only monastery to benefit from this type of gift. By a grant made in 1354, one John de Acastre received permission from Edward III to alienate property to Furness, so that a light could be kept burning at the abbey during the daily Mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary.218 Oblations were also made to her image. The accounts of Whalley Abbey for 1478 note offerings amounting to 33s 4d to the image of the Virgin on the high altar.219 This was a highly appropriate image to be standing on the main altar of a Cistercian church. But the Whalley’s accounts for 1520 and 1521 also record offerings to an altar of King Henry,220 doubtless Henry VI (r. 1422–61 and 1470–71). Although he was never formally canonized, a cult developed around his tomb at the Benedictine abbey of Chertsey and later at Windsor.221 This cult became popular across England, with a focus on the southern counties. Henry’s image is recorded at a number of northern churches including York Minster, Durham Cathedral Priory, Ripon Minster, and Bradford Parish Church.222 Two miracles attributed to the saint occurred in Lancashire,223 and Henry VI’s image was also glazed into the windows of the parish church at Ashton-Under-Lyme.224 Henry VI had an association with Whalley. As duke 215 

Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 78. Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 194. 217  Hodgson, History of Northumberland, ii.2, 416. A late twelfth-century verse epitaph for the saint can be found in London, MS Cotton Titus D. XXIV, fol. 82v. 218  CPR, Edward III, 1354–8, p. 37. 219  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe, p. 83. 220  Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe, p. 83; ‘The Whalley Abbey Bursars’ Accounts for 1520’, ed. by Ashmore, p. 59. 221  McKenna, ‘Piety and Propaganda’, pp. 72–78. 222  Marks, ‘Images of Henry VI’, p. 114. 223  Miracles of Henry VI, ed. by Knox and Lesley, pp. 186–87, 204. 224  Marks, ‘Images of Henry VI’, p. 114. 216 

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of Lancaster he had inherited the titular patronage of the abbey from the de Lacys. In 1361, Henry, duke of Lancaster founded a hermitage in the churchyard of the parish church for an anchorite who was to be maintained by the abbey. This was dissolved by Henry VI in c. 1441, who used its endowment to establish a chantry at Whalley Parish Church (the advowson of which was owned by the monastery) where two priests were to sing for his good estate when living, the king also making provision for thirty chaplains to sing for his soul on the anniversary of his death.225 The northern Cistercian monasteries also had relics that were believed to offer practical assistance to the laity. At the time of the Suppression several had girdles, which were lent to women during their confinement because they were thought to ease the pains and dangers of labour. Each of these relics had an association with a saint of especial importance to the Cistercians. Rievaulx has a girdle of its own saint, Aelred, and Newminster had both a book and girdle relic of St Robert. Both Kirkstall and Meaux had a girdle of St Bernard and Fountains and Jervaulx possessed girdles of the Virgin.226 As will be seen in the final chapter of this book, the close bonds that these relics helped foster between the monasteries and the local population endured until the Suppression.

Summary and Conclusion The evidence analysed above clearly shows that there was widespread and sustained investment in religious art at late medi­eval Cistercian monasteries, and demonstrates the religious vitality of the Order in the late Middle Ages. The ornament on Huby’s tower speaks of his credentials as a monastic reformer and the Marian imagery was in keeping with the traditions and self-identity of the monasteries and wider Order. However, by the late Middle Ages, the Marian devotion and Christ-centric piety promoted by the Cistercians in the twelfth century were part of the mainstream. There was nothing uniquely ‘Cistercian’ about the icono­g raphy of religious imagery present at Cistercian houses. Moreover, the identity of the saints represented by images, such as St Michael, St George, and St Christopher indicates that there was a considerable intersec225 

Taylor-Taswell, Whalley Church and Abbey, p. 107; Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe, p. 83. The Cistercians at Pipewell Abbey also appear to have had a devotion to the king as an image of ‘King Henry’ is listed among its contents at the Suppression; see Monasticon, v, 440. 226  L&P Henry VIII, x, 364.

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tion between the devotional world of the late medi­eval Cistercians and that of the wider English Church. The deep roots of the Cistercians in northern England and their integration into the religious and social mainstream meant they were intimately associated with, and even appropriated, the cults of local saints, and that the altars, relics, and images at their abbeys continued to be the focus of lay veneration until the very end of the Middle Ages. The liturgical and devotional significance of images within Cistercian monasteries was shown by the desire of the laity to be buried within close proximity to them. Attention will now be turned to the insights that death and memorialization provide into the art and architecture of the Cistercians in the late Middle Ages.

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Death and Commemoration

S

epulchral monuments at northern Cistercian abbeys have long attracted the attention of antiquarians, archaeo­logists, and art historians.1 They survive in large numbers, with important evidence from all the monasteries covered by this book. Despite this, they have never been the subject of a systematic analysis, something which this chapter seeks to remedy. It is divided into three main parts, examining in turn the monuments of abbots, monks, and the laity. Discussion of abbatial monuments shows a shift in the location of burials from the chapter house to the monastic church, where by the mid-fourteenth century the tombs of abbots were strategically located to maximize on the intercessory opportunities provided by the liturgy and rituals of the monastic day. Simultaneously, these monuments became more elaborate in their appearance, proclaiming the status and the hopes of salvation of the abbots they commemorated. Moreover, it will be demonstrated that abbatial tombs had an important role in constructing and affirming the institutional memories of individual monasteries. The discussion will show that the full range of commemorative options available in the late Middle Ages were being used in Cistercian abbatial contexts. Despite this, it will also become apparent that these tombs were, with one important exception, somewhat more restrained than those commemorating prelates in other orders. A similar evolution and conservatism will also be evident in the section on the monuments of monks. In my discussion of burials of the laity, I will show that the Cistercians were increasingly permissive and 1 

Butler, ‘Cistercian Abbots’ Tombs and Abbey Seals’; Gilyard-Beer, ‘The Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’. For a wider discussion of burials at Cistercian monasteries, see Sepulturae cistercienses, ed. by Hall and Kratzke.

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pragmatic in their attitudes and that their churches remained desirable locations for lay interment until the very end of the Middle Ages. Like the evidence discussed earlier in this book, this chapter is intended to prove the enduring spiritual vitality of the Cistercians, a persisting sense of identity, but also that in terms of death and commemoration, their art and architecture was very much in keeping with the late medi­eval mainstream.

The Legislative Background As with other aspects of its art and architecture, the legislation of the Cistercian Order included detailed regulations concerning burials. However, as will be discussed presently, most of these were concerned with lay burials, restricting the classes of individuals who could be buried within the precincts of the Order’s monasteries and where it was permissible for their graves to be located. The legislation has surprisingly little to say about either the location or appearance of the monuments of abbots or monks. In 1180, the General Chapter decreed that the location for abbatial burials was the chapter house.2 There are no specific clauses regulating the form or appearance of the monuments of the Order’s abbots and monks. Indeed, the only legislation of relevance to this issue was a decree of 1194, which said that stones placed above graves in cloisters were to be level with the ground. In 1220 this regulation was amended by the addition of text that explained that this was to ensure that those walking in the cloister were not impeded, and the liturgical life of the monastery was not disturbed.3 The statute presumably applied both to the monuments of the religious and also the laity who were seeking and being permitted burial within the cloisters of Cistercian monasteries. The unobtrusive monuments required by this legislation would have been in keeping with the early austerity and humility of the Order. Such qualities were also reflected in the procedures and ceremonies accompanying the death and burial of a monk, which are outlined in the Ecclesiastica officia. This work of c.  1184 sought to impose uniformity of liturgical practice on the monasteries of the Order. The chapters on death and burial emphasize humility and penitence. They state that a monk who ‘has reached the threshold of death’ should be ‘laid on the floor on a sagnum [a 2  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 378. 3  This legislation is detailed by Kratzke, ‘Bestatten – Gedenken – Repräsentieren’, pp. 14–16.

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mattress sack], under which ashes are spread in the shape of a cross’. The tabula, a wooden gong in the cloister, and the convent’s bell were then rung to summon the community to the side of their brother, where they sang the litany for those on the verge of death and the seven Penitential Psalms. The monastery’s processional cross together with holy water and oil were brought so that the monk could receive unction. After the death of their brother, the community recited the office for the dead while assembled around his body. This was then washed and taken to the church in a procession. The body was laid in the choir, where the community recited the liturgy and Mass for the dead. A watch was kept over the body until the time of burial. The Ecclesiastica officia makes it clear that burial took place outside the church, providing details of the order of the procession for the carrying of the body ‘out to its tomb’. Before and after being lowered into its grave, the body was sprinkled with holy water and censed with the thurible. The face of the dead brother was then covered and a single shovelful of earth was thrown over the body. The community then formed into a procession and returned to the church singing the Penitential Psalms.4 At each stage, the abbot assumed a central role in the ceremonies and liturgy. The Ecclesiastica officia does not provide any additional guidance for the procedures to be followed at the death of an abbot who, despite his office, was still a monk. Indeed, Walter Daniel’s description of the death of Aelred of Rievaulx suggests that the ceremonies followed a similar format to those described above.5 The saint spent his final years in an austere cell, in close proximity to the infirmary. From the thirteenth century, however, Cistercian abbots were residing in their own houses, and it is there that in the later Middle Ages abbots spent their final hours in comfort and privacy. For instance, in 1434 Abbot John Ripon of Fountains died at the manor house of the monastery’s grange at Thorpe Underwood.6 The Order’s early legislation restricting images also had relevance to the decoration of the monuments of abbots and monks. The Capitula and Exordium parvum limited sculpted images in Cistercian monasteries to a wooden, painted crucifix.7 4 

Ancient Uses of the Cistercian Order, ed. by Cawley, chaps 94–98.57. Walter Daniel, Life of Aelred of Rievaulx, trans. by Powicke, pp. 133–40. 6  Memorials of Fountains, ed.  by Walbran and Fowler, i,  146; Oxford, The Ruins of Fountains Abbey, p. 139. Likewise, the death of Abbot Richard Pest of St Mary Grace’s, London, in 1516 is documented as occurring in his chamber; see Grainger and Phillpotts, Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Graces, p. 16. 7  ‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 324. 5 

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But as has been seen, these regulations were more in the form of guidance and were in any case gradually amended and relaxed, with the codifications of Cistercian legislation in 1289 and 1316 replacing the earlier legislation on images with a prohibition of ‘superfluae novitates et notabiles curioritates’ (superfluous innovations and significant curiosities) in the Order’s monasteries.8 This was so vague as to allow sculpted and painted images, and by extension effigies and other imagery on funerary monuments.

The Monuments of Cistercian Abbots: Location The location of Cistercian abbatial monuments changed between the twelfth and early fourteenth centuries, reflective of wider changes in their art and architecture that has been apparent throughout this book. The Cistercians were reformed Benedictines and this was of significance for the location of early abbatial burials. Since the ninth century the graves of Benedictine abbots had often been located in the chapter house, and by the eleventh century this had become the norm.9 Although several eleventh- and twelfth-century abbots of Westminster were buried in the cloister walks,10 by 1132, when Rievaulx Abbey became the first Cistercian monastery to be established in northern England, there was already a century-old tradition of chapter house burial amongst the English Benedictines.11 Moreover, Cîteaux and Clairvaux established the precedent for the burial of Cistercian abbots in chapter houses.12 Walter Daniel states that Aelred ‘was taken for burial in the chapter house next to his predecessor the venerable, saintly and first abbot of Rievaulx, William’.13 The President Book of Fountains Abbey, an acta abbatum providing details of the election, notable deeds, and death and burial of the monastery’s abbots between its foundation and the mid-fifteenth century, records that between 1170 and 1345 the monas8 

‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, pp. 384, 388. Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 99–100. 10  Anderson, ‘Three Westminster Abbots’, pp. 3–15. 11  The abbots of St Albans had been buried in their chapter house since before the Conquest and the priors of Worcester since the early eleventh century. For St Albans, see Amundesham, An Account of the Monuments and Tombs Existing ad 1428 in St Albans Abbey, p. 8; for Worcester, see Stratford, ‘Notes on the Norman Chapterhouse at Worcester’, p. 54. For a recent review of the evidence regarding chapter house burials, see Gilchrist and Sloane, Requiem, p. 59. 12  Gajewski, ‘Burial, Cult and Construction at Clairvaux’, pp. 72–73. 13  Walter Daniel, Life of Aelred of Rievaulx, trans. by Powicke, p. 140. 9 

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Figure 4.1. Chapter house at Fountains Abbey, with early abbatial monuments at its east end.

tery’s abbots were buried in the chapter house. The location of abbatial burials at Meaux Abbey is recorded in its late fourteenth-century chronicle, the author Thomas Burton writing that the first abbot, Adam, was buried in the chapter house in 1160,14 and that the chapter house accommodated further abbatial burials, the last occurring in 1286 when Richard, the twelfth abbot was interred next to his immediate predecessors.15 Twelfth- and thirteenth-century abbatial monuments survive in the chapter houses at Byland, Fountains (Fig. 4.1), Jervaulx, and Rievaulx (Fig. 4.2), where they cluster towards the east end, in close proximity to the abbatial seat,16 from which the deceased abbots had exercised their fatherly authority.17 Such a location also meant that the current abbot was ever conscious of his 14 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, 107. Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 176. 16  Gilyard-Beer, ‘Byland Abbey and the Grave of Roger de Mowbray’, p. 62; Harrison, Byland Abbey, p.  12; Gilyard-Beer, ‘The Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’, pp.  45–50; Hope and Brakspear, ‘Jervaulx Abbey’, p. 319; and Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 98–99 and pp. 166–67. 17  Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 112. 15 

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Figure 4.2. Chapter house at Rievaulx Abbey. Abbatial monuments are clustered near the apse.

predecessors, their illustrious deeds and pious lives. The chapter house was also a place of commemoration. It was here that the daily necro­logy was read, and at the end of the chapter meeting the community commemorated their ‘brothers, fathers, benefactors and all the faithful departed’ and prayed that they may rest in peace.18 Evidence from Europe shows that the chapter house remained a favoured location for abbatial burials at some Cistercian abbeys well into the later Middle Ages and beyond.19 Northern English evidence for late medi­eval chapter house burials is provided by the monument of Abbot Peter de Snape (d. 1436) in the east end of the chapter house at Jervaulx.20 However, the location of Abbot de Snape’s tomb is the exception rather than the rule. By the later Middle Ages the church was the usual location for the burial of Cistercian abbots in the northern counties. Burials within churches had been permissible for abbots, bishops, and exalted members of the laity

18 

Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 113. For instance, at Poblet, Catalonia, where the abbots from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries were positioned in a row before the abbot’s seat; see France, The Cistercians in Medi­eval Art, p. 112. 20  Hope and Brakspear, ‘Jervaulx Abbey’, p. 319. 19 

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since the Synod of Mainz in 813.21 The legislation of the Cistercian Order was more restrictive. It permitted the burial of archbishops and bishops within the church, and even though the practice was not officially sanctioned in Cistercian burial legislation, from the mid-thirteenth century onwards, important lay patrons were securing burial in this location at northern Cistercian houses. These burials will be explored in more detail later. Cistercian abbots who had led especially saintly lives had been honoured with burial within the monastic church since the twelfth century. In 1153 St Bernard was buried before the high altar at Clairvaux, which was dedicated to the Virgin. 22 The Order’s General Chapter decided in 1194 that an abbot of Bonnevaux could remain buried within the monastic church on account of his sanctity, even though this was ‘contra ordinis formam’ (against the form of the Order). 23 The body of Aelred was translated from the chapter house at Rievaulx to the church there, probably in the second quarter of the thirteenth century, the magnificent new east end providing a fitting setting for his shrine.24 In c. 1538 John Leland saw the saint’s tomb decorated with gold and silver in the church at Rievaulx, probably the gilded shrine over the high altar listed in the Suppression-era inventory.25 Robert, the first abbot of Newminster, was likewise initially buried in the chapter house beneath ‘a great and precious marble monument’ (an indication that monuments level with the ground mandated in the early legislation were not necessarily austere), and his grave was the location of many miracles.26 However, his Vita records that ‘after a long time’ the body of the saint was transferred from its original tomb to a shrine of ‘grand and precious metal’ in the abbey church.27 It was in the fourteenth century that the church became the usual location for the graves of Cistercian abbots. The first of the Order’s northern abbots with a documented burial in this location was Adam of Skyrne at Meaux. The 21 

Daniell, Death and Burial in Medi­eval England, p. 186. ‘Un grand monastère au XVIe siècle’, ed. by Michelant, p. 226; Gajewski, ‘Burial, Cult and Construction at the Abbey Church of Clairvaux’, p. 71. 23  Gajewski, ‘Burial, Cult and Construction at the Abbey Church of Clairvaux’, p. 72. 24  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 167. 25  Leland, Commentarii de scriptoribus Britannicis, ed. by Hearne, i, 44; Squire, Aelred of Rievaulx, p. 2; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 168. 26  Williams, ‘St Robert of Newminster’, p. 145. 27  Williams, ‘St Robert of Newminster’, p. 145. 22 

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monastery’s chronicle records that in 1339 he was buried in the middle of the monks’ choir.28 The two-hundred-year tradition of chapter house burials at Fountains was permanently broken in 1369 when Abbot Robert Monkton was buried in the church, the President Book documenting that his grave was before the altar of St Peter.29 Although documentary evidence is lacking, a similar shift in the topo­graphy of abbatial burials appears to have occurred at other northern Cistercian houses at approximately the same time. A slab in the crossing at Rievaulx Abbey has the indent of a looted brass image of an abbot and dates to the mid-fourteenth century and is likely to commemorate Abbot William de Langton who died in c. 1349.30 This preference for church burials amongst Cistercian abbots was Europe-wide. At Villiers-en-Brabant, Abbots Jean Villiers (d. 1346), Jean de Frasne (d. 1358), and Oltan de Mormael (d. 1424) were buried in chapels in the north aisle of the church.31 Nevertheless, the commemorative practices of the Cistercians were somewhat conservative. This transition from the chapter house to the church as the location for burial occurred half a century or more later at Cistercian abbeys than at Benedictine houses. The description of the altars, tombs, and monuments at St Albans composed in 1426 notes the presence of numerous abbatial monuments in the presbytery, the earliest of which commemorated Abbot Roger Norton (d. 1290).32 Several abbots of Bury St Edmunds were buried in the presbytery before 1119, and others were buried in the church’s Lady Chapel between 1250 and 1361.33 This earlier adoption of church burials may have been partly because the chapter houses of ancient Benedictine houses such as St Albans and Bury St Edmunds no longer had the space to accommodate further burials. Indeed, it has been suggested that the adoption of church burials by the Cistercians was because of the limited space available for burial in the chapter houses of their abbeys.34 However, this is unlikely to have been the main reason. As will be discussed in more detail presently, on several occasions 28 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 313. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 144; Oxford, Ruins of Fountains Abbey, p. 138; Gilyard-Beer, ‘The Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’, p. 49. 30  Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, p. 96. 31  Coomans, L’abbaye de Villers-en-Brabant, p. 258. 32  Amundesham, An Account of the Monuments and Tombs Existing ad 1428 in St Albans Abbey, p. 7. 33  Gilchrist and Sloane, Requiem, p. 60. 34  Butler, ‘Cistercian Abbots’ Tombs and Abbey Seals’, pp. 80–81. 29 

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between 1180 and 1316 the General Chapter passed statutes which severely restricted the right to burial within the chapter house, limiting the privilege to kings, queens, bishops, and abbots of the Order.35 Evidence from northern England, which will be discussed later in this chapter, shows the pragmatism of the Order. Nevertheless, lay burials in the chapter houses of these abbeys remained rare. Archaeo­logical excavations at Fountains and Rievaulx showed that the large chapter houses at these abbeys could easily have accommodated further abbatial burials.36 Moreover, as has been seen, Jervaulx Abbey was able to accommodate abbatial monuments in its much smaller chapter house until the mid-fifteenth century, and chapter house burials at Cistercian houses elsewhere in Europe persisted into the early modern period. It is more likely that the late medi­eval preference for church burials can be explained by a desire to expedite the passage of a soul through the pains of purgatory. Medi­eval monuments acted as a prompt for prayers which were believed to hasten the passage of a soul through the torments of purgatory to their eternal rest in Paradise. For this reason, the location of a monument was of paramount importance.37 Location in the church meant that they were positioned in close proximity to where the liturgy and prayers of intercession were recited on a daily basis.38 The location of abbatial burials within northern Cistercian churches demonstrates this point. It is notable that the first abbatial burial within the church at Fountains, that of Abbot Robert Monckton in 1369, was before the altar of St Peter, the keeper of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. His successor, William Gower, was buried ‘before the Nine Altars about the centre’.39 Abbots of Meaux were also buried before altars. In 1372, William Drynghow was interred in the south part of the church before the altar of St Benedict,40 an appropriate location for the grave of an abbot. Thomas Burton, the chronicler

35 

‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, pp. 378, 384, 396, 400, 406. 36  Gilyard-Beer, ‘The Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’; Fergusson and Harrison, Riev­ aulx Abbey, pp. 83–103. 37  For discussions of the use of tombs as a means of securing salvation, see Bertram, ‘Orate pro anima’; Badham, ‘Status and Salvation’; and Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, pp. 120–28. 38  Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 239. 39  Oxford, Ruins of Fountains Abbey, p. 138 40  Chron. de. Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 167.

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of the abbey, was buried before the altar of St Stephen in 1437.41 At Rievaulx, the monument of Abbot Henry Burton (d. 1429) can still be seen before the altar in the easternmost chapel of the south aisle of the nave.42 This chapel is often interpreted as the abbot’s chantry. There is no documentary evidence for this, but late medi­e val prelates often sought to secure their salvation by the endowment of perpetual chantry chapels, often with special architectural provision, where daily Mass and prayers would be said for the repose of their soul.43 Such a chapel was founded at the Augustinian priory of Hexham by Prior Rowland Leschman in c. 1499,44 and there are numerous other examples at Benedictine and Augustinian houses elsewhere in England.45 Although there must surely have been others, the only northern Cistercian abbot who can be said with any certainty to have established a chantry is Robert Chamber of Holm Cultram. He endowed a chantry at the altar of the Holy Saviour Jesus where a priest was provided with an annual stipend of £6 16d to sing Masses for his soul, his successors, and the abbey’s royal patrons.46 It is not known if this chantry had special architectural provision. The abbot’s fragmentary monument was discovered in the churchyard at Holm Cultram,47 but the precise location of its excavation is not specified and its original context is therefore unknown. Nevertheless, it is perhaps significant that the monument is the only extant example of an English Cistercian abbot being commemorated by a tomb chest, which would have caused minimum disruption to the liturgical life of the community if accommodated in a chapel. Other aspects of this unusual and important monument will be discussed later in this chapter. 41 

Chron. de. Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 276. Fergusson and others, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 9. 43  For discussions regarding the emergence of chantries, see Colvin, ‘The Origin of Chantries’; Crouch, ‘The Origin of Chantries’; McNeill, ‘A Prehistory of the Chantry’. The classic study of the evolution of the doctrine of purgatory remains Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory. 44  Hunter Blair, ‘Prior Leschman’s Chantry Chapel’. 45  Cook, Mediaeval Chantries and Chantry Chapels, p. 164; chantries established by the abbots Wallingford, Wheathampstead, and Ramryge at St Albans are described at pp. 167–70. For a discussion of chantries established by late medi­e val Benedictine superiors in western England, see Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 78–81. The chantry chapel established by Abbot John Islip at Westminster is discussed by Goodall, ‘The Jesus Chapel or Islip’s Chantry at Westminster Abbey’. 46  Valor, v, 282. 47  Its discovery was reported to the May 1867 meeting of the Royal Archaeo­logical Institute; see Ferguson, ‘Notes on Holm-Cultram Abbey in Cumberland’. 42 

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There is also evidence that abbots were opting for burial before images. In 1349 Abbot Hugh of Leven was buried before the Crucifix he had caused to be made for the rood screen at Meaux.48 Burial before the rood was an especially desirable location. Referring to the location of the Crucifixion above the entrance of rood screens, the German Carthusian Ludolphus of Saxony (c. 1300–78) stated in his Vita Christi ‘no one can enter from the Church militant into the Church triumphant except by means of the cross’.49 The fragments of the Romanesque wooden figure of Christ crucified from South Cerney, Gloucestershire, represent a rare survival of a rood from medi­e val England. Richard Marks argued that it was an example of a Triumphkreuz.50 The icono­ graphy of continental Triumphkreuze, such as that at Halberstadt (c. 1215–20), with its resurrecting figure of Adam at the base, provide a further explanation of why burial before the rood was so desirable: the redemption provided by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and the hope that the soul lying at its foot would, like Adam, be saved and resurrected.51 The location of the Abbot Hugh’s grave also had other benefits. Monastic patrons were frequently buried in close proximity to the work they had commissioned; there is late medi­e val Cistercian evidence from Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, where Abbot John Honsum was buried beyond the presbytery step in front of the altar frontal which he had made.52 Comparative Benedictine evidence can also be cited.53 Doubtless abbots were opting for burial in such a location in expectation that the location of the monument would prompt prayers of intercession from a grateful community. The now lost inscription ‘Orate pro Ani[m]a Rob[er]ti Cha[m]b’ a[bbatis]’ on the west front of the church at Holm Cultram,54 which was exten-

48 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 37. Quoted in Jung, ‘Beyond the Barrier’, p. 633. 50  Marks, ‘From Langford to South Cerney’. 51  For a discussion of the significance of burial before the rood, see Park, ‘Medi­eval Burials and Monuments’, pp. 77–78. 52  ‘Iohannes Honsum abbas de Hayles frontispicium summi altaris fectit et sepultus est super gradum persbiterii’. BL, MS Royal 8 A.V, fol. iiv. He is possibly the Abbot John documented in 1463 but about whom little else is known; see HRH, iii, 298. 53  Luxford, The Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 80–81. 54  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 122. Clement Lichfield (d. 1539), abbot of Evesham, inscribed ‘orate pro anima Clementis Lichfield’ on the exterior of the porch of the free school he established in Evesham; see Luxford, The Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, p. 67. 49 

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sively remodelled by Robert Chamber, must likewise have been intended to prompt prayers for this prolific patron. Abbot Hugh may also have been hoping for the intercession of the laity. The chronicle of Meaux records that pilgrims flocked to the miracle-working image of Christ, which the abbot had commissioned.55 His monument was also located so as to maximize the intercessory opportunities afforded by the ceremonies and rituals of his abbey. On Sundays and greater feast days, the monastic community would have formed a station before the rood before processing to their stalls (see pp. 102–03). The graves of other northern Cistercian abbots were similarly located on processional pathways. At Fountains, John Ripon (d. 1434) was buried ‘before the entrance of the choir, in the nave of the church’;56 his successor, Thomas Paslew, who resigned in 1442 and died in 1443, was ‘placed in his earthly sepulchre in the nave of the church, before the entrance to the choir, near the centre, between the altar of St Mary and the altar of St Bernard’;57 and Abbot John Martin who reigned for only seven weeks and six days in 1442 was buried between his two immediate predecessors.58 The monks would therefore have had these monuments beneath their feet as they processed to their choir stalls and would no doubt have been prompted to pray for the soul of the deceased. Abbots were also interred in the monks’ choir. Their monuments were therefore visible to the community as they recited the daily office and celebrated Mass. At Meaux, Abbot Adam of Skyrne was buried in the middle of the choir in 1339,59 and in 1396 Abbot William of Scarborough was buried in a similar location, towards the east.60 At both Byland and Fountains slabs with the indents of looted images of abbots are positioned close to the presbytery step.61 Recent excavations at Furness Abbey uncovered the remains of an abbot buried with his crosier and ring within the presbytery, before the high altar. Analysis of these remains is currently underway.62 55 

Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 35–36. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 146. 57  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 147. 58  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 147. 59  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 313. 60  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 234. 61  Harrison, Byland Abbey, p. 8; Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 302. 62  With thanks to Timothy Baldock for information about this discovery, which is unpublished at the time of writing. 56 

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Fragments of abbatial monuments have also been found in the presbyteries of Roche and Whalley.63

The Monuments of Cistercian Abbots: Icono­graphy The preceding chapters showed that heraldic ornament and sacred imagery were highly prevalent in Cistercian churches from the fourteenth century onwards. The monuments of the Order’s abbots likewise show development, with the gradual adoption of more ornament and by the end of the Middle Ages, many abbots were being commemorated with effigial monuments. As will be argued, their purpose was multi-layered, soliciting prayers of intercession Figure 4.3. Abbatial monument in the and the assistance of the saints, chapter house of Byland Abbey. affirming institutional identities Thirteenth century. and also proclaiming the status of the abbot they commemorated. The early grave covers of northern Cistercian abbots were austere. There is some evidence that this austerity endured into the late thirteenth century. The cartulary of Furness Abbey records that Abbot William of Cockerham (d. c. 1294) was buried in the chapter house beneath a marble slab without inscription.64 However, even in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries diversity is apparent. Two types of monument were used at this time. The simpler of the two is represented by the slabs or coped coffin covers in the chapter houses of Fountains and Rievaulx. These are quite plain except for inscriptions recording

63  Stacye, ‘Roche Abbey’, p. 50; Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe, pp. 112–13. 64  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 239.

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the name and abbatial number of the abbot they commemorate.65 The second type of monument consists of rectangular or coffin-shaped slabs incised with a simple crosier. Monuments of this type can be found at Byland (Fig. 4.3) and Furness, the latter monument with an inscription naming Robert de Denton, the tenth abbot, who died in c. 1235.66 A variation on this type of monument, depicting a hand clasping a pastoral staff, occurs at the Cistercian monastery of Flaxley, Gloucestershire.67 These grave covers are often regarded as being distinctively Cistercian and slabs incised with a crosier or hand and staff were recorded for the French antiquary François Roger de Gaignières (1642–1715) at several Cistercian abbeys in France.68 Examples can also be cited from German houses.69 As has been observed, both motifs were also used on the seals of Cistercian abbots, including those of Byland, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, and Meaux.70 However, this form of monument (and seal design) was not restricted to the Cistercians. Indeed, its early use by monastic superiors in other orders may imply that the Cistercians simply adopted an existing form of monument which they found suitably austere. Gaignières recorded a monument dating to c. 1127 which was incised with a simple crosier and commemorated Abbess Cécile at the Benedictine nunnery of La Trinité in Caen, Normandy. The hand and staff also appear on the early twelfth-century monument of Abbot Pierre of the Premonstratensian abbey of Ardenne.71 Non-Cistercian English examples of this form of decoration on a grave cover are provided by monuments at Romsey, Welbeck, and Dorchester, this last example dating from as late as 1349.72 65  Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 98–99; Gilyard-Beer, ‘Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’, pp. 46–47. 66  Gilyard-Beer, ‘Byland Abbey and the Grave of Roger de Mowbray’, p. 63; Harrison, Byland Abbey, p. 12; Ryder, Cross Slab Grave Covers of Cumbria, p. 22. The monument from Furness is in the English Heritage stone store at Helmsley, inventory number 81500706. 67  Butler, ‘Cistercian Abbots’ Tombs and Abbey Seals’, p. 83, illustrated p. 244, fig. 3. 68  Adhémar and Dordor, ‘Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières’, pt 1. 69  Kratzke, ‘Mittelalterliche Sepulkraldenmäler in den Klostern der Zisterzienser und Zisterzienserinnen’, p. 297. 70  Clay, ‘Seals of the Religious Houses of Yorkshire’, p. 5; see also Heslop, ‘Cistercian Seals in England and Wales’, pp. 266–84 and Butler, ‘Cistercian Abbots’ Tombs and Abbey Seals’, p. 84. 71  Adhémar and Dordor, ‘Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières’, pt 1, fig. 5, p. 11; fig. 16, p. 13. 72  Butler, ‘Cistercian Abbots’ Tombs and Abbey Seals’, pp.  83–84, illustrated fig.  2B, p. 244; fig. 2C, p. 245; fig. 5A, p. 249.

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Indeed, the series of abbatial monuments drawn for Gaignières at the French monasteries of Barbeau, La Bussiere, and Ourscamp show that both crosier-incised and hand-and-staff monuments continued to be favoured by Cistercian abbots in France until well into the late Middle Ages. But these slabs also show a process of elaboration, with the gradual inclusion of architectural details and heraldry.73 A preference for monuments decorated with a crosier endured in northern England until the very end of the Middle Ages, but, as was the case in France, these grave covers gradually included more forms of ornament. In 1307, Abbot Peter of Rievaulx died while conducting a visitation of Margam Abbey, Glamorgan, and was buried beneath a slab incised with a crosier and floriated cross.74 A damaged incised monument discovered in the presFigure 4.4. Drawing of the monument bytery of Roche Abbey may have been of of Abbot William Rydecar at Holm a similar design, its lower portion having Cultram. c. 1458. From Gilbanks, the bottom of a crosier and the stepped Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey. base of a cross.75 The surviving upper part of the monument of Abbot Robert de Raybankes (d. 1373) at Holm Cultram has the remnants of an elaborate canopy and a deeply incised inscription in Lombardic script.76 A fifteenth-century example is the monument of Peter de Snape (d. 1425–c. 1436), seventeenth abbot of Jervaulx. In addition to his crosier, this grave cover also has an incised 73 

For example, the pastoral staff on the monument of Gilles, Abbot of Ourscamp (d.  c.  1296) is placed in a canopied niche; see Adhémar and Dordor, ‘Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières’, pt. 1, fig. 454, p. 86. Heraldry is superimposed on the crosier that decorates the grave cover of François Rivereau (d. 1527), abbot of Turpenay; see Adhémar and Dordor, ‘Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières’, pt 2, fig. 1608, p. 90. 74  Butler, ‘Cistercian Abbots’ Tombs and Abbey Seals’, fig. 3A, p. 246. 75  Stayce, ‘Roche Abbey’, p. 50. 76  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, pp. 115–16, 124.

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Figure 4.5. Monument of Abbot Robert Thornton of Jervaulx, now at Middleham Parish Church. c. 1533.

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mitre and a chalice.77 The arms of the abbey are placed in shields either side of a crosier on the monument (Fig. 4.4) of Abbot William Rydecar at Holm Cultram (1434–c. 1458). The whole composition is placed in a canopied niche, and is surrounded by an inscription in black-letter script.78 Even more elaborate is the monument of Abbot Robert Thornton of Jervaulx (1511–33), now in Middleham Parish Church, Yorkshire (Fig. 4.5).79 This is incised with his rebus, a barrel or tun (a pun on the final syllable of abbot’s surname), and a crosier impaling a mitre, with the abbot’s initials either side. A near-identical rebus (Plate 2) ornaments the rear orphrey of the Thornton’s black mourning vestment, which is also decorated with Last Judgement imagery, including trumpet-blowing angels summoning souls from their graves and seraphim holding scrolls inscribed ‘IVSTORVUM AVTEM | ANIME IN MANU DEI SVNT’ (The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God).80 Shields also appear on his monument, but rather than arms they are incised with the ‘IHS’ monogram and ‘M’ for Maria. The background of the monument is incised with thorn-like foliage, punning on the abbot’s name. The icono­graphic details on these monuments (which will be discussed in greater detail later) provide an indication of the development and evolution of the Order’s aesthetic, which is demonstrated clearly by the adoption of effigial monuments by Cistercian abbots. Surviving tombs at Westminster and Sherborne demonstrate that, from the second half of the twelfth century onwards, Benedictine abbots were being commemorated by effigial monuments.81 Cistercian abbots renowned for their sanctity were buried beneath monuments of this kind, for instance St Stephen, founder of the Cistercian abbey of Obazine (d. 1159), whose remains were translated to a splendid shrine incorporating a sculpted relief effigy, at the end

77 

Hope and Brakspear, ‘Jervaulx Abbey’, p. 319. Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, illustrated facing p. 82. Further evidence of the popularity of this motif at Holm Cultram in the late Middle Ages is provided by the signet ring of Robert Pym, an otherwise poorly documented abbot of the monastery in the fifteenth century, which is inscribed with a crosier between the initials ‘r p’; see Birch, Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manu­scripts in the British Museum, i, 586. 79  Documents Relating to the Foundation and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Middleham, ed. by Atthill, p. xx; Hodges, ‘On Some Mediaeval Grave-Covers of Exceptional or Unusual Character in the County of York’, p. 224. 80  Carter, ‘Remembrance, Liturgy and Status in a Late Medi­e val English Cistercian Abbey’, pp. 154–56. 81  Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, p. 189. 78 

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of the thirteenth century.82 It was not until the turn of the fourteenth century that Cistercian abbots in Britain were depicted on their monuments. A fragment of a grave slab at Tintern Abbey is sculpted in relief with the head of an abbot and has been interpreted as the monument of Abbot Ralph (d. 1303/04), who oversaw the construction of his monastery’s second church, which was completed in 1301.83 The date of this grave cover is surely significant, as it was at around this time that the full range of religious art was present in Cistercian monasteries and the prescriptive decrees in the Order’s early legislation concerning its art and architecture were abandoned and replaced by a looser prohibition of novelty and curiosity. Indeed, by the early decades of the fourteenth century Cistercian abbots in northern England were routinely commemorated with brass or incised effigies on their monuments. The earliest brass monuments in England date to the third quarter of the thirteenth century, and the higher clergy soon adopted this form of grave cover.84 The major centre of brass production was London, but regional workshops were also established, one of which was in York.85 The first episcopal brass monument in northern England may have been that of Bishop Robert de Insula (d. 1283) at Durham,86 and Archbishop William Greenfield (d. 1315) was commemorated by a brass at York.87 Shortly after, northern Cistercian abbots adopted brasses. The earliest surviving evidence of an effigial brass of a Cistercian abbot is the monument of Abbot William Rigton (1311–16) in the chapter house at Fountains, and in close proximity is the indented slab of Abbot Roger Coxwold who resigned in 1336 and died in 1338.88 A monument of broadly similar design (the effigy of an abbot carrying a crosier in a canopied niche with a marginal fillet for an inscription) and date is located in the crossing at Rievaulx and as has already been seen may commemorate Abbot William de Langton (1335–c. 1349). An effigial abbatial monument of approximately 82 

Le Bras, Les ordes religieux, i, 430. Robinson, Cistercians in Wales, illustration and caption facing title page. 84  Rogers, ‘English Episcopal Monuments’. 85  Badham, ‘Monumental Brasses’. 86  Rogers, ‘English Episcopal Monuments’, p. 59. 87  Rogers, ‘English Episcopal Monuments’, p. 58. 88  Gilyard-Beer, ‘Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’, p. 49, suggested that the fragmentary slab commemorated Abbot Coxwold, the other Abbot Robert Copgrove (1338–46). However, Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, p. 94 have dated the monuments slightly earlier on the basis of their workmanship. 83 

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the same date also survives from Meaux Abbey and will be discussed in more detail presently.89 Contemporary evidence from France also shows the adoption of effigial monuments by Cistercian abbots.90 Effigial brass monuments continued to be a favoured commemorative option of Cistercian abbots in the fifteenth century, as demonstrated by a surviving slab in the choir at Byland.91 Once again, there is the indent of an effigy with a crosier. This is contained within a canopied niche which is somewhat more elaborate than its fourteenth-century predecessors. Either side of the apex of the canopy are indents. These may have held representations of saints or a scene such as the Annunciation to the Virgin, the significance of which will be discussed shortly. Indents for shields and a fillet for a marginal inscription are also present. Although its location cannot now be traced, a second monumental brass from Byland was a joint grave cover for two abbots of the monastery.92 Examples of a single monument commemorating two abbots can be found at Cistercian monasteries elsewhere in Europe.93 The monument at Byland has been attributed to a London workshop active at the end of the fifteenth century.94 It is therefore possible that the monument commemorated Abbots Thomas Kylburn (d. 1497) and Thomas Sutton (d. 1499).95 Another form of monument favoured by the higher clergy was the incised effigial slab. Abbot Richard Horncastle of Bardney Abbey, Lincolnshire, who resigned in 1507, was commemorated by a monument of this kind,96 as was 89 

Gittos and Gittos, ‘A Newly Discovered Black Slab at Meaux Abbey’, pp. 27–29. For instance, the monuments of Etienne de Héricy (d.  1349) at Barbeaux, Jean de Marsilly (d. before 1346) at Le Ferté, and Gui de Neu Châtel (d. 1357) at Le Bussière. However, it is unclear from Gaignières’s drawings if the effigies are brasses or incised; see Adhémar and Dordor, ‘Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières’, pt 1, p. fig. 766, p. 139; fig. 782, p. 142; fig. 799, p. 144. 91  Stephenson, ‘Monumental Brasses of the North Riding’, pp. 267–68. Monuments of this type existed at other houses. In 1703 Bishop Nicholson of Carlisle recorded a slab with the indent of an abbot at Holm Cultram; see Miscellany Accounts Diocese of the Carlisle, ed. by Ferguson, p. 25. 92  Monumental Brasses, ed. by Norris, fig. 254. 93  For example the effigial slab of Abbot Herman von Riga (d. 1394) and Abbot von Attendorne (d. 1397) at Dargan, Mecklenburg-North Pomerania, Germany; see Kratzke, ‘Mittel­ alterliche Sepulkraldenmäler in den Klostern der Zisterzienser und Zisterzienserinnen’, p. 310. 94  Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, p. 293. 95  For these abbots, see HRH, iii, 278. 96  Brakspear, ‘Bardney Abbey’, p. 62. 90 

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Figure 4.6. Drawing of the monument of Abbot Thomas Burton of Meaux. c. 1437. From Poulson, Holderness. 97 

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Abbot John Barwick (d.  1526) at Selby.97 Late medi­eval Cistercian abbots in Europe favoured this type of monument, and those at the Order’s abbeys in the northern German province of Mecklenburg-Pomerania are the subject of a recent study.98 Two abbots of Calder were commemorated by incised slabs, the fragmentary inscription of the first recording that it commemorated Abbot ‘Richardus de Gra[…]’.99 This is probably the Abbot Richard who is documented in 1432.100 The second monument commemorates Abbot Robert de Willoughby, who is documented in 1459. 101 Thomas Burton, the chronicler of Meaux Abbey, who resigned in 1399 and died in 1437, was also commemorated by an incised effigial slab (Fig. 4.6).102 The grandest incised slab commemorated an abbot of Fountains. This fragmentary monument is now in a very poor condition, but the figure of an abbot beneath a canopy can be traced. Unfortunately, the inscription is too worn to decipher, but the fragment was illustrated in the mid-nineteenth cen-

Fowler, ‘The Grave Slab of Abbot Barwick in Selby Abbey Church’, pp. 373–74. Kratzke, ‘Mittelalterliche Sepulkraldenmäler in den Klostern der Zisterzienser und Zis­ ter­zienserinnen’. 99  Their original location is unknown. However, they were recorded ex situ by the Lysons brothers in the early nineteenth century; see Lysons and Lysons, Magna Britannia, iv, 195. The monuments are described by Loftie, ‘Calder Abbey’, pp. 487–88 and Fair, ‘Calder Abbey’, pp. 89, 95. 100  HRH, iii, 278. 101  Fair, ‘Calder Abbey’, p. 95. 102  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, p. lxx; Pevsner and Neave, York and the East Riding, p. 738. The monument is now in the care of the Hull Museum Service (inventory number, KINCM: 2009.1067). 98 

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Figure 4.7. Drawing of a fragmentary abbatial monument, now in the south transept at Fountains Abbey. Early fifteenth century. From Walbran, Guide.

tury by the antiquary Richard Walbran (Fig. 4.7) who claimed to be able to decipher the name ‘ROBERTUS’. He therefore suggested that the slab commemorated Abbot Robert Burley (d. 1410),103 the only late medi­eval abbot of Fountains with this Christian name. The monument’s main point of interest is its material of manufacture, which is Tournai marble.104 The canopy has similarities with another Netherlandish product in the region, the brass monument of Sir Thomas de Topcliffe (d. 1391) and his wife, Mabel, at Topcliffe parish church.105 The commissioning of a monument from the Low Countries indicates the wealth and status of the abbot of Fountains, whose monastery was also by far the richest Cistercian abbey in England. Cistercian abbeys in Britain did indeed have artistic connections with the Netherlands. In 1441 Melrose Abbey likewise commissioned a large-scale work from the Netherlands, in their case choir stalls from a workshop in Bruges, which were to be fashioned on 103 

Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 145. I am most grateful to Dr Paul Cockerham and Ronald van Belle for their attribution of this monument to a Tournai workshop. 105  Monumental Brasses, ed. by Norris, fig. 79. 104 

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those in the Cistercian monasteries of Ten Duinen and Ten Doest. The international nature of the Order and the connections it fostered between monasteries helped facilitate this transaction.106 Regardless of their type, the late medi­e val monuments of northern Cistercian abbots share a number of characteristics, many of which were concerned with securing the abbot everlasting salvation. All the monuments had an inscription around their outer edge. Only a few of these inscriptions have survived, but some are (or were) capable of transcription. These include the monuments of Abbot Rydecar of Holm Cultram,107 Robert de Willoughby of Calder,108 Thomas Burton of Meaux,109 and Peter de Snape110 and Robert Thornton, both of whom were abbots of Jervaulx.111 Each of these inscriptions identify the abbot they commemorate, request prayers for his soul, and in many instances cite the abbatial number. All the effigies are enclosed in canopied niches, as is the crosier on Abbot Rydecar’s monument (Fig. 4.4). Canopies were also widely used on grave slabs commemorating Cistercian abbots elsewhere in Europe. The depiction of the deceased in a niche was not simply aesthetic. It also had a symbolic meaning, signifying the heavenly mansions and celestial resting place of the deceased.112 To help achieve salvation, inscriptions or imagery invoking intercession or expressing devotion to a particular saint were often placed on monuments, for example the ‘IHS’ and ‘M’ incised on the monument of Abbot Thornton of 106 

Coomans, ‘From Flanders to Scotland’. ‘Hic jacet Willms Ry[…]kar Abbas XXI. de Holm Coltran, cujus aie propicietur Deus. Amen.’ (Here lies William Ry[de]kar, twenty-first abbot of Holm Cultram, on whose soul may God have mercy. Amen); Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, pp. 122–23. 108  ‘ HIC IACET DOMPNVS ROBERTVS DE WILVGHBY ABBAS DE CALDRA CVIVS ANIME PROPICIETVR DEVS’ (Here lies Sir Robert de Willoughby, abbot of Calder, on whose soul may God have mercy); Fair, ‘Calder Abbey’, p. 95. 109  ‘T[homas] B[urton], nonus decimus abbas de Melsa, obit quarto nonas Octobriis, anno Domini CCCCo xxxviio. Sua anima in pace re[uiescat]’ (Thomas Burton, nineteenth abbot of Meaux, who died the fourth day of October, 1437. May his soul rest in peace); Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, p. lxx. 110  Hope and Brakspear, ‘Jervaulx Abbey’, p. 319, transcribed the black-letter inscription on this monument thus: ‘tumba petri: de: [sna]pe: Abbatis: XVII: jor vall’ (tomb of Peter de Snape, seventeenth abbot of Jervaulx). 111  The black-letter inscription on the monument of Abbot Thornton reads, ‘Orate pro a[n]i[m]a domyni Roberti Thorneton Abbat hui domi Jorevallis vicesimi s[e]c[un]di’ (Pray for the soul of Sir Robert Thornton, twenty-second abbot of this house of Jervaulx). 112  Summerson, ‘Heavenly Mansions’; Marks, Image and Devotion, p. 23. 107 

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Jervaulx (Fig. 4.5). Saying the name of Jesus, or that of Mary, was the simplest form of prayer. A visual prompt on a monument to say a prayer for the deceased, regardless of its length, would have been considered desirable, as each prayer was a request for eternal rest, therefore easing the passage of a soul through the pains of purgatory.113 In each corner of Abbot Thornton’s monument are roundels, each incised with an initial indicating the name of an Evangelist. This is a variation on the roundels enclosing Evangelist symbols which first appear on monuments in c. 1300. Their inclusion on grave covers was thought to confer a blessing and protection on the deceased and referenced the gospels as a route to salvation.114 The indents for quatrefoils at the corners of the late fourteenthcentury abbatial monument from Meaux Abbey115 also probably held these symbols. Elsewhere, they can also be found on the incised effigial monument of Abbot William Halforde of Bordesley (1452–60),116 as well as on the grave covers of continental Cistercian abbots.117 The intercession of saints was also believed to assist the dead during their final journey and, for this reason, their images often appear on monuments.118 As has been seen, indents on an abbatial monument at Byland may have held a representation of the Annunciation to the Virgin.119 It is impossible to be certain if this was the case. However, the Annunciation was frequently used to decorate medi­eval monuments,120 as it was believed that the Virgin’s humility and obedience at the Annunciation reopened the gates of heaven which had been closed by the sinfulness of Eve, thereby providing mankind with the opportunity of salvation.121

113 

Bertram, ‘Orate pro anima’, p. 328. Norris, Monumental Brasses, iii, 75–76. 115  Gittos and Gittos, ‘A Newly Discovered Black Slab at Meaux Abbey’, p. 28. 116  France, Cistercians in Medi­eval Art, fig. 65, p. 107. 117  Kratzke, ‘Mittelalterliche Sepulkraldenmäler in den Klostern der Zisterzienser und Zisterzienserinnen’, fig. 23, p. 310. 118  Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, pp. 130–42. 119  Stephenson, ‘Monumental Brasses of the North Riding’, p. 268. 120  For instance in the canopy of a late fourteenth-century brass at Gedney, Lincolnshire and on a sixteenth-century monument at Hereford Cathedral; see Monumental Brasses, ed. by Norris, figs 70, 300. 121  For a discussion of the meanings and significance attached to the Annunciation, see Guldan, Eva und Maria, p. 44. 114 

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Monuments also helped shape and sustain the institutional memories of northern Cistercian abbeys. It is notable that the authors of the chronicle of Meaux Abbey and the President Book of Fountains Abbey took care to record the precise location of the grave of every abbot since the foundation of their respective houses. The inscribing of abbatial numbers on monuments also demonstrates that monuments were used as a visual record of a monastery’s history. This desire to preserve internal history is also suggested by abbots providing monuments for their predecessors. William of Scarborough, abbot of Meaux between 1372 and 1396, ordered three effigial brasses to commemorate his immediate abbatial predecessors: the fifteenth abbot, Hugh of Leven (d. 1349), the sixteenth abbot, Robert of Beverley (d. 1367), and the seventeenth abbot, William of Dringhow (d. 1372).122 It is also possible that an abbot of Kirkstall was provided with a retrospective monument. A fragment of a marginal fillet from a monument inscribed ‘[se]xtusdecimus’ (sixteenth) survives in the abbey’s museum, though neither the date nor location of its discovery are recorded.123 The sixteenth abbot of Kirkstall was John of Brisedale (d. 1304), but the inscription is in black-letter script, suggestive of a fifteenth- or even sixteenthcentury date. There were significant medi­eval building works at Kirkstall in the late Middle Ages, which perhaps necessitated the translation of abbatial graves and the provision of new monuments (evidence of this practice can be found elsewhere in the north. Archbishop Thoresby (1352–73) exhumed the remains of six of his predecessors when he rebuilt the Lady Chapel at York Minster, and at his own expense in 1369 provided each with a new brass monument).124 But not all abbots were deemed worthy of commemoration. John de Ryslay, abbot of Meaux between 1353 and 1356, was not provided with a monument. The chronicler records that Ryslay’s name was removed from the list of abbots of Meaux because of his poor administration of the house and the accumulation of significant debts, leading to his forced resignation.125 Like prelates in other orders and the wider English Church, Cistercian abbots were also using their monuments to demonstrate their social and ecclesiastical status. The two shields on Abbot Rydecar’s monument at Holm Cultram are decorated with the arms of the monastery, and it is possible that 122  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 223. See also Gittos and Gittos, ‘A Newly Discovered Black Slab at Meaux Abbey’, pp. 27–29. 123  Sitch, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 23. 124  Brown, York Minster, p. 139. 125  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, 111.

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shield-shaped indents for brasses on monuments at Byland and Fountains were similarly decorated. The rebus of Abbot Thornton is the principal decoration on his monument, and as has been seen the same device appears on his mourning vestment (Plate 2).126 Another symbol of status was the mitre. This is on the monument of Abbot Thornton as well as on the grave cover of his predecessor, Peter de Snape. As has already been seen (pp. 70–71), between the early fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, several northern Cistercian abbots were granted the right to the pontifi­ calia. An unusual icono­g raphic detail on a monument in the choir at Fountains (Fig. 4.8) is the elevation of the mitre above the head of the abbot. A  detailed examination of this monument can be justified not only because previous suggestions about the meaning of the elevated mitre abbot and its implications for the identification of the abbot comFigure 4.8. Drawing of a funerary slab with memorated by this tomb cover are indents for looted brasses, choir of Fountains incorrect, but also because the icono­ Abbey. Late fifteenth century. From Stephenson, ‘Monumental Brasses in the West Riding’. graphy of this grave slab provides additional important insights into the purpose of abbatial monuments. The elevated mitre has consistently been interpreted as evidence of the resignation of the abbot and his death out of office.127 Hope therefore suggested 126  Carter, ‘Remembrance, Liturgy and Status in a Late Medi­e val English Cistercian Abbey’, pp. 154–56. 127  For a detailed reinterpretation of this monument, see Carter, ‘The Mysterious Mitre on the Monument’.

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Figure 4.9. Bishop Beckington and Archbishops Chichele and Cranley with their mitres elevated to reveal their doctoral caps. Oxford, New College, MS C. 288, fol. 4r. Reproduced by permission of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford.

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that the monument commemorated Abbot Thomas Swinton, who was elected in 1471 and resigned in 1478.128 Hope’s theory has been repeated in most of the subsequent literature on the monument.129 However, more recently the grave cover was identified as that of Abbot Robert Burley, who died in 1410.130 This latter attribution can be rejected on two grounds. The President Book gives details of the burials of the abbots of Fountains until 1442. None of the graves had the location of this monument, which is before the presbytery step. Indeed, the President Book records that Burley was buried in the middle of the choir, before the stalls of the abbot and prior.131 In Cistercian monasteries these were the return stalls at the west of the choir.132 In addition, Burley did not have the right to use the mitre. The first abbot of Fountains to acquire the use of the pontificalia was John Ripon, but this was withdrawn in 1429, before his death in 1434. Religious houses were extremely punctilious about the correct use of this insignia, an issue which will be discussed in greater detail later in relation to the monument of Abbot Chamber at Holm Cultram. It is also possible to challenge Hope’s theory that the mitre on the monument was elevated to indicate an abbatial resignation, and that the grave slab therefore commemorated Abbot Swinton. The elevated mitre was not the icono­g raphic motif used by the Cistercians to indicate abbatial resignations. Thomas Burton’s resignation of the abbacy of Meaux is indicated on his monument by a broken crosier (Fig. 4.6).133 The resignation of the abbacy of the Cistercian abbey of Dargun by Johann Billrbeck (1336–49) is indicated in a similar way on his grave cover.134 Nevertheless, the elevated mitre on this monument is of some significance and was used elsewhere in late medi­eval England. Drawings in two manu­scripts executed in Oxford, and dating to c. 1465, show prelates in academic dress with 128  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 302; Stephenson, ‘Monumental Brasses in the West Riding’, pp. 16–17. 129  Gilyard-Beer, ‘Graves of the Abbots of Fountains’, p. 59; France, Cistercians in Medi­eval Art, p. 116; Coppack, Fountains Abbey, pp. 86–87, fig. 62, and most recently, Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, p. 191. 130  Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, p. 94. 131  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 145. 132  Hope, ‘Fountains Abbey’, p. 302. 133  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, p. lxx. 134  France, Cistercians in Medi­eval Art, p. 116; Kratzke, ‘Mittelalterliche Sepulkraldenmäler in den Klostern der Zisterzienser und Zisterzienserinnen’, p. 314.

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Figure 4.10. St Gregory the Great and St Ambrose depicted with raised mitres to reveal doctoral caps. Tracery lights, east window, Beverley Minster. Mid-fourteenth century. Courtesy of Gordon Plumb.

mitres raised above their heads to reveal doctoral caps beneath (Fig. 4.9).135 The tracery lights of Beverley Minster’s late fourteenth-century east window provide further evidence of the use of the elevated mitre to show a doctoral cap. Here, mitres are elevated above the heads of St Gregory the Great and St Ambrose (Fig. 4.10), revealing the doctoral caps of these doctors of the Latin Church.136 This evidence provides an explanation for the elevated mitre on the monument in the choir at Fountains. There is no evidence that Swinton held any degrees, and his only predecessor known to have held an academic honour was William Gower, a Bachelor of Divinity, who died in 1390.137 However, John Greenwell, who was abbot of Fountains between 1442 and 1471 was noted for his scholarship. The President Book records that Greenwell had the title Magister (master), an honour afforded to scholars, and held the degree of Sacrae Theo­ logiae Professor (Professor of Sacred Theo­logy), the equivalent of the degree of Doctor of Divinity. According to the President Book, Greenwell was a monk of Fountains and a scholar at Oxford. While studying there, he was elected abbot of Vaudey, Lincolnshire, but refused this position in order to remain at the university. He subsequently returned to Fountains, and in 1440 was elected abbot of Waverley, Surrey. After two years at Waverley, he returned to Fountains as its abbot.138 In 1464, and again in 1467, decrees of the Cistercian General Chapter refer to the possession of the degree of Sacrae Theo­logiae Professor by the abbot 135 

Cam­bridge, Trinity College, MS R. 14. 5, fol. 9v; Oxford, New College, MS C. 288, fol. 4r. 136  O’Connor, ‘The Medi­eval Stained Glass of Beverley Minster’, pp. 20–21. 137  Oxford, Ruins of Fountains Abbey, p. 138. 138  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 148–53.

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of Fountains,139 who at that time was Greenwell. Moreover, Greenwell’s scholarship was referred to in the papal indult granting the use of the mitre to the abbots of Fountains. The bull also mentions the ‘opulence and splendour’ of Fountains and the ‘great honour and reverence’ afforded to its abbot. It is clear that Greenwell himself contributed to the opulence of Fountains. The monastery’s accounts for 1456–57 record payments for stone, and to glaziers and labourers.140 It therefore seems highly likely that the slab commemorates Greenwell, especially as he was the first abbot of Fountains to die with the right to use the mitre. Moreover, the esteem this abbot conferred on the monastery through his scholarship, his good services as a patron, and the prestige that accompanied his legitimate acquisition of the pontificalia would have merited burial in the extremely prominent and advantageous position before the step of the presbytery. It has not been possible to trace other examples of a mitre elevated on a monument to reveal a doctoral cap. Nevertheless, Greenwell was far from being alone in desiring that visual evidence of his doctoral status be depicted on his funerary monument.141 In 1448, Reginald Mertherderwa, rector of Creed, Cornwall, asked to be buried at St Frideswide’s Priory, Oxford, with his brass showing him in ‘the insignia of a Doctor of Laws’.142 The incised slab of Abbot Thomas Spofford of St Mary’s Abbey, York (resigned 1448; d. 1456), was uncovered in the choir of this monastery at the turn of the twentieth century, and depicts the prelate in sumptuous episcopal regalia. Although the mitre rests on his head, a doctor’s cap is shown on each side of his body, an indication that the abbot possessed two doctoral degrees.143 Evidence can also be found in Europe, for example the incised slab of Don Fray Diego de San Miguel (d. 1475), titular bishop of Granada, shows the prelate wearing a monastic habit and with a doctor’s cap on his head, with a mitre resting on a pillow to the right, the inscription recording his doctorate.144 Although there was nothing specifically Cistercian about the monuments of the Order’s abbots, some of the humility evident in the monuments of earlier Cistercian 139 

Statuta, v, 149, 215. Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, iii, 56, 57, 85. 141  For a discussion of doctoral caps on English medi­e val monuments, see Norris, Monumental Brasses, i, 87. 142  Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, p. 203. 143  Wilson and Burton, St Mary’s Abbey, York, p. 18. For his academic honours, see Emden, Bio­graphical Register of the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford, iii, 1744. 144  Greenhill, Incised Effigial Slabs, i, 82; ii, fig. 42A. 140 

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abbots is still echoed in the grave covers from the late medi­eval north. Their decoration is restrained in comparison with the monuments of abbots of other orders, such as the incised slab at Selby commemorating Abbot John Barwick who died in 1529.145 In contrast to contemporary Cistercian abbots who are depicted in their habits, Barwick is shown wearing sumptuous vestments, his head resting on a luxurious pillow beneath an elaborate canopy (Fig. 4.11).

The Monument of Abbot Robert Chamber at Holm Cultram

Figure 4.11. Monument of Abbot John Barwick of Selby Abbey. c. 1529.

145  146 

With these comparisons in mind, the monument of Abbot Robert Chamber (1507–c.  1530) at Holm Cultram would reward analysis, not least because its type, elaborate ornament, and vernacular epitaph are all without a surviving English Cistercian parallel. The monument is now built into the wall of the vestry (Fig. 4.12) adjoining the porch that the abbot added to the abbey church in 1507. Unlike the slabs discussed so far, Chamber’s monument is a tomb chest, the sides of which are richly decorated with relief sculpture.146

Fowler, ‘The Grave Slab of Abbot Barwick in Selby Abbey Church’, pp. 373–74. For a detailed discussion of the monument’s icono­graphy and the evidence it provides

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Figure 4.12. Monument of Abbot Robert Chamber of Holm Cultram, now in the vestry at the abbey church. c. 1530.

The monument was uncovered in the churchyard at Holm Cultram in 1866,147 though the precise location of its discovery is not recorded. However, it is possible that the original context for the monument could have been the chantry the abbot established before the altar of the Holy Saviour Jesus.148 The monument consists of three panels of red sandstone, a building material used elsewhere at the monastery. These are sculpted in low relief and would have formed the sides of a tomb chest.149 There are two side panels, one of which is apparently complete and is 133 cm in length. The second side panel appears to be fragmentary, a jagged edge at its right side suggesting loss, and is 99 cm long. The third panel is 120 cm in length and would have formed one end of the monument. It is possible that there was never a fourth panel and that the monument abutted a wall.

of Chamber’s patronage, see Carter, ‘“hys…days here lyven was”’. 147  Ferguson, ‘Notes on Holm-Cultram Abbey’, pp. 269–73. 148  For this chantry, see Register and Records of Holm Cultram, ed.  by Grainger and Collingwood, p. 151; Valor, v, 282. 149  For a recent discussion of the origin and development of tomb chests, see Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, pp. 154–64.

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Figure 4.13. Two side panels and central panel of Abbot Chamber’s tomb.

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The first of the side panels shows at the far left a shield with Chamber’s rebus, a crosier and mitre with the abbot’s initials to the side and a chained bear beneath, a pun on both his first name and surname (Fig. 4.13a).150 To the right is a kneeling angel and five monks, with each of the latter holding an open book. A scroll connects these figures with the inscription at the top of the monument. It is possible that the scrolls were inscribed or painted, but no text survives. Six similar monks with books and scrolls appear on the other side panel, at the far right of which is a rampant bear, another pun on the abbot’s name (Fig. 4.13b). The abbot’s rebus, or possibly the arms of the abbey, may have been on a lost portion of this panel, thus balancing the heraldry on the other side panel. In the middle of the third panel is a seated abbot who is wearing a mitre and has a crosier over his left shoulder. His lost right hand appears to have been raised in blessing (Fig. 4.13c). There is a scroll with traces of an inscription surrounding the abbot’s head, but the text is illegible. To each side of the abbot are four kneeling monks with books, and two similar monks appear on both of the returns of both panels. It is possible that the monument was covered with the ‘large marble slab’ which was recorded in the nineteenth century as lying to the east of the church,151 but which is now lost. At the top of each panel is a worn and fragmentary inscription in black-letter script. The most legible text on the first panel can be transcribed ‘[Pray] for [a]bbot Robert Chamber’. The surviving inscription on the central panel reads ‘And emonges hys . bre[thren]’, and the inscription on the third panel can be transcribed ‘[…] hym […] hys […] days here lyven was’.152 The significance of the icono­graphy and inscription will be discussed in due course. Chamber’s monument is grander in scale and has more elaborate decoration than any other surviving monument of an English Cistercian abbot. One noteworthy feature is the presence of the abbot’s rebus. It has already been seen that heraldry was also used by Cistercian abbots on their funerary monuments. The 150 

This lavishly personal icono­g raphy and punning can be compared to that used by Robert Langton in the 1510s at The Queen’s College, Oxford. Here Langton used a bear rebus to pun on his first name when pronounced in French (roe-bear). Queen’s was the Cumberland college at Oxford and its students mainly came from the county. I am most grateful to Professor John Blair for making this comparison. 151  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, pp. 123–24. 152  With thanks to Dr David Griffith of the Uni­ver­sity of Birmingham for transcribing these inscriptions. The inscription has occasionally been confused with the now lost ‘Orate pro Ani[m]a Rob[er]ti Cham]b’ a[bbatis]’ which was recorded in 1703 as inscribed on the abbey’s west front; for this inscription, see Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 122.

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Figure 4.14. Brus Monument, Gisborough Priory, now at Guisborough Parish Church. Early sixteenth century. Courtesy of Professor Julian Luxford.

mitre also appears twice on Chamber’s monument. Chamber acquired the right to its use in 1508.153 Evidence from Holm Cultram can leave little doubt that it was only after they had been awarded the right to the mitre that Cistercian abbots used it to decorate their artistic commissions. There is no mitre on the monument of Abbot Rydecar, and Chamber himself appears to have been punctilious about its use. It is notably absent from his rebus on the abbey’s porch which was built in 1507, the year before the papal indult permitting the use of the pontificalia. The details of this papal bull also have other significance for the depiction of Chamber on his tomb and will be analysed shortly. Another noteworthy aspect of the tomb’s decoration is the figures of monks appearing on all three panels. Mourners were used to decorate Roman tombs and are found on sixth-century Christian sarcophagi. Figures on the sides of medi­eval funerary monuments first appear in France in the late twelfth century. They often represent the kin of the deceased, or are a recreation of a ceremony, often the funeral liturgy of the individual commemorated by the monument.154 153  154 

CPL, xix, 58. For a discussion of this distinction see, Morganstern, Gothic Tombs of Kinship, pp. 7–8.

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The monks on Chamber’s tomb are praying for the soul of their abbot and are an icono­g raphic detail found in European Cistercian contexts from the early thirteenth century. Mourning figures appear on the tombs of Phillipe Dagobert (d.  1234) and Prince Louis (d.  1260), both of whom were buried at the Cistercian abbey of Royaumont, near Paris. A representation of Louis’s funeral procession is shown on his sarcophagus tomb chest, which is now at St Denis. His body is carried on a litter followed by a procession of clergy and laity.155 A similar form of tomb decoration was soon used by a Cistercian superior. The panels of the sarcophagus of Doña Maria Urraca López de Haro (d. 1262), abbess of Canas, Spain, are decorated with a procession of mourning nuns.156 Figures participating in the liturgy also appear on late medi­eval monuments in England. Notable examples include the seated canons who adorn the sides of the monument of Bishop Henry Burghersh (d. 1340) at Lincoln Cathedral, the canons on the early fifteenth-century Rahere monument at the Augustinian priory of St Bartholomew, Smithfield, and the standing canons holding open books on the monument of Thomas Fitzalan, earl of Arundel (d. 1415) and his wife, Beatrice of Portugal (d. 1439), at Arundel collegiate church, Sussex.157 An example in northern England is the canopied tomb of Sir John Harrington (d. 1347) and his wife, Joan, at the Augustinian priory of Cartmel, not far from Holm Cultram.158 Here, the figures of canons with open books that are to the side of the effigies are very similar to those on Chamber’s monument. The composition of the end panel of Chamber’s monument can be compared to that of the contemporary Brus cenotaph from Gisbrough Priory, Yorkshire. The monument commemorates the English and Scottish lines of the Brus family, members of which are shown on the tomb’s side panels. The monument can be confidently dated to the early sixteenth century as it is decorated with the distinctive cockerel rebus of Prior James Cockerell (1519–36).159 Like the monument at Holm Cultram, the end panel shows a seated figure of a monastic superior, with his brethren to each side, although here he holds a shield, 155 

Quarré, Les pleurants dans l’art du moyen age en Europe, p. 11; Jugie, The Mourners, p. 49. Madou, ‘The Tomb of Doña Maria Urraca López de Haro’. 157  Morganstern, Gothic Tombs of Kinship, pp. 8, 111. 158  The fullest analysis of this monument is Cameron, ‘The Harington Tomb in Cartmel Priory’. See also, Markus, ‘An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles in the Sculptors of the Harrington Tomb, Cartmel’, p. 17. 159  Brown, ‘The Brus Cenotaph at Guisborough’; Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, figs 28–30, pp. 41–43, 76; Luxford, ‘The Idol of Origins’, pp. 438–42. 156 

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inscribed with the priory’s arms (Fig. 4.14). It is possible that he is intended to represent Prior William Brus, the first superior of the house, and that the twelve canons depict the priory’s original community. A similar arrangement also occurs on late medi­eval monastic seals, for example that of the Augustinian priory of Wroxton, Oxfordshire, which was in use in 1534, and shows its community assembled on either side of its seated prior.160 Chamber is shown on his monument delivering a blessing. The right to deliver the solemn benediction was normally reserved to bishops, and they are often depicted on their monuments with their hand raised in this act.161 Notably, the papal indult granting the abbots of Holm Cultram permission to use the mitre also gave them the right to bestow ‘the solemn benediction after solemnization of Mass, vespers, matins and other divine offices over people therein present provided no bishop or legate of the apostolic see is present, or if present have given express permission’.162 It is possible that the entire community of Holm Cultram is depicted ‘therein present’ on the monument. A total of twenty-three monks are depicted, and at the time of the suppression the community at Holm Cultram comprised the abbot and twenty-four monks. Similarly, the thirteen seated canons on the lower register of the Harrington tomb at Cartmel may represent the community of this house, the canonical number for a monastic community intentionally recalling Christ and his apostles. As already noted, the inscription on Chamber’s monument is in English. Contemporaries of Abbot Chamber at the Augustinian cathedral priory at Carlisle also used English inscriptions, which appear on the reverse of the choir stalls of Prior Thomas Gondibour (c. 1465–c. 1500), and on the ceiling executed by Prior Senhouse (c. 1500–c. 1520) in the Prior’s Tower,163 but in neither instance is their context commemorative. English occasionally appears on the monuments of the laity at Cistercian houses, examples occurring at

160 

Ellis, Catalogue of Seals in the Public Records Office, p. 102, pl. 36. Chamber’s seal does not survive, and the seal of the abbey in use in 1538 shows the Virgin and Child; see Ellis, Catalogue of Seals in the Public Records Office, p. 41. 161  An example is the effigy of Archbishop Walter de Gray (d. 1255) at York Minster; see Brown, York Minster, pp. 39–40. 162  CPL, xix, 58. Another example of a mitred Cistercian abbot who is shown bestowing the blessing on his monument is Abbot Nikolaus at Zinna, Brandenburg, who died in 1401; see Kinder, Cistercian Europe, pl. 10 vii. 163  Park and Cather, ‘Late Medi­eval Paintings at Carlisle’, pp. 222–27.

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Roche Abbey, and Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire.164 However, even in the sixteenth century, no more than a third of epitaphs were in English, and Latin remained the language of choice for clerics. Indeed, the use of the vernacular on the monument of an English abbot is seemingly without precedent.165 The epitaphs of other Cistercian abbots in northern England have already been discussed and all are in Latin, including the grave cover of Abbot Rydecar at Holm Cultram. Notably, Chamber also used English in another inscription that was concerned with the salvation of his soul. Inscribed beneath an image niche on the west front of the abbey is an eroded inscription. It was recorded in the early nineteenth century as reading ‘lady. deyr save robt. Chamber’. At the same time, ‘Of Robert Chambers and his brethren’ was recorded inscribed on a benchend removed from the abbey after the Suppression to the manor house at Netherhall.166 The use of English in the epitaph may be because the intended audience for the monument included not only monks but also the laity, and that prayers of intercession were being sought from both. As mentioned in Chapter 3, unusually for an English Cistercian monastery, the church at Holm Cultram was also used as a parish church.167 This discussion of Chamber’s monument is an ideal place to conclude analysis of the monuments of Cistercian abbots. Although apparently a unique survival, it nevertheless neatly brings together the themes discussed above, especially that by the late Middle Ages abbatial monuments were located so as to capitalize on intercessory opportunities afforded by their liturgy and that their icono­g raphic ornament was becoming increasingly elaborate and had multiple functions and meanings: salvation of the soul, construction of institutional identity, and an assertion of individual and corporate status.

164  The epitaphs on the monuments at Lanercost Priory of Sir Humphrey (d. 1485) and Lady Mabel Dacre (d. 1510) and of Sir Thomas (d. 1525) and Lady Elizabeth Dacre are in the vernacular; see Lindley, ‘Heraldic Tomb Monuments’, pp. 158, 162. 165  In personal correspondence, August 2010, Dr David Griffith kindly advised that the use of English in the epitaph of a cleric is highly unusual. For the use of English in epitaphs, see Griffith, ‘English Commemorative Inscriptions’. The language of epitaphs is also discussed by Saul, English Church Monuments, pp. 351–56. 166  The inscription is illustrated in the Lysons’s notes for their Magna Britannia, BL, MS Add. 9462, fol. 160r. I am extremely grateful to Dr David Griffith for bringing this manu­ script to my attention. For Netherhall, see Lysons and Lysons, Magna Britannia, iv, p. cxci. 167  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 130.

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The Monuments of Monks The later Middle Ages also to some extent witnessed changes in the topo­graphy of burial of Cistercian monks, and their use of more elaborate and personalized memorials. The procedures and ceremonies outlined in the Ecclesiastica officia that accompanied the death and burial of Cistercian monks have already been described (pp. 142–43). The Ecclesiastica officia does not explicitly state where monks were buried. However, as it says that the body was carried out of the church for burial,168 it can be safely assumed that this was in the monastic cemetery, the normal location of which was to the northeast and east of the monastic church;169 in 1314, Elias of Egremont, former cellarer of Furness, is documented as being buried in the cemetery there to the east of the abbey church.170 The monastic cemetery was accessed through the doorway in the north wall of the north transept.171 Initially, the grave coverings of Cistercian monks were humble, consisting of simple, unornamented slabs or coped stones. These were often anonymous, but if there was an inscription it only provided the name of the monk.172 However, this funerary austerity does not mean that monks were forgotten by their brethren after death. The obits of the monks of Durham were inscribed in the monastery’s Liber vitae, which was placed on the high altar of the cathedral priory during the celebration of High Mass.173 Cistercian monks were similarly commemorated. A late twelfth-century catalogue of the library of Rievaulx Abbey mentions a book of mortuaries.174 The late fourteenth-century catalogue of the library of Meaux Abbey mentions a copy of the Rule of St Benedict, in which were the mortuaries of the monastery.175 A register from Whalley listed the name of every monk who entered the house from its foundation to c. 1500, in many instances providing the date of their deaths.176 168 

Ancient Uses of the Cistercian Order, ed. by Cawley, chaps 98.8–9, 98.14–18a. For the location of monastic cemeteries, see Gilchrist and Sloane, Requiem, pp. 31–34. 170  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 250. 171  Hope, ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, p. 24 n. 1. 172  It has been suggested that a fourteenth-century grave cover from Furness Abbey inscribed ‘+ROGERIUS DE.HOYLANDIE+’ is the monument of a monk; see Ryder, Cross Slab Grave Covers of Cumbria, p. 21. 173  For a discussion of the Durham Liber vitae, see Rollason, ‘The Liber vitae of Durham and Lay Association with Durham Cathedral Priory’. 174  Bell, Libraries of the Cistercians, Gilbertines and Premonstratensians, p. 131. 175  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, iii, p. lxxxiv. 176  For a transcription, see Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clith­ eroe, pp. 73–77. 169 

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Several monks of Whalley took additional steps to ensure their commemoration by their brethren and secured burial within the abbey church. Three incised slabs in the transepts have inscriptions indicating that they covered the graves of monks. The names on two monuments in the south transept can still be read and show that they were the slabs of Thomas Wood, who served as prior of Whalley, and Brother John Walton.177 It is not known if the latter held any office, but evidence from other northern Cistercian abbeys indicates that obedientaries (office holders) were being granted intramural burial. Arguably the most interesting and significant example is the monument of William Rymington, prior of Sawley (d. c. 1385). Rymington was chancellor of the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford between 1372 and 1373 and was a vociferous opponent of Wycliffe. 178 His monument is now lost, but it was recorded in the nineteenth century (Fig. 4.15) and was decorated with an incised cross and the inscription in black-letter script recorded the prior’s scholarly 177 

179

Figure 4.15. Drawing of the now lost monument of William Rymington, prior of Sawley. d. c. 1385. From Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley.

Ashmore, Whalley Abbey, p. 18. The inscriptions on the monuments in the south transept can be transcribed thus: ‘(S)ANCTA (M)ARIA[…]TH(OME) WOD(E)’ (Holy Mary[…] Thomas Wode); ‘DOMINE MISERE AN(IM)E JOH(ANNIS) WALTON M(ONACHI) […](MO)NASTER(II)’ (Lord have mercy on the soul of John Walton monk [of this] monastery). For the names of these monks in the register, see Whitaker, History of the Parish of Whal­ ley and Honor of Clitheroe, p. 76. Their dates of death are not given, but their position in the register suggests this was in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. 178  For Rymington’s career and opposition to Wycliffe, see McNulty, ‘William Rymington, Prior of Sawley’; Emden, Bio­graphical Register of the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford, iii, 1617; Hudson, The Premature Reformation, pp. 45–46, 69, 83–83, 103, 170, 316.

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accomplishments, noting that he was a Doctor of Divinity and listing the offices he held at the monastery and Oxford (‘Hic jacet Willis: de Rymynton sacre pagine professor et prior huius domus. Ac quondam cancellarius Oxonie. Cuius anime propicietur deus’. Here lies William de Rymington, professor of the sacred page and prior of this house, and formerly chancellor of Oxford, on whose soul God have mercy).179 His monument was located close to the door in the south wall of the south transept, the entrance to the sacristy.180 Such a location indicated the prior’s humility, would have prompted prayers from his brethren using this storeroom for the monastery’s altar vessels, and its position at the threshold of the sacristy arguably also testified to Rymington’s defence of orthodoxy against the Lollards. Comparative evidence supports these conclusions about the significance of the monument’s location. Rymington’s Oxfordeducated Benedictine contemporary, Nicholas Radcliffe, was also a prominent opponent of Wycliffe.181 Radcliffe’s services earned him burial in the south transept at St Albans. Amundesham praised him as ‘a man of reverend life’, and a ‘brave’ opponent of Wycliffe, recording that his marble monument and its epitaph were provided at the cost of the abbot.182 There is also evidence that obedientaries below the rank of prior were receiving intramural burial. The damaged grave cover of Brother John Rypon was uncovered in the south transept of the church at Fountains during archaeo­ logical excavations in the mid-nineteenth century and again in 1979.183 The monument is unornamented except for its black-letter inscription. Rypon is documented as cellarer of Fountains in 1499 and again in 1501.184 The date of his death is uncertain, but as his fragmentary epitaph ends with an Arabic ‘4’,185 it is possible that he may have died in 1504. Archaeo­logical and documentary 179 

Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley, p. 69. Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley, p. 68. There is now no trace of Rymington’s monument at the Sawley, nor is it in the English Heritage store at Helmsley. 181  Emden, Bio­g raphical Register of the Uni­v er­sity of Oxford, iii,  1539; Hudson, The Premature Reformation, pp. 58, 93, 98, 359, 454; Clark, A Monastic Renaissance at St Albans, pp. 244–49. 182  Amundesham, An Account of the Monuments and Tombs Existing ad 1428 in St Albans Abbey, p. 9. 183  Memorials of Fountains, ed.  by Walbran and Fowler, ii,  150; Walbran, Illustrated Guide to Ripon and Harrogate and Fountains Abbey, pp. 78–79; Gilyard-Beer and Coppack, ‘Excavations at Fountains Abbey’, pp. 163–64. 184  The Fountains Abbey Lease Book, ed. by Michelmore, pp. 70–71, 89, 105. 185  Gilyard-Beer and Coppack, ‘Excavations at Fountains Abbey’, p. 164. 180 

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evidence from the Benedictine abbeys of Bardney and St Albans shows that by the fifteenth century burial within the church was widely available to senior monks.186 An incised cross slab from Rufford Abbey now in the stores of English Heritage commemorates a Brother Robert de Markham who died in 1399, and in the late eighteenth century, a fragmentary monument inscribed ‘M’nachus hujus domus, A. D. MDXXX[…]’ (monk of this house […] ad 13[…]) was found in the cloister at Kirkstall Abbey.187 The surviving evidence of intramural burial and commemoration by inscribed grave covers of priors, obedientaries, and cloister monks is sufficiently rare to conclude that these were not routine at northern Cistercian monasteries. Nevertheless, the few instances discussed above all have parallels in other orders, again indicating that the art and architecture of the Cistercians was part of the monastic mainstream, even if Cistercian practice seems to have been slightly more restrained. Attention will now turn to lay burials.

The Laity: Burial and Commemoration The bequests of the laity and secular clergy to Cistercian monasteries, including their requests for burial, have already been alluded to in the discussion of external patronage. The discussion of lay burials here in many respects reflects the conclusions reached in the analysis of the graves of abbots and monks. Specifically, it will be established that Cistercian monasteries remained an esteemed location for lay burials in the late Middle Ages, that these tombs were frequently located close to where the liturgy was celebrated, having implications for the planning and architecture of Cistercian churches. Moreover, it will be shown that the range of monuments commemorating the laity was exactly as would be expected for late medi­eval England. None of this appears to have been in the least bit problematic for Cistercian communities in the northern counties.

186 

Brakspear, ‘Bardney Abbey’, pp.  60, 63–64. Burials of obedientaries at St  Albans are discussed by Rogers, ‘Monuments of Monks and Monastic Servants’, pp. 270–76. The monuments of obedientaries at Benedictine monasteries in western England are discussed by Luxford, Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, pp. 106–07. 187  Whitaker, History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, p. 65. Cistercian monks who apparently held no offices were commemorated by effigial monuments at Netley Abbey, Hampshire, in the 1520s and 1530s; see Greenhill, Incised Effigial Slabs, i, 66.

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The Order had detailed rules which specified who could be buried within their abbeys.188 Lay burials were largely forbidden in the Cistercians’ important foundation document, the Capitula, written in 1136–37, and this prohibition was repeated in the Instituta of 1147. However, from the very beginning there were exceptions. The Capitula allowed the burial of guests or servants, but only if they died within the monastery, and the Instituta permitted the burial of two friends of the monastery, or familiars, together with their wives.189 Further concessions were made in 1157, when a decree of the General Chapter allowed the burial of founders.190 This was repeated in the codification of 1202, and a statute in 1220 stated that members of the patronal family could be interred within a monastery; if the patronal family died out, this right was extended to the inheritors of their lordship.191 This evolving legislation also addressed precisely where the laity could be buried. By 1217 the Cistercians had effectively allowed right of burial within their cemeteries to any layperson, provided that they had the licence of their parish priest.192 However, only certain privileged individuals were permitted burial within the church or chapter house. A statute of 1180 stated: ‘In our oratories, none are to be buried except kings and queens and bishops; in our chapter houses abbots, or the aforementioned if they prefer’.193 Abbots who infringed this rule were punished.194 But over time these restrictions gradu188 

‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr. It is discussed by Hall, ‘The Legislative Background to the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, pp. 363–72 and Hall, ‘Croxden Abbey Church’, pp. 83–84. For an overview of lay burials within Cistercian precincts, see Williams, ‘Lay Folk within Cistercian Precincts’, pp. 106–10. 189  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 376. 190  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 378. 191  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 396. 192  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 392. 193  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 378. 194  For example, in 1193 the abbot of Salem was punished with six days light penance, one of them on bread and water, and excluded from his stall for forty days for burying a woman in the church of his monastery; see ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 382.

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ally softened. In 1222 legislation was passed stating: ‘concerning the burials of founders, ancient custom is to be adhered to’.195 This wording was so ambiguous that a number of monasteries could claim that their practice of burying individuals from many classes, especially non-royal lay founders, within their churches or chapter houses was now permitted. Indeed, after 1251, no monastery was condemned by the Order’s General Chapter for the burial of laity within the church. There was a further significant development in 1322 when the General Chapter decreed that anyone contributing to the construction of a church was to be rewarded with ‘full participation in all spiritual goods which take place henceforth there and in the whole Order’,196 one of the most valuable of which was burial. Nevertheless, explicit permission for the burial of the laity in Cistercian churches was not granted until 1601, and then only for ‘pious reasons of the greatest moment’.197 Evidence from Cistercian monasteries in northern England suggests that, from the very beginning, these abbeys had a pragmatic and increasingly permissive attitude towards lay burials. By 1135 Fountains Abbey was attracting important benefactors, such as Serlo de Pembroke, who made a substantial deathbed bequest to the monastery, for which he was rewarded with burial at the abbey.198 The dynamic and reforming Order flourished in northern England, largely thanks to the patronage of noble families. No doubt their eagerness to support the Order was because, in the words of William of Malmesbury, the Cistercians were ‘both believed and asserted to be the surest road to heaven’.199 Within a generation or so of their foundation, every community of White Monks in northern England was interceding for the soul of a patron or benefactor who had elected to be buried within the precincts of their respective monasteries.200 195  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 396. 196  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 408. 197  ‘Table of Legislation concerning the Burial of Laity and Other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, ed. by Hall, Sneddon, and Sohr, p. 414. 198  Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p. 263. 199  William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, ii, 511. 200  For the houses in Yorkshire, see Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 209–10. Burials at Holm Cultram are discussed by Jamroziak, ‘Holm Cultram Abbey’. There is little surviving evidence of early lay burials at Calder, though Sir John Fleming of Beckermet was rewarded for his gift of lands to the abbey in 1242 with burial at the monastery; see Jefferson, History and Antiq­ uities of Allerdale Ward, p. 314. Early burials at Newminster and Whalley are considered below.

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Throughout the thirteenth century, northern Cistercian abbeys remained a favoured burial location and ninety benefactors, including three members of the noble Percy family, were buried at Fountains Abbey before 1300.201 Holm Cultram may even have been the location for a royal burial in the early fourteenth century. Edward I died at the monastery’s estates at Burgh in 1307, and according to a fifteenth-century tradition, his entrails were interred at the abbey.202 However, by then the Cistercians increasingly faced stiff competition for burials. By the late Middle Ages only a small minority of benefactors were opting for burial at the Order’s abbeys (the same was also true for other orders).203 An analysis of gentry wills from fifteenth-century Yorkshire has shown that two-thirds of testators desired burial within their local parish church.204 Moreover, in some cases, the great lords were founders and benefactors of more than one Cistercian house, as well as houses of other orders. Kirkstall Abbey was founded by Henry de Lacy in 1147, and in 1193 his son, Robert, was buried there.205 The de Lacys were also founders of the Order’s Stanlow Abbey in Cheshire where other members of their family were buried.206 Henry de Lacy (d. 1311) was buried in the north ambulatory of Whalley Abbey after the migration of the Stanlow community to this site in 1296.207 Religious orders also vied with each other for the right to bury a member of a patronal family. Sawley Abbey was founded by William Percy in 1148. His great-grandson William Percy was buried at the abbey in 1245, as were his son Henry in 1272 and Henry’s wife Eleanor.208 In 1351 Henry Percy, earl of 201 

Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p. 264. For burials at other Cistercian houses in Yorkshire in the thirteenth century see, Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, pp. 217–42. 202  Westerhof, Death and Noble Burial in Medi­eval England, p. 81. 203  For an overview of the burial practices of the descendants of founding patrons in the late Middle Ages, see Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 112–46. 204  For the burial practices of the Yorkshire gentry between the late fourteenth and late fifteenth centuries, see Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy among the Yorkshire Gentry, 1370–1480, esp. pp. 8–10. For the wider English context, see Carpenter, ‘The Religion of the Gentry in Fifteenth-Century England’, pp. 67–70 and Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, p. 114. For a sceptical analysis of the importance of religious houses as sites for lay burials in the late Middle Ages, see Thompson, ‘Monasteries, Society and Reform in Late Medi­eval England’. 205  Barnes, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 68. 206  Coucher Book or Cartulary of Whalley Abbey, ed. by Hulton, i, 189. 207  Ashmore, Whalley Abbey, p. 17. 208  Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, ii, 201.

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Northumberland, stated in his will that he wished to be buried at Sawley Abbey, leaving the community a substantial bequest of 100 marks. He died at Alnwick Castle in February 1352, but was buried at the nearby house of Augustinian canons at Alnwick Priory, to which he had left a mere 10 marks in his will.209 Rievaulx Abbey was founded by Walter Espec and until the middle of the thirteenth century many of his de Roos descendants were buried there. But the family then transferred its allegiance to the Augustinian priory of Kirkham, which Espec had also founded. It was only in 1384 that the family tradition of burial at Rievaulx was re-established,210 a tradition which endured well into the fifteenth century, with the burial of Sir Thomas, tenth Lord de Roos of Helmsley at the monastery in 1464.211 There was a more consistent pattern of patronal burial at Jervaulx. The monastery was founded by Akarius Fitz Bardolph, from whom the Fitzhenrys, later the Fitzhughs, were descended.212 The abbey remained the preferred burial destination for this family in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1352 Sir Henry Fitzhugh, son and heir of Henry, first Lord Fitzhugh of Ravensworth, requested burial at ‘l’abbye de Joreuaulx devant le haute autiere’ (the abbey of Jervaulx, before the high altar). Henry, third lord Fitzhugh, was buried in a similar location in 1386, with Henry, the fourth lord, buried at the abbey in 1424 and his widow in 1427.213 Non-patronal benefactors still occasionally opted for burial at Cistercian houses in this later period.214 Late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century military effigies in the presbytery of Calder Abbey are decorated with the arms of Le Flemying, Leyburne, and Harrington, all historic benefactors of the monastery.215 Calder was far from being alone in attracting such burials. Since the twelfth century, the Umfraville family had been benefactors of Newminster Abbey, a tradition which was clearly maintained into the late Middle Ages as

209 

Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 57. For the de Roos burial tradition at Rievaulx, see Jamroziak, Rievaulx Abbey and its Social Context, pp. 48–50. 211  Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, p. 77. 212  For the Fitzhugh lineage, see Clay, Early Yorkshire Families, p. 28. 213  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 373. 214  A general discussion and analysis of the burial of non-patronal benefactors within monasteries is provided by Postles, ‘Monastic Burials of Non-Patronal Lay Benefactors’. 215  Fair, ‘Calder Abbey’, p. 86. 210 

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in 1438 Isabelle de Umfraville requested burial at the monastery.216 The maintenance of this tradition shows that association with the monks at Newminster was still esteemed by this family of noble benefactors and equally demonstrates a confidence in the efficacy of the intercessory prayers of Cistercian monks, and by extension the quality of the religious life maintained within the monastery. This also helps to explain why benefactors of less exalted social status continued to request burials at the Order’s monasteries. John Byland was the tenant of Kirkstall Abbey’s Bar Grange, and in 1494 asked to be buried at the monastery,217 and at the very end of the Middle Ages in 1534, Thomas Storres, of the Folds in Tickhill, requested burial in the church of Roche Abbey.218 These were not isolated cases. Claire Cross’s analysis of wills in the diocese of York between 1520 and 1540 has shown that every monastery in Yorkshire received requests for burial or bequests from the laity, mainly from among their tenants, during these final two decades of medi­eval monasticism.219 The prestige associated with burial within the precincts of a monastery is likely to have motivated these requests. The burials also affirmed the connection between tenant families and the monastery whose land they held. But for all classes of benefactor the primary motive for requesting burial within a Cistercian monastery is likely to have been that this would expedite the passage of their soul through the torments of purgatory. Of all the burial locations available to the laity at Cistercian monasteries, the cemetery was the most accessible. 220 Northern evidence of an enduring desire amongst distinguished individuals to be interred in a Cistercian cemetery is provided by the will of William de Claxton, a member of a prominent Northumbrian family, who in 1377 requested burial in the graveyard of Holm Cultram.221 The desirability of burial within the precincts of a Cistercian abbey should not be underestimated, providing as it did a permanent attachment to a place of sanctity and close proximity to the daily celebration of the liturgy.222 216 

Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 303. ‘Wills of Leeds and District’, ed. by Cook, p. 86. 218  Cross, ‘Monasteries and Society in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, p. 230. 219  Cross, ‘Monasticism and Society in the Diocese of York’, pp. 131–32. 220  Gilchrist and Sloane, Requiem, pp. 31–34. 221  Testamenta Karleolensia, ed. by Ferguson, p. 115. 222  Jamroziak, Rievaulx Abbey and its Social Context, p. 210. Excavations at St Mary Grace’s Abbey in London uncovered a lay cemetery to the north of the church containing 133 burials, indicating that the monastery was a popular burial choice for the laity in the later Middle Ages; see Jamroziak, ‘St Mary Graces’, p. 159. 217 

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However, from an early date important benefactors were being rewarded with burial within the cloistral nucleus of northern Cistercian abbeys. In 1174, William de Percy was buried in the eastern cloister walk at Fountains.223 The cloister alleys remained a desirable location for the burial of benefactors into the later Middle Ages. In 1359 Ade de Bassenthwaite requested burial in the cloister alley at Holm Cultram, next to his father and mother.224 That lay burials in such a location were common is suggested by a ghost story written by a monk of Byland in c. 1400, which tells how James Tankerlay, rector of Kirby, rose from his grave outside the monastery’s chapter house.225 From an early date, patrons, their descendants, and other important benefactors were being buried in a much more prestigious location — the chapter house. The restrictions which the Order placed on the right to burial in this location have already been explained. However, the benefactors’ book of Newminster Abbey records that Ralph de Merlay, its founding patron, together with his wife Juliana and their son Osbert, were buried in the north part of the chapter house,226 whereas Roger de Merlay’s grave was located at the entrance to the chapter house in the cloister.227 The chronicle of Meaux Abbey states that in 1212 Baldwin de Béthune, a descendant of the monastery’s founder, William le Gros, was buried ‘in capitulo nostro’. The monument was recorded and illustrated in the mid-fifteenth century by the cleric Thomas Anlaby. The illustration shows that the monument was positioned in a round-headed wall recess with an inscription on the exterior of arch. A slab decorated with a cross is depicted covering a chest, which has three large blank shields on the plinth. A further shield, this time with tincture and emblazoned argent, a chief bendy of seven, gules and argent, the arms of Béthune, are depicted above the monument. The epitaph on the arch above Baldwin’s tomb was also transcribed by Anlaby, who stated that it was ‘wrytn in ye chapet[er] of meus’.228 It is possible that similar wall recesses in the east end of the chapter house at Byland also housed the graves of benefactors, possibly including a cenotaph for Roger de Mowbray, the founder of the monastery.229 Lay burials also occurred within the 223 

Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 235. Testamenta Karleolensia, ed. by Ferguson, p. 22. 225  James, ‘Twelve Medi­eval Ghost Stories’, p. 415; Joynes, Medi­eval Ghost Stories, p. 270. 226  Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 269–70. 227  Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 271. 228  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, i, 379; Luxford, ‘“Thys ys to remember”’, pp. 33–35. 229  Gilyard-Beer, ‘Byland Abbey and the Grave of Roger de Mowbray’, p. 66. 224 

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Figure 4.16. Monuments in the galilee porch of Rievaulx Abbey.

chapter house of Sawley Abbey, where in the mid-nineteenth century a grave cover with an incised cross and shears was recorded, beneath which was a skeleton which an examination by a local surgeon showed to be that of a woman.230 The cusped ogival base of the cross is similar to that on a monument dated to the first quarter of the fourteenth century at Darrington, West Riding.231 Evidence for the burial of the laity in chapter houses after the early fourteenth century is lacking. The desired destination for the bodies of patrons 230  Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley in Craven, pp. 70–71. For the depiction of shears on monuments to denote a female burial, see Ryder, Medi­eval Cross Slab Grave Covers in West Yorkshire, p. 63. 231  Ryder, Medi­eval Cross Slab Grave Covers in West Yorkshire, p. 19.

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and other benefactors was the monastic church. These graves had initially been restricted to the galilee porch. The body of William de Stuteville was laid to rest in this location at Fountains Abbey in the early thirteenth century.232 There are eight monuments in the porch of Rievaulx (Fig. 4.16), one of which is inscribed with the name of Isabel de Roos, who died in 1264.233 The practice of burial within the galilee or porch continued into the fifteenth century. In 1426 Sir William Tirplady bequeathed his body for burial in the galilee of Byland Abbey.234 From at least the mid-thirteenth century, however, this restriction proved unsustainable, as the patrons and benefactors of northern Cistercian abbeys were requesting and receiving burial at the liturgical heart of the monastic church. William of Lancaster made grants to Furness in 1240, in return requesting burial in the presbytery there, where his grandfather was already buried.235 It seems probable that the fragmentary effigy of a knight in the middle of the chancel (beneath which were found bones), and two other monumental effigies by the north wall, which were recorded in the nineteenth century, commemorated members of this family.236 Ralph Fitzhenry (d. 1268), a descendant of the founder of Jervaulx Abbey, was buried in its choir, just in front of the steps of the presbytery.237 At Fountains, Roger, Lord Mowbray, was buried in the presbytery in 1298, and in 1315 Henry, Lord Percy, was buried before the abbey’s high altar (Fig. 4.17).238 This intrusion of lay burials into the choirs and presbyteries of Cistercian abbeys coincided with a similar process seen elsewhere in the English Church,239 and continued into the later Middle Ages. The Fitzhugh burials before the high altar at Jervaulx have already been noted and burials in a similar location are recorded at other northern Cistercian houses. Ranulph de Graystock, whose 232 

Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 233. Fergusson and others, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 6. 234  Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, ii, 204. For a discussion of the use of church porches for burials, see Lunnon, ‘Making an Entrance’, pp. 63–66. 235  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 203. 236  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 205. Further evidence of the burial of high-status bene­ factors at Furness is provided by the magnificent thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century effigies now in the site museum, which were discovered ex situ in the nineteenth century in the north aisle of the nave; see Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 376. 237  Hope and Brakspear, ‘Jervaulx Abbey’, p. 313. 238  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 211. 239  Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, p. 116. 233 

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Figure 4.17. Funerary monument from Fountains Abbey traditionally identified as that of Henry, Lord Percy (d. 1315), who was buried in the choir of Fountains. Early fourteenth century. Drawing by Simon Hayfield; reproduced with permission. 240 

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family had inherited the patronage of Newminster, was buried before the high altar there in 1323.240 In 1384, Thomas de Roos was buried in a similar location at Rievaulx, and in 1394 Sir John de Roos ordered that his body be laid to rest in the choir, to the south of the high altar; in the same year his wife, Mary, requested burial next to him.241 The many other subsidiary altars in Cistercian abbeys acted as the foci of burials. Burial before an altar dedicated to the Virgin was especially popular. It was before her altar at Byland that Peter de Rickal, chaplain, requested burial in 1359. 242 Henry, Lord Fitzhugh, left instructions in 1424 that he was to be laid to rest in the ‘Lady Kirke’ of Jervaulx.243 In 1446 Matilda, dowager countess of Cam­bridge, asked for burial at Roche Abbey, ‘in the chapel of the Blessed Mary, before her image, situated in the southern part of the church of the said monastery’.244 The laity also desired burial before specific images of the Virgin. John Clervaux, whose family were

Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 304. Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 366; Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 201–02; Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, pp. 250–51 n. 28, the authors also note that in 1920 excavations revealed fragments of tomb effigies between the piers of the eastern arm and in front of the high altar. 242  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 340. 243  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 373. 244  ‘corpus meum ad sepeliendum in Monasterio de Rupe, in capella Beatae Mariae corum ymagine ejusdem, situata in parte australi ecclesiae prediciti Monasterii’; Testamenta Eboracen241 

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long-standing tenants of Rievaulx Abbey, asked in 1510 to be buried before the image of Our Lady of Pity at the choir door of the monastery.245 Five years later, the image of Our Lady of Pity at Rievaulx was the focus of the burial of Sir Ralph, Lord Scrope of Upsall.246 Burials are also recorded before the altars of other saints. For instance, the cartulary of Newminster Abbey, Northumberland, records that on 31 December 1438 Isabella Umfraville, whose family had been benefactors of the abbey since the twelfth century, was buried before the altar of St Mary Magdalene.247 The monuments of the laity in northern Cistercian churches were located so as to capitalize on the intercessory opportunities provided by the reciting of the daily office, the celebration of the Mass, and processions.248 Therefore, burial in the presbytery was the most desirable location of all. A study of Croxden Abbey, Staffordshire, has shown that this remained a special and exclusive area, with only members of the patronal family or other major benefactors receiving burial in this most sacred of spaces.249 The exclusivity of the eastern end of Cistercian abbeys was in keeping with general practice in the English Church. In 1292 the Statutes of Chichester decreed that the right to burial in the chancel should be restricted.250 It will be clear from the evidence outlined above that this was also the case at Cistercian monasteries in northern England. The provision they made for their commemoration and the monuments of these major families had an impact on the architecture and use of liturgical space. The military effigies in the presbyteries and choirs of Fountains, Furness, and Jervaulx were hardly in keeping with the legislation of the Order instructing that monuments must be level with the ground so that the liturgical life of the monastery sia, ed. by Raine, ii, 120. Instances of benefactors requesting burial within chapels of the Virgin can also be cited at Cistercian abbeys beyond the geo­graphic scope of this study. In 1489, the courtier Sir Thomas Montgomery requested burial within the chapel of Our Lady, which had been built at his expense at St Mary Graces, London; see Jamroziak, ‘St Mary Graces’, p. 160. The Lady Chapel in the south transept of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, was renovated by William Frost and he requested burial there in 1529; see Smith, ‘Netley Abbey’, pp. 139–40. 245  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 20. Other members of the family, including Sir John Clervaux (d. 1443) and Sir Richard Clervaux (d. 1490), were buried at the parish church of St Peter’s, Crofton Tees; see Badham and Blacker, Northern Rock, p. 74. 246  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 63. 247  Chartularium abbathiae de novo monasterio, ed. by Fowler, p. 303. 248  Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, pp. 120–28. 249  Hall, ‘Croxden Abbey Church’, pp. 90–93. 250  Daniell, Death and Burial in Medi­eval England, pp. 96–99, 186–87.

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was not inconvenienced, but nevertheless shows the pragmatism of the Order when it came to the burial of their major patrons. Less intrusive were monuments located to the side of the presbytery and choir. At Rievaulx Abbey, there are deep incisions in the west of both the north and south piers in the fifth bay of the chancel to accommodate tombs,251 probably those of the de Roos family whose wills have already been discussed. Capella ante portas and capella ad portas also provided accommodation for chantries, and on occasion this required special architectural provision.252 In 1293 Richard of Otringham established a chantry at Otringham where six monks of Meaux and a secular chaplain were to sing for his soul.253 However, in 1324 this was transferred to the chapel outside the monastery’s gates.254 In 1334 Abbot Hugh of Leven started work on a chapel of ‘square and polished stones’ to accommodate the chantry,255 but the work was incomplete at his death in 1349 and abandoned by his successor.256 In 1311 Sir Geoffrey Upsall established a perpetual chantry in the gatehouse chapel dedicated to Mary Magdalene at Byland Abbey where a monk of the house was to sing a daily Mass for his soul and those of his ancestors.257 It is possible that the chapel adjoining the north part of the church at Sawley was the chantry chapel of the Dautre family. 258 However, in many instances chantries were established at northern Cistercian monasteries without any provision being made for the construction of a separate chapel. In 1348 John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, obtained a licence to transfer the advowson of the parish church at Hatfield to Roche Abbey where thirteen monk chap251 

Fergusson and Harrison, Rievaulx Abbey, p. 163. For a discussion of early Cistercian gatehouses in northern England and their uses, see Fergusson, ‘“Porta patens esto”’. 253  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 192–96. 254  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 196. 255  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 296. 256  Chron. de Melsa, ed. by Bond, ii, 36. 257  Cartulary of Byland Abbey, ed. by Burton, pp. 165–66. Chapels at the gatehouses of Cistercian abbeys elsewhere in England similarly provided space for chantries; see Hall, ‘English Cistercian Gatehouse Chapels’, pp. 83–88 and Austin, Merevale Church and Abbey, p. 6. 258  John Dautre and his family were assigned spiritual privileges by the abbot of Sawley in 1376 that included the establishment of a chantry; see Coppack, Hayfield, and Williams, ‘Sawley Abbey’, pp. 4, 58, 98. The fourteenth-century chapel attached to the nave at Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire, may have been the chantry chapel of the Burnell family, see Robinson, ed., Cistercian Abbeys of Britain, p. 80. 252 

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Figure 4.18. Chantry chapel, Roche Abbey, nave.

lains were to celebrate daily divine service for the good estate of Edward III, Queen Phillipa, their children, and for the soul of William, their son who had lately died in the manor of Hatfield, as well as for the ancestors of the king and earl.259 A chantry at Rievaulx Abbey was established in 1380 by Roger de Moreton, a York merchant, 260 and in 1443 John Lythegraynes founded a chantry at Jervaulx Abbey for himself and his wife Alice.261 It appears that chantry bequests utilized the intercessory opportunities afforded by existing altars. Indeed, in 1301, Abbot Henry and his brethren at Rievaulx decreed in chapter that three monks of the monastery would celebrate in perpetuity daily Masses for Master Simon de Clervaux, rector of Lith, and his brother Thomas, at three altars in their church: the altar of St Matthew, where Mass in honour of the Virgin was celebrated; the altar of St Martin, focus of a daily Mass for all the faithful departed; and also at the altar of St Thomas Becket.262 So burdened was the Order for requests for intercession that in 1225 its General Chapter ruled that only one Mass each year could be said for a specific soul. A further decree 259 

CPR 1345–48, p. 16. CPR 1377–81, p. 458. For this individual and the commemorative provision made by northern merchants at this time, see Kermode, Medi­eval Merchants, p. 128. 261  CPR 1441–46, p. 227. 262  Cartularium abbathiae de Rievalle, ed. by Atkinson, pp. xcvii–viii. 260 

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in 1273 instructed that all individual anniversaries should cease.263 A probable reason for the profusion of altars at Cistercian churches in the thirteenth century and later was the large number of requests the Order received for prayers and Masses for the deceased.264 The chapels installed in the naves at Fountains, Kirkstall, and Rievaulx after the removal of the lay brothers’ stalls would have provided more space still for the saying of commemorative Masses. At Roche Abbey, the commemorative liturgy had an even greater impact on the architecture of the monastery as large parts of the nave were given over to lay burials in the later Middle Ages.265 These modifications included the construction of a substantial chantry chapel against the fifth pier on the north side (Fig. 4.18).266 Incised slabs dating to the fifteenth century commemorating two members of the Rilston family are located before the northern altar abutting the pulpitum screen. The matrix for the brass of a kneeling man in armour is incised on a nearby pier.267 This clustering of monuments suggests that the area around this altar had become a family mausoleum. There can be little doubt that the Rilstons were permitted to establish a family tradition of burial at Roche because of their benefaction of the monastery, which is explicitly referred to on the epitaph of one of the monuments.268 The nave at Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, was similarly given over to lay burials in the later Middle Ages.269 It is possible that this also occurred at Croxden Abbey, Warwickshire.270 At the Suppression, an aisle in the nave of Sawtry Abbey church, Huntingdonshire, was described as the ‘Requiem ile’,271 suggesting that it had been colonized by burials or given over to the celebration of commemorative Masses.

263 

Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 239. Cassidy-Welch, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings, p. 239. 265  Fergusson, Roche Abbey, p. 10. 266  Fergusson Roche Abbey, p. 10. 267  Fairbank, ‘Roche Abbey and the Cistercian Order’, pp. 393–94. For the indent of the brass, see Stephenson, ‘Monumental Brasses in the West Riding’, pp. 41–42. 268  ‘Hic jacet […] Rilston genero[sus] hujus monasterii benefactor qui obiit ix die Augusti Anno Domini M CCCC X VIII propicietur Deus, Amen’ (Here lies […] the noble […] Rilston, benefactor of this monastery who died the 9 day of August Year of Our Lord 1418. May God have mercy on his soul. Amen). 269  Hillaby, ‘Cults, Patrons and Sepulture’, p. 100. 270  Hall, ‘Croxden Abbey Church’, p. 93. 271  ‘Inventories and Valuations of Religious Houses’, ed. by Walcott, p. 239. 264 

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Chapels in both the north and south transept at Sawley Abbey became the focus of lay burials. Located before the entrance to the northern chapel in the north transept is the monument of Sir Robert de Clyderhow (d. 1334), parson of Wigan, who was presented to this benefice by the monastery. In the southern chapel of the south transept was a double burial which was covered by a slab incised with two crosses.272 In 1226, Reginald I, king of Man was buried at Furness as was King Magnus in 1256.273 The monastery also acted as the sepulchre of several bishops of Sodor, with Bishop William Russell interred there in 1374,274 the tombs possibly located in the north transept. The appropriation of transept chapels, indeed whole transepts, for lay burials has parallels at Cistercian monasteries elsewhere in England. At Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire, twenty burials have been excavated in the south transept, many clustered in the northern and central chapels which appear to have become family mausoleums in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.275 The south transept also became a focus for burials at Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire,276 as did the north transept at Stratford Langthorne, Essex.277 This development in the use of liturgical space mirrored what was happening in non-Cistercian contexts. For instance, at Ripon Minster the Markenfeld family appropriated a chapel in the north transept for its burials in the late Middle Ages, effectively converting it into a family mausoleum.278 The specific images which the laity wished to be buried before provide insights into the spirituality of the Cistercians. An instance already cited is Sir Ralph Scrope, who asked to be buried before the image of Our Lady of Pity (or Pietà) at Rievaulx,279 an image known to have been present at several other Cistercian monasteries in the north and ubiquitous across the English Church. The Pietà 272 

Harland, Historical Account of the Cistercian Abbey of Salley, pp. 65–68. For a discussion of the workshop of the Clyderhow monument, see Blair, ‘English Monumental Brasses before the Black Death’, p. 189; Binski, ‘The Stylistic Sequence of London Figure Brasses’, p. 128 and Badham, ‘Monumental Brasses’, p. 167. 273  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, pp. 193, 242. 274  Christian, ‘Russell, William (d. 1374)’. 275  Wright, Hirst, and Astill, ‘Patronage, Memorial and Burial at Bordesley Abbey’, p. 357. 276  Klemperer and Boothroyd, Excavations at Hulton Abbey, p. 25. 277  Barber and others, Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Stratford Langthorne, p. 61. 278  Cook, Mediaeval Chantries and Chantry Chapels, pp. 195–96; Wilson, ‘Ripon Cathe­ dral’, p. 622. 279  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 63.

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often acted as the focus for burials, partly because the depiction of the Virgin with her dead Son upon her knees was thought to represent her role as mediatrix for mankind.280 The protection which the image of St  Christopher was thought to afford against a ‘bad’ or unshriven death and the implications of this for the location of his image in the south transept at Rievaulx, and possibly several other northern abbeys, has already been discussed at some length above (pp. 126–27). 281 The saint’s assistance was especially sought at times of difficulty and distress, such as death and bereavement. As such St  Christopher’s image can also be found on the monument of Sir Thomas Stathum Figure 4.19. Woodcut miniature of the Mass (d.  1470) and his two wives of St Gregory in a printed Cistercian missal, probably from Jervaulx Abbey. 1515. Courtesy of which is in St  Matthew’s the Syndicates of Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity Library. church, Morley, Derbyshire.282 A guild dedicated to the saint was established in York at the end of the fourteenth century. A papal indult in 1408 granted it the right to appoint a confessor capable of granting plenary remission of all sins at the hour of death.283 In 1426 the guild established a perpetual chantry at the altar of St Christopher in the city’s Minster.284 It is likely 280 

Marks, Image and Devotion, p. 140. For the protection which the saint’s image was thought to provide against a ‘bad’ death, see Marks, Image and Devotion, p. 100. 282  Illustrated in Marks, Image and Devotion, fig. 62, p. 93. 283  White, The St Christopher and St George Guild of York, p. 2. 284  Dobson, ‘Citizens and Chantries in Late Medi­eval York’, p. 319. 281 

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because of the assistance believed to be afforded by the saint that a grave slab is located before his image in the south transept at Rievaulx.285 The commemorative requests of the laity also help illuminate the evolution of the Cistercian liturgy in the later Middle Ages. Matilda, countess of Cam­ bridge, asked for three trentals of the Mass of St Gregory to be said for her soul at Roche Abbey.286 Similarly, in 1495 William Bradford of Heath Hall, Wakefield, asked the community of Sawley Abbey to say a trental of St Gregory Masses.287 The trental involved saying a series of thirty Masses over the course of the liturgical year, as well as the Placebo and Dirige and the Penitential Psalms. The intercession of St Gregory was thought to be especially efficacious for relieving the pains of souls in purgatory. It was established in England by 1410 and gained popularity as the fifteenth century progressed.288 However, the St  Gregory Trental was an entirely unofficial devotion that was never sanctioned by either the English Church,289 or by the Cistercian Order.290 Nevertheless, visual evidence of devotion to St  Gregory has survived in a printed missal of Cistercian use, probably from Jervaulx Abbey, which includes a woodcut miniature of the Mass of St Gregory (Fig. 4.19).291 The text for the Mass of the St Gregory Trental has been added in manu­script to a recently identified printed missal from Kirkstall Abbey (Fig. 4.20).292 The implications of the Cistercian’s legislation on art and architecture for the appearance of monuments has been outlined above. Despite these restrictions, it seems that some flexibility was always allowed for the monuments of the laity, especially those of important patrons and benefactors. A statute of 285  This unornamented and shattered slab is not discussed in any of the literature on the monastery. 286  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 176. 287  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 109. 288  For the St Gregory Trental in England, see Pfaff, ‘The English Devotion of St Gregory’s Trental’, and Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 370–76. 289  Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 375. 290  For the Order’s late medi­e val liturgy, see Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medi­eval England, pp. 248–63. 291  The Cistercians celebrated the feast of St Gregory on 12 March with two conventual Masses. The missal is in the Uni­ver­sity Library, Cam­bridge (SSS.8.3); the miniature showing the Mass of St Gregory is on p. a.1. For a discussion of the miniatures in this missal, see Carter, ‘Renaissance, Reformation, Devotion and Recusancy in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, pp. 130–32. 292  Thanks to Philip Wilde for this information.

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Figure 4.20. Text of the Mass of St Gregory added to a printed missal from Kirkstall Abbey. Early sixteenth century. Courtesy of Leeds City Library.

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1269 ordered that the pictures, images, sculpture, and curtains adorning the high altar of Royaumont should be removed. Nevertheless, an exception was made for the ornaments adorning the nearby royal tombs, which were permitted to remain in place.293 The explicit instructions left in late medi­e val wills suggest that benefactors had an important say in the appearance of their monuments.294 Lady Maria de Roos’s will of 1392 specified that her tomb in the choir of Rievaulx was to be covered by a marble slab modelled on that of her grandmother at St Botolph’s church, Boston.295 Similarly, in 1446 Matilda, the dowager countess of Cam­bridge, left instructions in her will about her monument at Roche, stating : ‘A stone of alabaster should lie over my body, raised aloft like a tomb, with an effigy, after the manner which I will tell my executors’.296 It is probable that it was comparable in appearance to the near-contemporary alabaster monuments at other sites in Yorkshire, such as Harewood and the Cistercian nunnery of Swine.297 It is important to note that there was nothing to distinguish the funerary monuments commemorating the laity within Cistercian abbeys from those encountered in the wider English Church and the monasteries of other orders. The surviving (and documented) monuments at northern Cistercian monasteries provide a representative cross section of the commemorative options available to the medi­eval laity, including an unusual form of monument, graves covered with tiles.298 Excavations at Whalley Abbey in the 1930s uncovered seven tiles in the north transept and one in the southern part of the presbytery incised with the outline of a figure and a fragmentary inscription in blackletter script.299 The whereabouts of the tiles is now unknown and it is uncertain whom the monument commemorated. In the early eighteenth century the Leeds antiquarian, Ralph Thoresby, excavated a tiled grave cover in the cloister 293 

‘Table of Cistercian Legislation on Art and Architecture’, ed. by Norton, p. 380. Though it seems likely there was first negotiation with the monastery. This is strongly implied by the will of John Clervaux of Croft, which makes it clear that the agreement of the abbot and convent had first to be obtained before he could be laid to rest before the image of the Virgin at the choir door at Rievaulx; Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 20. 295  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 201–02. 296  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 120. 297  Routh, Medi­eval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, pp. 43–69, 107–16. 298  Stopford, Medi­eval Floor Tiles of Northern England, p. 65. Late medi­eval tiled monuments are also present at Cistercian monasteries on the Continent; see Kratzke, ‘“Orna­menta ecclesiae cistercienses”’, p. 196. 299  Beaulah, ‘A Tile Memorial and Other Medi­eval Tiles at Whalley Abbey’. 294 

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Figure 4.21. Monument of Perwyn and Isobel of Doncaster in the nave of Roche Abbey. Fifteenth century.

of Kirkstall Abbey;300 more recently fragments of a tiled memorial were discovered at Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire.301 A tiled grave cover has been excavated at the Cistercian abbey of Warden, Bedfordshire, and has been interpreted as the retrospective monument provided in the early fourteenth century for Simon, the monastery’s first abbot.302 This form of monument also occurs in non-Cistercian contexts. Tiled memorials were also used to commemorate the laity at Norton Priory, Cheshire.303 In earlier centuries this form of monument was used to commemorate abbots. The graves of several abbots of the Benedictine house of Jumièges in Normandy were provided with effigial tiled covers in the thirteenth century.304 300 

Thoresby, Ducatus Leodiensus, p. 138. Stopford and Wright, ‘A Group of Late Medi­eval Tiles from Bordesley Abbey’. 302  Baker, ‘The Warden Abbey Pavements’. 303  Greene, Norton Priory, p. 14. 304  Norton, ‘The Thirteenth-Century Tile-Tombs of the Abbots of Jumièges’. 301 

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The language used for the inscriptions on lay monuments deserves brief comment, especially as it provides some insights into the intended audience of monuments. In the majority of cases, such as the Rilston grave covers at Roche Abbey, these were in Latin. However, on occasion the epitaph is in English. The best-known example is arguably the grave cover of Perwyn of Doncaster and his wife Isobel, in the centre of the nave at Roche (Fig. 4.21). Their monument is decorated with a large shield incised with a cross, circle, and ‘P’, presumably Perwnyn’s badge or mark. Around its edge is a rhymed inscription, only part of which was legible when transcribed: ‘Here lygges Peryn of Doncastre and Ysbel his wife […] A gude trwe brother whilome he was on lyfe Jesus for Thy mercy bring them to blysse Pater ni for þam whoso redis’ (Here lies Perwyn of Doncaster and Isobel his wife. A good true brother while in life Jesus for Thy mercy bring them to bliss; Paternoster for those who read this).305 The rarity of monumental inscriptions in English has already been discussed in relation to the tomb of Abbot Chamber at Holm Cultram. As was the case there, this use of the vernacular suggests that the laity had access to the parts of Cistercian churches populated by these monuments and that their prayers of intercession were sought.

Summary and Conclusion To summarize, until the early decades of the fourteenth century northern Cistercian abbots were invariably buried in the chapter house. Thereafter, diversity in burial location is apparent, with chapter house burials maintained in at least one house whereas the church became the favoured location at several others. This reflected the contemporary burial practices of superiors in other monastic orders, and like them the graves of Cistercian abbots were situated so as to maximize the intercessory opportunities provided by the late medi­e val monastic day. The monuments of Cistercian abbots had minimal decoration until c. 1300, a time when there was a softening of the Order’s official legislation on its art and architecture. Like superiors in other orders, many Cistercian abbots were commemorated by effigial monuments. Much of the decoration on these slabs 305 

The monument is now in extremely poor condition. The transcription here is taken from Burnett, Roche Abbey, p. 3. Similarly, the epitaph on the fifteenth- or sixteenth-century tiled memorial excavated at Bordesley Abbey is in English; see Stopford and Wright, ‘A Group of Late Medi­eval Tiles from Bordesley Abbey’.

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was concerned with securing the salvation of the soul of the abbot commemorated by the tomb. They were also ornamented so as to indicate the high social and ecclesiastical status of Cistercian abbots, and on occasion their scholarly credentials. The monuments of abbots helped construct the corporate memory of Cistercian abbeys. Such monuments were generally modest in comparison to many of those commemorating contemporary Augustinian and Benedictine abbots and priors. However, the fragmentary tomb chest of Abbot Chamber at Holm Cultram is exceptional in its grandeur and vernacular inscriptions, both of which were intended to prompt prayers of intercession and also to demonstrate the relationship between the abbot and his community. The commemoration of Cistercian monks provides similar evidence of evolution, both in the location of burial and the use of more elaborate and personalized monuments. William Rymington, prior of Sawley, Doctor of Divinity, chancellor of Oxford, and pillar of orthodoxy against the Lollards, was rewarded with burial in the south transept at Sawley, the inscription on his grave cover recording his many accomplishments. Obedientaries at Fountains and Whalley were also granted burial within their churches, a privilege which was also extended on occasion to monks. Benefactors continued to be buried in the churches of northern Cistercian monasteries until the eve of the Suppression. These burials provide evidence of faith in the efficacy of the prayers of Cistercian monks, are a statement of confidence in the spiritual health of the Order and also testify to the enduring social prestige of the monasteries. The monuments of external benefactors were representative of the commemorative options available to the laity in late medi­ eval England, evidence of the visual and material similarity between Cistercian churches and those of other orders. Lay burials also had an impact on the planning of the Order’s monasteries and affected the use of liturgical space. Burials within the choir and presbytery appear to have been sparse, but altars in the transepts and nave became crowded with burials, which were located to capitalize on the intercessory opportunities afforded by the ritual day. Overall, the assembled evidence suggests that at the end of the Middle Ages, the Cistercians were still thought, in the words of William of Malmesbury in the twelfth century, to provide a sure road to heaven.

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The Art and Architecture of Cistercian Nuns

A

s many as fifteen nunneries in northern England claimed to have, or were recognized as having, a Cistercian identity at some point in the Middle Ages.1 Unlike the Cistercian abbeys in the region, their buildings and possessions have received little scholarly attention. Traditionally regarded as small, peripheral, and scandal-ridden institutions, their spiritual life has been characterized as having the same poverty as their endowments.2 None of the nunneries have the splendid ruins which survive at many of the northern Cistercian abbeys. Indeed it is arguable that the principal claim to fame of any of the nunneries is the association of Kirklees Priory with the Robin Hood legend, the Geste of Robyn Hode (c. 1500) recounting how the hero was murdered by its evil prioress, and a tradition which dates back to at least the time of Leland says that Robin was buried at the priory.3 The presence at the priory of 1 

Knowles and Hadcock, Medi­eval Religious Houses, pp. 271–77 listed twelve: Baysdale, Ellerton, Esholt, Hampole, Handale, Keldholme, Kirklees, Nun Appleton, Rosedale, Sinning­ thwaite, Swine, and Wykeham, all in Yorkshire. Elizabeth Freeman augmented this list with three other convents which were identified as Cistercian at some point in the later Middle Ages: Arthington Priory in the West Riding (usually regarded as a Cluniac house); St Bartholomew’s Priory in Newcastle (traditionally listed among Benedictine nunneries); and Neasham Priory in County Durham (also hitherto regarded as Benedictine); see Freeman, ‘“Houses of a Peculiar Order”’, pp. 284–85. 2  The classic negative interpretation of religious life in northern Cistercian convents can be found in Power, Medi­eval English Nunneries, esp. pp. 597–602. 3  Dobson and Taylor, Rymes of Robin Hood, pp. 19, 21, 59, 111–12; Ohlgren, Robin

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a late medi­eval monument commemorating a ‘Robin Hude’ has helped sustain the legend in the popular imagination until recent times.4 Although Glyn Coppack recently used reports compiled in 1535 by the Valor Ecclesiasticus commissioners to chart the planning of Kirklees and five other priories of Cistercian nuns in Yorkshire,5 the fullest analysis of the art and architecture of the Order’s convents in England is John Nichols’s 1982 article, which provides a useful description and catalogue of their often scanty physical remains. 6 Since the publication of Nichols’s paper the history of England’s medi­eval nunneries has been largely reappraised and long-held views about the characteristics of female monasticism have been challenged. 7 Moreover, important studies on the art and architecture of late medi­eval nuns, especially their material and visual cultures, have also appeared, some of which have focused on Cistercian nunneries in mainland Europe.8 Despite these developments in scholarship, the art and architecture of English Cistercian nunneries still remains largely unexplored. At only a handful of sites in northern England are there any significant standing buildings.9 As will be discussed presently, the nuns’ choir at Swine, near Hull, survived the Suppression as the parish church. There are significant remains of the refectory range at Sinningthwaite and there are less substantial buildings at Rosedale, Wykeham, and Ellerton, and at Esholt, all in Yorkshire. These few standing structures nevertheless suggest that there was building work at a number of nunneries in the later Middle Ages. Little-explored devotional books and other manu­scripts have also survived from several convents, as have the monuments Hood, p. 36; Singman, Robin Hood, p. 28. Joannis Lelandi Antiquarii de rebus britannicis collectanea, ed. by Hearne, i, 54: ‘Kirkley monasterium monialium ubi Ro. Hood nobilis ille et lex sepultus’ (The monastery of Kirkley [Kirklees] where the famous noble outlaw Ro[bin] Hood is buried). 4  Chadwick, ‘Kirklees Priory’, p. 336. 5  Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’. 6  Nichols, ‘Medi­eval English Cistercian Nunneries’. 7  For example, see Burton, ‘Yorkshire Nunneries in the Middle Ages’. 8  Especially Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, and the works by Hamburger, Nuns as Artists and The Visual and the Visionary. Articles on the art and architecture of Continental Cistercian nunneries can be found in Cîteaux et les femmes, ed. by Bonis, Dechavanne, and Wabont and Cistercian Nuns and their World, ed. by Lillich. A valuable Europe-wide overview is provided by Freeman, ‘Cistercian Nuns and Art in the Middle Ages’. 9  A situation found throughout England; see Freeman, ‘Cistercian Nuns and Art in the Middle Ages’, p. 186.

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of some prioresses. In addition to this physical evidence, there are also useful documentary sources which provide insights into the repair and rebuilding of nunneries, and their patronage and material possessions. Synthesizing such sources and making greater use of the evidence from wills, charters, and other contemporary documents than has hitherto been attempted, this chapter will analyse the art and architecture of Cistercian nunneries in northern England in the later Middle Ages. It will first discuss the complex relationship of the nunneries with the Cistercian Order, showing that their identity was fluid and, by and large, unofficial. This in itself provides a justification for examining their art and architecture separately from that of Cistercian abbeys. Moreover, recent scholarship has emphasized the importance of studying female monasticism on its own terms rather than within the context of male monasticism.10 The planning of the nunneries and the evidence for their architectural development in the later Middle Ages will then be examined, showing that the convents were laid out specifically to serve the needs of their female communities, rather than being pale imitations of male Cistercian houses. Moreover, it will also show that although there were some occasionally ambitious rebuilding programmes, the focus was usually remedial, to ensure the fabric of these nunneries remained in (or was returned to) sufficiently good order to allow their structures to serve the basic needs of their communities. This will be followed by a discussion of patronage, demonstrating that these poor convents were by and large dependent on the benefaction of the gentry and local clergy for the maintenance of their buildings, as well as for their material possessions. The few instances of internal patronage, invariably by prioresses originating from gentry families, will also be analysed. The evidence illustrating the spirituality of Cistercian nuns will also be explored, indicating the importance of the Virgin in the nuns’ identity and devotions and also the convents’ permeability to wider devotional trends. The final section of this chapter is devoted to a detailed discussion of Swine Priory. Although its history and art and architecture has received more study than any other Cistercian nunnery in England, some significant material and documentary evidence has been overlooked, the analysis of which shows there was sustained investment by the gentry and clergy in the art and architecture of this locally important monastery.

10 

Major works advocating this approach are Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture and Oliva, Convent and the Community in Late Medi­eval England.

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Cistercian Nuns in Northern England The Cistercian nunneries in northern England were founded between 1133 and c. 1220. Like many female convents elsewhere in Europe, they had a complicated relationship with the Cistercian Order. The first house of women living according to Cistercian precepts was established at Tart in Burgundy between 1120 and 1125 and was associated with Cîteaux.11 However, from the very beginning the Order resisted accepting responsibility for this and other female houses and had an arm’s-length relationship with sisters who adopted the Cistercian way of life. Even though it became possible for Cistercian sisters to receive official recognition in 1213,12 only two houses in England, Marham in Norfolk and Tarrant Keynes in Dorset, were fully incorporated into the Order and became abbeys. Moreover, in 1228 the affiliation of additional houses of nuns was forbidden by the Order and pastoral care was denied to the houses that had already been incorporated.13 The Order also repudiated any responsibility for houses that had not been incorporated. In the mid-thirteenth century, six nunneries in Lincolnshire claimed exemption from taxation because they were Cistercian. However, in 1268 the abbot of Cîteaux wrote to the dean of Lincoln stating that, even though the nuns wore the white habit of the Cistercians, they were not members of the Order.14 Instead the nunneries in northern England, and many elsewhere, had a looser relationship with the Cistercians. These northern priories of nuns appear to have had a number of motives for adopting a Cistercian identity. The appeal of the spiritual rigour of the Order’s observances and life cannot be discounted, but association with the Cistercians also had more worldly benefits, including exemption from the payment of tithes, a privilege granted to Cistercian monks in 1132. In 1172 Pope Alexander III took the prioress and convent of Sinningthwaite under his protection, ordering that the ‘monastic order […] instituted in that monastery according to the rule of God and the blessed Benedict and the institutes of the Cistercian brethren, should be observed there’, and by indult exempted the house from the payment of tithes.15 11 

The early links are explored in Veyssière, ‘Cîteaux et Tart, foundations parallèles’. Burton and Kerr, Cistercians in the Middle Ages, p. 53. 13  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 147. 14  Williams, Cistercians in the Early Middle Ages, p. 404. There were several Cistercian nunneries within the diocese of Lincoln, for which see Graves, ‘Cistercian Nuns in Lincolnshire’. 15  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 148. 12 

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A Cistercian identity for Swine (and Nun Cotham, Lincolnshire) is also suggested by a papal bull issued in 1177 which similarly refers to their exemption from tithes.16 Another important privilege of Cistercian abbeys (both male and female) was exemption from episcopal visitation, a right which Sinningthwaite (unsuccessfully) sought to assert in 1296.17 However, the identity and affiliation of the nunneries studied here was far from straightforward. Hampole is a case in point. The priory appears to have been founded in c. 1170 as a Benedictine house and was first described as Cistercian as early as 1205.18 In 1516, it was said to be ‘ye order of cysternencis’, but at the time of its suppression in 1539 the commissioners recorded its affiliation as ‘ordinis sancti Augustini et de regula sancti Benedicti Cisterciensis’. 19 Several other nunneries had similarly fluid and confused identities.20 There is only sparse evidence of northern Cistercian abbeys becoming involved in the internal life of nunneries. Two instances can be cited. A charter of 1240 records that the abbot of Kirkstall was the visitor of Esholt Priory.21 In 1523 the abbot of Newminster supervised the election of the prioress of St  Bartholomew, Newcastle. This was bitterly resented by the bishop of Durham who attempted to annul the election because he believed it infringed his rights.22 Indeed, the overwhelming evidence shows that the convents were subject to episcopal visitation and that it was male religious from other orders or even the secular clergy who attended to the spiritual and material well-being of the nuns. In 1267–68 the guardianship of Handale and Baysdale was entrusted to William de Bardeny, a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Whitby.23 The prior of the Augustinian priory of Nostell was appointed by the archbishop of York to conduct a visitation of the nuns at Hampole in 1283.24 In 1317 Archbishop Melton appointed the rector of Aberford as guardian of Kirklees 16 

Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 150. VCH: Yorks., iii, 76. 18  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 148. 19  VCH: Yorks., iii, 175. 20  For which, see Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 147–52; Freeman, ‘“Houses of a Peculiar Order”’. 21  Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, p. 201. 22  Monasticon, iv, 486; Memorials of Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 239–42; Freeman, ‘“Houses of a Peculiar Order”’, pp. 273–76. 23  Burton, Yorkshire Nunneries of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, p. 35. 24  Register of William Wickwane, ed. by Brown, p. 172. 17 

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Priory.25 The prior of the Augustinian house of Gisborough received the resignation of Prioress Alice Page of Baysdale Priory in 1378.26 Archbishop Giffard ordered in 1275–76 that Franciscans should act as the confessors of the nuns of Hampole and other Cistercian nunneries, this notwithstanding any objection from Cistercian abbots.27 Two Franciscan friars were appointed as confessors to the nuns at Rosedale in 1306,28 and Brother John Wotton, Friar Minor, was confessor to the nuns of Hampole in 1426.29 Only at the very end of the Middle Ages did Cistercian abbots in Yorkshire take a concerted interest in the welfare of their sisters. In 1533 the Order’s General Chapter ordered the abbots of Byland and Fountains to conduct visitations of nine northern nunneries: Arthington, Ellerton, Esholt, Hampole, Kirklees, Nun Appleton, Sinningthwaite, and Swine, all in Yorkshire, and also the priory of St Bartholomew in Newcastle.30 But as these, and all the other religious houses in the region were dissolved between 1536–40 this intervention was unable to have any lasting impact. With the exception of Handale, which was founded by William, son of Richard Percy in 1133, the founding patrons of these northern nunneries did not have the aristocratic status of founders of the Order’s male houses in northern England, but instead came from the second tier of society and were tenants of the great feudal lords.31 The status of the founders had implications for the endowments of the nunneries, which were generally poor. In 1291 the annual income of Baysdale was just £5 and the richest house at this time was Swine with an income of £53.32 The poverty of the nunneries was still apparent in 1535 when the income of the nunneries was assessed for the Valor Ecclesiasticus. None had an income above the £200 threshold set for the suppression of smaller houses. Swine was the richest and largest house with an income of £83,

25 

Burton, Yorkshire Nunneries of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, p. 36. VCH: Yorks., iii, 159. 27  Register of Walter Giffard, ed. by Brown, p. 295. 28  Register of William Greenfield, ed. by Brown, p. 174. 29  VCH: Yorks., iii, 165. 30  Freeman, ‘“Houses of a Peculiar Order”’, p. 276. 31  Burton, Yorkshire Nunneries of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, pp. 5–11, 21–24; Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, pp. 125–39; Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 56–57; Thompson, Women Religious, pp. 94–112. 32  VCH: Yorks., iii, 159, 178. 26 

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which supported a community of twenty nuns.33 The small communities at Ellerton, Esholt, and Handale were surviving on incomes of between £13 and £15, Kirklees on £19, Baysdale on £20, Wykeham on £25, Rosedale on £37, Sinningthwaite and Hampole on approximately £60, and Nun Appleton on £73.34 The implications of this poverty are well documented. After his visitation of Swine in 1267–68 Archbishop Walter Giffard ordered that no more nuns were to be accepted into the priory as ‘those at present there are ill provided with food’. In 1318 the roof of the dormitory at Swine was in need of repair,35 whereas the community at Rosedale was temporarily dispersed in 1322 because of the damage done by the Scots to the priory’s estates.36 The nuns at Hampole were threatened with dispersal in 1353,37 and the poverty of the nuns of Handale was a matter of concern for the dean and chapter of York Minster in 1388.38 The poverty of Esholt is suggested by the inventory compiled in June 1360 when Johanna de Mohaut was elected prioress. The only possessions of note in the prioress’s chamber were two habits, two ewers, and an andiron; in the cellar were three maplewood goblets and seven silver spoons; and the furnishing of the guesthouse consisted of little more than bedding. The priory also had debts of £14 2s 8d which had increased to £17 6s 8d two years later.39 The visitation of three Yorkshire Cistercian nunneries by Archbishop Lee in 1534–35 showed that all were struggling to provide the basic necessities of communal life. He licensed the prioress of Sinningthwaite to pawn £15 of the convent’s silver plate so that buildings which had fallen into decay could be repaired and also ordered that the community was to be provided with ‘sufficient meat and drinke at conueniant hoores’. Diet was also a concern at Nun Appleton, the injunctions commanding the prioress to provide ‘good and hollsom bread, and good and hollsome ale’. The care of sick members of the community was found to be deficient, as were standards of hygiene, the archbishop instructing that a laundress should be appointed to wash the sisters’ clothes, ‘according to the old laudable custom of that house’. The archbishop also found it necessary to 33 

VCH: Yorks., iii, 179. Knowles and Hadcock, Medi­eval Religious Houses, pp. 271–77. 35  VCH: Yorks., iii, 181. 36  VCH: Yorks., iii, 175. 37  VCH: Yorks., iii, 165. 38  VCH: Yorks., iii, 164. 39  Transcript of the Court Rolls of Yeadon, ed. by Whittle and Price, pp. 238, 240. 34 

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remind the prioress to keep a fire burning between All Saints’ Day and Good Friday. The financial situation at Esholt was apparently so desperate that the nuns were supplementing their income by keeping an alehouse in the precincts of the priory, the closure of which was ordered,40 though it could be argued that the opening of the alehouse also showed the resourcefulness of the community. As will be discussed, this poverty inevitably had implications for the art and architecture of the nunneries. Like communities of nuns (and monks) elsewhere, the internal life of Cistercian nunneries in northern England was sometimes marked by scandal. The sexual offences of nuns and the poor administration of prioresses were occasionally censured by the episcopal visitors. These visitation records have been used, most notably by Eileen Power, to provide a generally grim assessment of the quality of religious life in late medi­eval English nunneries.41 More recently, the research of Janet Burton, Claire Cross, and others has shown that Yorkshire’s nunneries provided useful religious and social functions throughout the Middle Ages and consequently retained the esteem of local elites until the Suppression. The nunneries allowed their daughters to pursue a religious vocation and also gave a refuge to unmarriageable daughters and widows. They also provided educational opportunities, social prestige, and perhaps most importantly of all, prayers for both living and dead family members.42 It is striking that Archbishop Lee found nothing to censure about the celebration of the office at the nunneries he visited in 1534–35. That the gentry esteemed the quality of the religious life within the nunneries is suggested by Sir John Dependen’s bequests in 1404 to the ‘holy nuns’ of Handale and Kirklees, which each received 20s, and Sinningthwaite, which was left 10 marks.43 Similarly, in 1455 Sir Robert Constable of Bossall left the ‘pure’ nuns of Rosedale Priory 6s 4s.44 40 

Brown, ‘Visitation of the Diocese of York, Holden by Archbishop Edward Lee’, pp. 431–53. For other instances of nunneries struggling to provide the necessities of life, see Power, Medi­eval English Nunneries, pp. 164–68. 41  Power, Medi­eval English Nunneries, esp. Appendix G, ‘The Moral State of the Yorkshire Nunneries in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century’, pp. 597–602. For a more recent and sympathetic assessment, see Tillotson, ‘The Visitation and Reform of Yorkshire Nunneries in the Fourteenth Century’. 42  Burton, Yorkshire Nunneries of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, pp.  17–21; Burton, ‘Yorkshire Nunneries in the Middle Ages’; Cross, ‘Yorkshire Nunneries in the Early Tudor Period’. 43  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 295–97. 44  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 176.

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As will be shown, it was such bequests and other forms of gentry benefaction that provided the principal source of patronage for the art and architecture of the often poverty-stricken nunneries.

Planning and Architecture Despite their meagre standing remains, the planning of nunneries can be partially reconstructed using the descriptions made of twelve nunneries in Yorkshire by commissioners in 1535 when drawing up the Valor Ecclesiasticus. Scholars, most recently Glyn Coppack, have already explored the value of this source.45 Six of these priories were Cistercian (Baysdale, Esholt, Handale, Kirklees, Swine, and Wykeham). The precinct at Nun Appleton was also separately surveyed between 1536 and 1539, 46 and the layout of Kirklees Priory was partially mapped by excavations in the early twentieth century.47 These sources show that, with the exception of Swine, the churches of the nunneries were unaisled and without transepts. The church at Nun Appleton had a length of 150 feet, whereas at the others it was between eighty and ninety feet.48 They were therefore shorter than the norm for nunnery churches of 105 feet established by Roberta Gilchrist.49 The commissioners’ reports give an idea of the liturgical arrangement of the churches. A single screen divided their interiors between the nave and the choir where the nuns’ stalls were located. At Kirklees Priory there were twenty-two ‘stalles in the quere for the nones’; Baysdale had ‘good stalles’; Wykeham possessed ‘stalles of bourdes’; there were eighteen stalls at Esholt; at Swine there were ‘xxxvj goode stalls alle along bothe the sydes of waynscott bordes and tymber for the nonnes’.50 The churches had a high altar in the east of the nuns’ choir, which at Nun Appleton housed a retable worth the considerable sum of £27,51 well in excess of the income of many nunneries in Yorkshire. There were usually two altars against the rood screen, and in many cases two or more 45 

Brown, ‘Description of the Buildings of Twelve Small Yorkshire Priories at the Reformation’; Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’. 46  Harrison, The Nunnery of Nun Appleton, pp. 14–17, 35–38. 47  Armytage, ‘Kirklees Priory’; Brakspear and Hope, ‘Plan of Kirklees Priory’. 48  Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, p. 294. 49  Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, p. 45. 50  Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, pp. 257, 262, 267, 270, 281. 51  Harrison, The Nunnery of Nun Appleton, p. 35.

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subsidiary altars in the nave. All the northern nunneries surveyed in the 1530s had southern cloisters, the buildings of which followed a largely standard plan, with a chapter house in the east range and a dormitory above. The description of Esholt Priory shows that the dormitory had been converted into separate cells to provide individual accommodation for the nuns. The abandonment of the communal life at nunneries was a constant source of criticism in visitation records. 52 As early as 1311 the nuns of Hampole had ceased eating in their refectory.53 In 1346, Archbishop Zouche ordered that certain chamFigure 5.1. Bell tower of Ellerton Priory. bers to the west of the Fifteenth century. church at Nun Appleton, where the nuns were living, were to be demolished, and in 1489 the community was ordered to lodge in the dorter.54 Archbishop Lee instructed the nuns of Sinningthwaite to sleep in the dormitory and eat their meals in the refectory rather than ‘seuerally in their chambers’.55 The 1535 descriptions show that the refectory was usually located in the south range. The kitchen, cellars, and other chambers were located in 52  For a discussion of private accommodation at Cistercian monasteries, see Bell, ‘Chambers, Cells and Cubicles’. 53  VCH: Yorks., iii, 163. 54  VCH: Yorks., iii, 172. 55  Brown, ‘Visitation of the Diocese of York, Holden by Archbishop Edward Lee’, p. 432.

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the south or west ranges. Separate lodgings for the prioress are described at Baysdale, Wykeham, and at Nun Appleton where they were in the west range, and at Kirklees, where they were attached to the northwest of the church. A ‘fermery’ was located to the south of the west claustral range at Kirklees, and an infirmary is referred to in 1306 at Rosedale and in 1346 at Nun Appleton.56 The loose relationship between the Order and its sisters, the poverty of the houses, and the fundamentally different nature of female monasticism, are likely explanations why neither the churches nor cloistral precincts of nuns conform to a recognizably Cistercian plan. Glyn Coppack has suggested that the closest parallel for their layout was the poorer houses of Augustinian canons, with first-floor refectories parallel to the south alley of the cloister and the presidents’ lodging in the west range.57 A similar lack of a uniform ‘Cistercian’ plan is also apparent at nunneries in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.58 Nor does there seem to have been anything distinctive about the architectural style or use of ornament at northern English Cistercian nunneries, even in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, although it must be acknowledged that conclusions are limited by the paucity of the surviving evidence. The few buildings that survive do however suggest that there was building work at several nunneries in the later Middle Ages. The tower at Ellerton Priory has Perpendicular fenestration and bell openings (Fig. 5.1).59 The refectory range at Sinningthwaite was also clearly refenestrated in the later Middle Ages (Fig. 5.2).60 A porch with an oriel window, presumably dating to the fifteenth or sixteenth century, was reputedly removed from Esholt in 1656 to the nearby Low Hall, Nether Yeadon.61 Evidence for late medi­eval building work at Hampole will be discussed presently as will the extensive work at Swine Priory. The evidence provided by visitation records and wills shows that there were building works at a number of other nunneries. Wykeham is the only 56 

VCH: Yorks., iii, 172. Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, p. 293. 58  Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, pp.  293–97. Examinations of Cistercian nunneries elsewhere in Europe have also failed to find a distinctive plan; see Coomans, ‘Cistercian Nunneries in the Low Countries’ and ‘The Architecture of Cistercian Nunneries in the North of Germany’. For an overview of the architecture of Cistercian nunneries in the later Middle Ages, see Jäggi and Lobbedey, ‘The Architecture of Female Monasteries in the Middle Ages’, pp. 118–21. 59  Pevsner, Yorkshire: North Riding, p. 159. 60  Pevsner, Yorkshire: North Riding, p. 342. 61  Leach and Pevsner, Yorkshire, West Riding, p. 761. 57 

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Figure 5.2. Refectory range, Sinningthwaite Priory with fifteenth- or sixteenth-century fenestration on the first floor.

priory where a comprehensive rebuilding is documented. During the reign of Edward III the church, cloister, and twenty-four other buildings in the precinct were burnt down, the nuns also losing their books, vestments, and plate. In 1321 the church was described as ruinous and replaced by a chapel on or near its original site, dedicated to the Virgin and St Helen, its consecration confirmed by Archbishop Melton in 1323. One John de Wycham, whose family are documented as making gifts of land to the priory, was the patron of these works.62 At other nunneries rebuilding appears to have been piecemeal and usually remedial. Injunctions issued to Keldholme in 1314 ordered necessary repair to the buildings, especially the roofs.63 A year later, Archbishop Greenfield instructed that the cloister roof at Rosedale was to be repaired.64 Repairs to Esholt Priory are recorded in its accounts for 1362, when a carpenter 62  VCH: Yorks., iii, 182–83. However, the fabric of the earlier church appears to have been incorporated. The north wall of the church survives with a blocked Norman doorway; see Pevsner, Yorkshire: North Riding, p. 405. For Wycham patronage, see Burton, Monasticon Ebora­ cense, pp. 255–56. 63  VCH: Yorks., iii, 168. For the cost of repairs at nunneries other than those examined here, see Power, Medi­eval English Nunneries, pp. 123–25, 168–71. 64  VCH: Yorks., iii, 174.

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was paid 26s 8d for plaster and slates.65 More substantial works were necessary at the priory in 1445 when Archbishop Kemp issued a hundred-day indulgence valid for two years for all who helped with the repair or new construction of a bell tower at the house of ‘poor nuns’ of Esholt, which had recently fallen into ruin, or otherwise assist the nuns themselves, whose lands near the River Aire had recently been flooded.66 The accumulating debts documented in the midfourteenth-century accounts of the priory indicate that the priory, and its sister Cistercian convents, could ill afford expenditure on their art and architecture. For this they relied on external sources of benefaction, most especially the gentry families from which the majority of nuns were recruited.

Patronage of the Nobility and Gentry Cistercian nunneries maintained a close relationship with the local elites until the very end of the Middle Ages.67 The evidence below shows that they were generous patrons of the art and architecture of these convents, affirming not only their family connections with these monasteries, but the frequency with which they entrusted the nuns with their bodies for burial, also shows a confidence in the quality of the religious life observed within their walls. The Percy family retained an intimate association with a number of Cistercian nunneries into the early sixteenth century. At the Suppression, Handale Priory was still distributing alms for its noble founder, Robert Percy.68 Elizabeth Percy was a nun at Wykeham Priory when the house was dissolved in August 1539. She was almost certainly related to Elizabeth, countess of Northumberland, to whom Katherine Nandkye, the last prioress, made a substantial bequest in 1541.69 The Percys also had connections with Hampole Priory. In 1516 the prioress appointed Sir William Percy, brother of the earl of Northumberland, to the stewardship of ‘owr forsaid howse tennamentes and landes for ye terme of ye for sayd Syr William Percy knyghtes lyfe’.70 In the mid65 

Court Rolls of Yeadon, ed. by Whittle and Price, pp. 238–39. VCH: Yorks., iii,  161. For other instances of indulgences granted for the repair of nunneries, see Power, Medi­eval English Nunneries, pp. 174–76. 67  Vickers, ‘The Social Class of Yorkshire Medi­eval Nuns’; Burton, ‘Yorkshire Nunneries in the Middle Ages’. 68  VCH: Yorks., iii, 165. 69  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire, pp. 595, 597. 70  VCH: Yorks., iii, 165. 66 

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Figure 5.3. Psalter of Lady Elizabeth Vernon, San Marino, Huntington Library, MS EL9 H. 17, fol. 36r. The inscription records its donation to Hampole Priory. Courtesy of Huntington Library, San Marino.

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eighteenth century the ancient arms of Percy (five fussils in a fess) were recorded on ‘an old bow-window’ at the site of the priory.71 Hampole also benefited from the benefaction of Lady Elizabeth Vernon, who bequeathed the priory her richly illuminated Psalter at the end of the fourteenth century, the donation recorded by an inscription on the calendar leaf for January (Fig. 5.3).72 A century later another aristocratic woman, Margaret, Lady Clifford, sought to improve the finances of Esholt Priory in the West Riding, and in 1485 made a gift to the nuns of the advowson of the parish church at Bolton-in-Axholm, Lincolnshire. The nuns never enjoyed the revenues from this benefaction, but the visual culture of the priory was enriched by the charter recording her gift. It is decorated with an elaborately historiated ‘R’, which contains an image of the Virgin and Child (Plate 8). There is a crown above the initial, which has lion supporters, and in the left margin is a likeness of the prioress, Joan Ward, who kneels at a prie-dieu, and behind her are her eight sisters, which was the size of the Esholt community at the time of the Suppression. All have empty speech scrolls above their heads. The quality of the drawing is exceptional, and a relationship has been suggested with the work attributed to the Caxton Master, a leading London artist who decorated chancery charters and other legal documents in the late fifteenth century.73 The generous gifts of these noble ladies were unusual and in neither case was the donation part of a family tradition of patronage. Instead, the major benefactors of Yorkshire’s other Cistercian nunneries were local gentry families who often had well-established links with the houses they favoured. Esholt Priory was founded in the late twelfth century by Simon Ward, his wife, Matilda, and their son William.74 Their descendants maintained a close relationship with the house into the late Middle Ages. In 1303 the archbishop of York refused to accept the resignation of the prioress until he had discussed the matter with the patron, Simon Ward.75 Members of the family were also prioresses of the house, 71 

Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p.  264; Hunter, South Yorkshire, i,  359 and Allen, A New and Complete History of the County of York, iii, 265. 72  San Marino, Huntington Library, MS EL9 H. 17, fol.  36 r; Sandler, Gothic Manu­ scripts, ii, 61–62; Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 140. For the most recent discussion, see Sand, ‘Cele heure memes’. It is possible that the gift was partly motivated by the presence of a relative as a corrodian at the priory; see Freeman, ‘The Priory of Hampole and its Literary Culture’, p. 24. 73  Leeds, West Yorkshire Archive Service, ACC 3429; for a discussion of this donation and the artist, see Connor, ‘The Esholt Priory Charter of 1485’. 74  Burton, Monastic Order in Yorkshire, p. 132. 75  Bell, ‘Esholt Priory’, p. 7.

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a Matilda Ward governing the nuns of Esholt in the late fourteenth century and Joan Ward a century later.76 A papal bull of 1154 granted Hampole Priory the right of ‘free sepulchre’ for all those who wished to be buried there,77 and nunneries provided locations for family mausoleums throughout the late Middle Ages. Sir Simon Ward was buried at Esholt in 1385, as were Sir Roger Ward in 1453 and Dame Joan Ward in 1474.78 Dame Margaret Aske was a descendant of the founder of Ellerton Priory and she was buried in the choir there in 1466,79 Sir Thomas Aske requesting burial in a similar location in 1497.80 These burials demonstrate an enduring relationship between patronal families and the nunneries founded by their ancestors.81 They also suggest that the prayers of Cistercian nuns continued to be valued as a means of securing eternal salvation.82 There are also numerous examples of non-patronal benefactors seeking burial within the churches of northern Cistercian nuns. Elizabeth Poitevin of Headingley requested burial at Esholt Priory in 1342.83 If he died in Yorkshire, John Vavasour, a justice of the common pleas, desired burial at Ellerton Priory, and was prepared to compensate the priory with the huge sum of £100 for the privilege.84 Benefactors were being rewarded with burial within the liturgical heart of nunnery churches. In 1426 Peter de Hay was buried next to his wife in the choir of Ellerton Priory, which was also the location of the grave of their son, Thomas.85 Margaret Dodsworth requested burial before the Blessed Sacrament at Sinningthwaite in 1520.86 A detailed analysis of wills reveals the extent of gentry patronage of the nunneries’ architecture. Several examples can be cited for Kirklees. In 1406 Sir John 76 

HRH, iii, 644. Whiting, ‘Excavations at Hampole Priory’, p. 204. 78  Bell, ‘Esholt Priory’, p. 11. 79  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 11. 80  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 89. 81  For a discussion of this relationship in the later Middle Ages, see Stöber, Late Medi­eval Monasteries and their Patrons, pp. 112–46. 82  For burials of the laity at nunneries, see Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, pp. 57–60. 83  Calverley Charters, ed. by Baildon and Margerison, p. 157. 84  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 89. 85  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 11. 86  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 119. 77 

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Scot left 10 marks for the fabric of the church and the sustenance of the nuns.87 In 1412 John de Burgh bequeathed 13s 4d, also for the fabric of the priory,88 and in 1486 John Wollwrowe of Kirklees contributed 20d for the bell tower.89 Sinningthwaite benefited from a bequest in the will of Sir John Stapilton, who left 100s towards its fabric in 1455.90 Building work was clearly again underway at the priory in 1495 when Brian Roucliffe of Cowthorpe left the prioress and nuns 40s for the repair of the chancel.91 Gentry benefaction also provided for the material comfort of nuns. In 1499 Sir Robert Calverley left his sister Alice, a nun of Esholt, a mattress together with bedding.92 An interrogation of the testatory evidence similarly shows the extent to which the gentry provided nunneries with liturgical equipment, especially vestments and altar textiles. John de Wycham’s generosity to Wykeham Priory in 1323 extended to the provision of three sets of vestments, three altar frontals, and six altar cloths worth 40s.93 In 1400 Dame Johanne Hesirig left 12s and a vestment to both Baysdale and Handale.94 Dame Joan Ward bequeathed her best gown and gilt girdle to Esholt in 1472 to buy a vestment,95 and Margaret Dodsworth’s will of 1520 provided the community at Sinningthwaite with her best diaper cloth ‘for to make a alter cloth of, and a kirchiff to make a corprax of wt a corprax case of gold and damasck and purple velvet’.96 John Marshall, a merchant of York, who died in 1525, left the community at Nun Appleton a vestment and copy of the Legenda aurea.97 A copy of this book, the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine (d. c. 1299), a collection of saints’ lives and a late medi­eval ‘best seller’, was bequeathed in 1503 to the nuns of Sinningthwaite by Thomas Roos of Ingmanthorpe.98 Indeed, bequests were an important source of books for nunneries. The libraries of Arthington, Esholt, Hampole, St Bartholomew’s 87 

Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 346. VCH: Yorks., iii, 170. 89  Armytage, ‘Kirklees Priory’, p. 27. 90  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 181. 91  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 102. 92  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 157–59. 93  Monastic Charters, ed. by Ashcroft and Jones, i, 375. 94  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 266. 95  Bell, ‘Esholt Priory’, p. 11. 96  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 119. 97  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 192. 98  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 223. 88 

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Newcastle, Sinningthwaite, and Swine were all enriched in this way.99 It is worth noting that even the libraries of richer nunneries were dependent on donations, recent research showing that 86 per cent of the books of the Bridgettine convent at Syon were acquired via bequest and donation.100 When assembled, this evidence from wills can leave little doubt that the local gentry, with pious motives, made substantial investment in all aspects of the art and architecture of Cistercian nunneries. This benefaction enabled the nuns to sustain their considerable and valued contributions to northern religion and society.

Patronage of the Higher Clergy The patronage of two high-ranking clerics provides further evidence of elite investment in the buildings and possessions of northern Cistercian nuns. Both instances were motived by pre-existing associations with the nuns and both clerics wanted their generosity to be rewarded with prayers for their souls. In 1404, Bishop Walter Skirlaw of Durham left £100 to the priory of Swine for prayers and an obit, a sum that amounted to more than the convent’s entire annual income. His sister, Joan Skirlaw, the prioress, received £40, and one of his ‘best’ silver cups, gilded with a cover. Swine held lands at the nearby village of Skirlaugh, and the bishop’s will also provided for the construction of a chantry chapel there.101 The clergy at Swine Priory at the time of its suppression in 1539 included a ‘Durhame prest’,102 the title suggesting that he was employed using the profits of Skirlaw’s bequest and that he sang Masses for the bishop’s soul. A bequest by Canon John Latham to Nun Appleton in 1470 was similarly generous and likewise enriched the possessions of the convent. Latham was a cleric of stature and wealth. His career started as a fellow of King’s Hall, Cam­ bridge, and he later held a number of benefices and positions in the northeast. Between 1442 and 1452 he was secretary to Archbishop Kemp. No doubt this position helped him obtain numerous livings which included a prebendal stall at Southwell, appointment as dean of the chapel royal at Pontefract Castle, and the mastership of the almshouses and college of the Holy Trinity there. At the 99  For a discussion of the bequest of books to nunneries, see Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 17–19. For bequests to individual Cistercian nunneries, see Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 106, 138, 140–41, 156, 168–71. 100  Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 18. 101  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 309. 102  London, TNA SP 5/2, fol. 134.

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time of his death in 1476, he was also a canon of Beverley.103 In his later life, Latham established a close relationship with Nun Appleton, where in 1455 he founded a chantry dedicated to John the Baptist. The establishment of chantries at nunneries was not uncommon.104 As at Nun Appleton, they usually made use of an existing altar and their endowment provided a useful source of income for the convent.105 Latham made his will ‘apud Appleton’, suggesting that he was either living at the convent or nearby. He requested burial at the convent, in front of the altar in the chantry which he had founded. In return for this privilege and prayers for his soul, he made monetary gifts to the prioress and sisters. Latham also left £26 13s 4d towards the making of a new roof for the priory’s church. For use in his chantry, he bequeathed vestments, an altar cloth, a paxbread, and two chalices.106 These gifts are likely to have been a substantial addition to the nunnery’s plate. At the time of their suppression, Keldholme, Rosedale, and Sinningthwaite each had only one gilt chalice listed among their possessions.107 Latham also left Nun Appleton his portable breviary, and his missal of the use of York, important evidence of the liturgical life of Cistercian nuns, a subject which will be considered in more detail later. Each of the nuns received 6s 8d, and silver saltcellars were bequeathed to the community for use in their refectory. The bequest to Prioress Joan Ryther (c. 1454–89) was especially generous. She received a standing piece of silver gilt with cover, a new standing bowl with gilt feet, a canopied bed with curtains, another bed with tapestry hangings decorated with double-headed eagles, and £20 in cash, all on condition that she said daily the Placebo and Dirige for his soul and those of his parents. The motivation for Latham’s patronage of Nun Appleton may have been an association with the family of the prioress. Joan Ryther acted as an executor of Latham’s will, Ralph Ryther was a witness, and Latham also made a bequest to Thomas Ryther, his godson.108 Admittedly the evidence for elite clerical patronage is somewhat limited. But both instances are quite remarkable in their generosity. Moreover, the 103 

Beverley Minster Fasti, ed. by McDermid, p. 86; Harrison, Nunnery of Nun Appleton, p. 13. Wood-Leigh, Perpetual Chantries in Britain, p. 136. A chantry was established at Kirklees Priory in 1395 using the proceeds of the advowson of Mirfield Parish Church for the soul of Sir John de Burg, his ancestors, and all Christian souls; see Chadwick, ‘Kirklees Priory’, pp. 324–25. 105  Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, p. 105. 106  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 173–78; Harrison, Nunnery of Nun Appleton, pp. 12–14. 107  VCH: Yorks., iii, 169, 175, 178. 108  Harrison, Nunnery of Nun Appleton, p. 14. 104 

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direction and purpose of the gifts conform to the model already established for gentry benefaction. Taken together, the evidence shows the depth of the nunneries’ social reserve, and their reliance on external sources for patronage of their art and architecture.

Internal Patronage In contrast, there is little evidence of internal patronage at these houses. Poverty is surely an explanation. The few examples that do exist invariably relate to prioresses of gentry origin. One such example is the illuminated devotional manu­script inscribed with the name of Dame Maud Wade, prioress of Swine (1437–82).109 An inscription records that she gave the book to Joan Hyltoft, a nun in the Cistercian convent of Nun Cotton, Lincolnshire. It seems likely that Prioress Wade was from the East Riding, and members of this gentry family are recorded in Holderness in the fifteenth century.110 Her manu­script contains a number of devotional works in English, including The Contemplation on the Dread and Love of God, or the Fervor amoris, and a life of St Catherine of Siena. Even though the former text was probably written for the laity, a number of other copies survive with a monastic provenance. The prioress’s manu­script is handsomely written in a neat Gothic script and is ornamented with two illuminated initials (Fig. 5.4), and there are numerous other initials with decorative penwork in red and blue. However, it is by no means a deluxe volume. One scholar has described it and other copies of The Contemplation on the Dread and Love of God as ‘unpretentious working books’.111 Funerary monuments provide other evidence of internal patronage. These include the cross slab of Elizabeth Stainton, prioress of Kirklees in the midfourteenth century, which was recorded and roughly sketched after its discovery in 1706.112 This sketch shows that the incised cross had an elaborate head and two-stepped base.113 The epitaph is in French (‘Douce Jhu de Nazareth fites mercy a Elizabeth de Staynton jadis priores de cest maison’; Sweet Jesus 109 

BL, MS Harley 2409, with the donor inscription on fol. 78r; Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 170–71. 110  Poulson, Holderness, i, 189, 205, 207. 111  Gillespie, ‘Vernacular Books of Religion’, p. 331. For the other surviving copies with a monastic provenance, see Gillespie, ‘Vernacular Books of Religion’, p. 342 n. 59. 112  Chadwick, ‘Kirklees Priory’, p. 321. 113  Ryder, Medi­eval Cross Slab Grave Covers in West Yorkshire, p. 34.

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Figure 5.4. Manu­script owned by Prioress Joan Wade of Swine. Fifteenth century. Courtesy of the British Library.

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of Nazareth, have mercy on Elizabeth de Staynton, sometime prioress of this house), a language usually associated with monuments for the laity.114 The Staintons were a local gentry family and are recorded as benefactors of Roche Abbey.115 A military effigy of uncertain date and no longer extant with the Stainton family arms carved upon its shield was excavated in the choir of Leeds Parish Church in the nineteenth century.116 Agnes Ryther, an otherwise undocumented prioress of Nun Appleton,117 was also commemorated by a monument. She was presumably related to Joan Ryther who was prioress of the house when it received its generous bequest from Canon Latham, and to Sir Ralph Ryther and Sir Thomas Ryther who made bequests to the priory in 1522 and 1527, respectively.118 In 1641 the now lost monument was recorded at the parish church of Bolton Percy, where it was presumably moved after the Suppression. The three crescents of the Ryther arms were recorded as carved on the monument.119 The appearance of her family’s arms is worthy of note and shows that the monument was a vehicle to proclaim both her patronage and social status. This is also the case with the fragmentary monument of Elizabeth Pudsay (d. 1536), penultimate prioress of Esholt.120 The Pudsays were a prominent local family with long-established links with the priory.121 The monument is now built into the seventeenth-century Esholt Hall.122 It appears to be one side of a tomb chest. Its black-letter inscription reads ‘Aleis bet Pudaci P’, and below are three shields. The first is carved with the ‘IHC’ sacred monogram, the second with a cross patée, the arms of Ward, the convent’s founders and relations of the Pudsays, and the third with ‘MR’ for ‘Maria Regina’. 114  For funerary inscriptions in French, see Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages, pp. 353–54. 115  Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 322. 116  Moore, History of Leeds Parish Church, p. 36. 117  HRH, iii, 676. 118  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 126, 227. 119  Drake, Eboracum, p. 386. 120  Dame Elizabeth was elected prioress in 1512–13 and resigned in 1536 at which time she was aged over seventy, ‘decrepit, not able to ride or go’. She does not appear in the postSuppression pension list, suggesting that she had died before the dispersal of the community; see Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire, p. 564. 121  Pudsay Deeds, ed. by Pudsay, p. 371. 122  Leach and Pevsner, Yorkshire, West Riding, p. 247.

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A similar juxtaposition of personal and sacred heraldry occurred at Hampole. In the mid-eighteenth century an ‘old bow-window […] on the top of which are four escutcheons in stone’ was recorded at the site of the priory. The charges of the shields were described as a fess between three escallops (Arthington), five fussils in a fess (Percy), the Instruments of the Passion, and the Five Wounds of Christ.123 The first set of arms probably relates to Isabel Arthington who was prioress of Hampole between 1519 and the suppression of the house in 1539.124 Personal heraldry also adorned Cistercian nunneries elsewhere in Europe, for example the prioress’s lodging at Herkenrode in the Netherlands.125 It is possible that the bow window at Hampole similarly formed part of the prioress’s private chambers. Other evidence of the prioress’s patronage was recorded by the antiquary Roger Dodsworth in 1620 at the parish church at High Melton, Yorkshire. According to Dodsworth, a (now lost) window of the church was glazed with the inscription ‘Orate pro bono statu Dominae Isabellae Ardington, priorissae de Hampall, ac etiam omnium benefactorum istius fenestre, anno Domin Millesiml CCCCCo xijo’ (Pray for the good state of Lady Isabel Arthington, prioress of Hampole, and all other benefactors of this window, year of Our Lord 1512).126 The advowson of the church was owned by Hampole,127 and the window provides a rare instance of patronage by a Cistercian prioress beyond the confines of the cloister.

Religious Art The sacred heraldry on the other shields at Hampole raises questions about the use of ornament at the nunneries and its relationship with the spirituality of late medi­e val Cistercian nuns. It is uncertain which liturgical use was celebrated in these northern nunneries.128 However, their loose and fluid rela123 

Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p.  264; Allen, A New and Complete History of the County of York, p. 265. 124  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire, p. 567; HRH, iii, 652. 125  Coomans, ‘Cistercian Nunneries in the Low Countries’, p. 125. 126  Dodsworth, Yorkshire Church Notes, ed. by Clay, p. 119. The subject of the window is not given. 127  Monasticon, v, 488. 128  For a discussion of the liturgy in medi­eval European nunneries, see Muschiol, ‘Liturgy and Rite in Female Monasteries of the Middle Ages’.

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tionship with the male Order suggests that it was the local liturgy (the use of York) rather than that of the Cistercians. This supposition is supported by the few liturgical books which survive from English Cistercian nunneries. There is nothing Cistercian about the calendar of a thirteenth-century Psalter from the abbey of Tarrant Keynes, Dorset, which has an inscription recording its donation to the abbey by a descendant of the founder.129 A calendar of a late fifteenth-century Psalter from the same house is Cistercian, but the manu­script also contains material which was unsuitable for the celebration of the office in a nunnery.130 The calendar of the Psalter bequeathed to the nuns of Hampole by Lady Elizabeth Vernon has Lichfield characteristics.131 The breviary and missal left to Nun Appleton by Canon John Latham were for the use of York,132 as presumably was the Primer left by Robert Greenwold, a priest of York, to his relation Isabella de Helton, a nun at Keldholme, in 1437.133 There is more concrete evidence for the nuns’ devotions. All the northern Cistercian nunneries were dedicated to the Virgin, and there is evidence of both individual and communal veneration of her image. The seal of Elizabeth Arley, prioress of Hampole (1503–12), depicts the Virgin, crowned and seated with the Christ Child and is inscribed with a legend beseeching her mercy, ‘MR DE MISERE MEI’.134 Communal devotion to the Virgin is also evident in the seals of Nun Appleton and Wykeham dating to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.135 Such communal veneration continued into the later Middle Ages. The beautifully historiated initial of the Esholt Priory charter of 1485, shows the prioress and her sisters kneeling before an image of the standing Virgin, who is crowned and carries the infant Jesus. Veneration of the Virgin also extended to relics, with a relic of the Virgin’s milk in the possession of Baysdale Priory.136 Images of the Virgin at Cistercian nunneries were also the focus of veneration by the laity and secular clergy. In 1472, Joan Ward left Esholt priory her ‘bedys of coral, gauditt wit calsedone to the payntyng of an ymage of Our Lady 129 

Stonyhurst, Stonyhurst College, MS 9. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Lyell 23, fols 1r–6v; Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medi­eval England, pp. 257, 346. 131  Sandler, Gothic Manu­scripts, ii, 61. 132  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 175. 133  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 62. 134  Clay, ‘Seals of the Religious Houses of Yorkshire’, p. 21. 135  Clay, ‘Seals of the Religious Houses of Yorkshire’, pp. 28, 34. 136  VCH: Yorks., iii, 160. 130 

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of Pete’.137 Images of Our Lady of Pity, or the Pietà, are documented at other Cistercian nunneries in the county where they acted as a focus for lay burials. Thomas Hedon of Mardon asked to be buried before such an image at Swine in 1504,138 and in 1526 Sir John Hall, vicar of Huddersfield, requested burial in front of the image of Our Lady of Pity in the church at Kirklees.139 As has been seen in earlier chapters, this was also the case at Cistercian abbeys and elsewhere in medi­eval England.140 The inscription ‘Omnia vanitas’ on the stone lintel above the entrance to the nineteenth-century church on the site of Rosedale Priory may also provide some insights into the spiritual life of Cistercian nuns.141 The source of the inscription is Ecclesiastes 1. 2, ‘Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas’ (Emptiness of emptiness; all is emptiness). In a Cistercian context, this text is most famous for having been quoted by St Bernard in his Apo­logia when condemning rich furnishings and other ornament in monastic churches and cloisters.142 The rough and inexpert script of the Rosedale inscription means it is difficult to date precisely, and it is therefore uncertain if it is medi­e val. However, there are precedents for the inscriptional use of this text in the Middle Ages. ‘Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas’ was inscribed above the doorway to the chapel of St John the Baptist at Manchester Collegiate Church (now Cathedral), which was destroyed during the Second World War. This chapel was completed in 1513 under the patronage of Bishop James Stanley of Ely and Sir John Stanley.143 The text also occurs in literature, for example in the conclusion of The Parlement of the Tre Ages, a fourteenth-century allegorical poem in English, where it is used to demonstrate that all man’s greatness is transitory.144 It is perhaps significant that the visitation records of Archbishop Greenfield record that the nuns of Rosedale were admonished about their dress, and reminded to wear only habits of the colour and style worn by their religion.145 There has been discussion about the literacy of English nuns in the late Middle Ages, some scholars argu137 

Bell, ‘Esholt Priory’, p. 11. Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 224. 139  Armytage, ‘Kirklees Priory’, p. 29. 140  Marks, Image and Devotion, p. 140. 141  Seekings, Rosedale Abbey, p. 10. 142  Cistercians and Cluniacs, trans. by Casey, p. 65. 143  Hibbert and Whatton, History of the Foundations in Manchester, i, 56–57. 144  Lambdin and Lambdin, Encyclopaedia of Medi­eval Literature, p. 142. 145  VCH: Yorks., iii, 175. 138 

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ing that they lacked proficiency in Latin.146 If it is medi­e val, the use of Latin for the inscription at Rosedale suggests that Cistercian nuns had at least a basic familiarity with Latin, and books in Latin were certainly present in the libraries of Cistercian nunneries.147 The titles of these and other books, extant or documented in bequests, suggests that the devotional reading of northern Cistercian nuns was well within the mainstream for late medi­eval England, which was partly shaped by Richard Rolle (d. 1349), the Hermit of Hampole. Much of what we know of Rolle’s life comes from his Office, which was written in preparation for his (unsuccessful) canonization, and is found in some manu­script breviaries of the use of York.148 Rolle was born in c.  1300 at Thornton-le-Dale in Yorkshire. He attended Oxford Uni­ver­sity, but left to become a hermit, finally settling at Hampole where he lived in a cell in the priory’s cemetery. He was a prolific author, and is arguably best known for his writings on the Holy Name of Jesus. Rolle also acted as a spiritual adviser to the community at Hampole, writing the epistle, The Commandment, Thou Shalt Love the Lord Thy God with all Thy Heart for one of the sisters. The hermit acquired a reputation as a holy man and healer, and following his death at the priory in 1349, Rolle became the focus of a cult at Hampole. This was promoted by his disciple Margaret Kirby who moved to the priory to be close to his tomb in the church there, and lived there for the rest of her life as a hermit.149 The local gentry appear to have esteemed the possessions of Rolle and Kirby. In 1393 Sir Brian Stapleton left his niece, Ainste de Medilton, a silver ewer and an alabaster image of Our Lady that had once belonged to the anchorite of Hampole.150 The ‘holy nuns’ of Hampole were bequeathed Richard Rolle’s English Psalter by Richard Esk, a chantry priest of York in 1467.151 Cults and pilgrimage had an impact on the architecture of Cistercian nunneries in Europe, as at Herkenrode where an elaborate gatehouse was built 146 

Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 57–65. For known examples, see Bell, What Nuns Read. Some Latin literacy is also suggested by the monuments, seals, and patronage inscriptions discussed in this chapter. 148  Breviarium ad usum insignis ecclesie Eboracensis, ed. by Lawley, ii, pp. ix, 785–812. 149  Whiting, ‘Richard Rolle of Hampole’; Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, pp. 82–95. For the importance of Rolle to the devotional reading of the nuns at Hampole, see Freeman, ‘The Priory of Hampole and its Literary Culture’. 150  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 199. 151  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iii, 160; Bell, What Nuns Read, p. 141. 147 

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c. 1500 to regulate the flow of pilgrims.152 Veneration of Rolle appears to have also influenced the use of liturgical space at Hampole. Rolle’s Vita describes how one Roger built a shrine before the high altar at the priory after he had experienced visions of Rolle. This attracted pilgrims and was the site of miracles.153 A papal indulgence dating to 1400 granted spiritual benefits to pilgrims who visited Hampole and contributed to the repair and conservation of its church.154 In 1411, Archbishop Henry Bowet conducted a visitation of the priory and issued detailed injunctions concerning the accommodation and conduct of the many visitors and guests flocking there who were presumably pilgrims to the shrine of Rolle.155 The shrine also attracted bequests. In 1393 John Caxton, chandler of York, left the nuns of Hampole two torches, each of nine feet, and 24d for wax to be burnt at Rolle’s tomb.156 The bequests of Sir John Dependen and by the noble ladies Joan Beaufort, Isabella Wyleby, and Matilda, countess of Cam­bridge, may have been motivated by the presence of his cult.157 Although Rolle never achieved official canonization, he was popularly regarded as a saint and his image at the priory was venerated. In 1506 Richard Marreys, citizen and vintner of London, requested the nuns of Hampole, ‘cause a messe to be song for my soul afore the ymage of Seynt Richard’.158 It is likely that this image was housed in the chapel dedicated to ‘St Richard’ at the priory which was mentioned in the will of Richard Royden of Leverington in 1508.159 Robert Gilchrist suggests that the shields from the priory decorated with the Instruments of the Passion and the Five Wounds of Christ, which have already been mentioned, are evidence of the influence of Richard Rolle on the ornament of Hampole.160 Both these devotions can be traced back to the early church, and as has been seen in Chapter 3, were in part popularized by the Cistercians.161 St Bernard described the Wounds as strongholds in which 152 

Coomans, ‘Cistercian Nunneries in the Low Countries’, p. 116. Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, p. 301. 154  Freeman, ‘The Priory of Hampole and its Literary Culture’, p. 15. 155  Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, p. 239; VCH Yorks., iii, 164. 156  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, i, 186. 157  Hughes, Pastors and Visionaries, p. 88. 158  North Country Wills, ed. by Clay, p. 48. 159  North Country Wills, ed. by Clay, p. 271; Whiting, ‘Richard Rolle of Hampole’, p. 14. 160  Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture, p. 179. 161  For the evolution of the devotion, see the articles by Gray, ‘The Five Wounds of Our Lord’, as well as Williams, The Five Wounds of Jesus. 153 

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the weak could rest and cited them as evidence of the humility and mercy of Christ, and the Wounds also feature in the writings of William of St Thierry (d. 1148) and Aelred of Rievaulx, who described a Gilbertine nun’s vision of Christ hanging on the cross with blood gushing from His wounds. A similar vision was described by St Aleydis (d. 1250), a leper of the Cistercian nunnery of La Cambre, Belgium.162 Rolle was deeply influenced by the spirituality of the Yorkshire Cistercians,163 and in his meditation on the Passion he encouraged his readers to visualize the pain and sufferings of Christ.164 Jeffrey Hamburger has also shown that devotion to the Wounds of Christ was a central part of the affective piety of nuns in late medi­eval Germany and found vivid expression in their visual culture.165 The evidence is slender, but suggests this was also true for Cistercian nuns in the northern counties of England. But by no means were these devotions particular to the Cistercians. Indeed, both were ubiquitous in this period and their representations were common. As was the case at Hampole, both the Instruments of the Passion and the Wounds were occasionally juxtaposed with personal and institutional heraldry, for instance the Instruments of the Passion were used at the Augustinian priory of Nostell, Yorkshire, by Prior Richard Mersden (d. 1524) to decorate his apartment.166 Moreover, the fifteenth-century devotional books of northern English clerics and laity frequently include texts and imagery relating to both devotions,167 and printed editions of the York missal also included a votive Mass for the Five Wounds.168 Cistercian nuns were also members of the Corpus Christi Guild of York, which has already been discussed in the context of the spirituality of Cistercian monks. The guild was founded in 1408 and its membership was open to both men and women. Isabella Westerdale and Johanna Grymston, nuns of

162 

Williams, The Five Wounds of Jesus, pp. 13–14. Especially regarding the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus; see Watson, Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority, p. 55; New, ‘The Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus in Late Medi­eval England’, pp. 12, 24; Lutton, ‘“Love This Name That Is IHC”’, pp. 122, 125. 164  Kamerick, Popular Piety and Art in the Late Middle Ages, p. 168. 165  Hamburger, Nuns as Artists, pp. 101–36. 166  Palmer, Early Art of the West Riding of Yorkshire, p. 108. 167  Friedman, Northern Books, pp. 160–74. For a northern monastic example, see Carter, ‘Brother Grayson’s Bible’, pp. 294–96. 168  Pfaff, New Liturgical Feasts in Later Medi­eval England, p. 91. 163 

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Wykeham, were admitted to its membership in 1425–26.169 Johanna Mooreton of Nun Appleton became a member in 1455, as did three other sisters of the priory in 1469. Cecilia Hyke, prioress of Kirklees, and Maud Wade, prioress of Swine, and Beatrix Lowe, who was to serve as Swine’s prioress between 1498 and 1508, were admitted in 1473. Johanna Roose, a nun of Sinningthwaite joined the guild in 1475, as did Elizabeth Pudsay, prioress of Esholt in 1520.170 The early adoption of the cult of Corpus Christi by Yorkshire’s Cistercian nuns (it appears that no Cistercian monks joined the guild until 1469 when John Myton, prior of Meaux and two of his brethren were admitted) and its enduring popularity into the sixteenth century is likely to be because of the important role which women played in its development. It was instigated and propagated by Juliana of Cornillion (1193–1257) who died at the Cistercian nunnery of Fosses in the Netherlands.171 A monstrance at the Cistercian nunnery of Herkenrode became a focal point of the cult following a miracle in 1317. An indulgence from the convent, most likely illuminated by the nuns themselves, shows a procession of nuns and clergy outside the walls of the abbey carrying the monstrance which accommodated the miraculous Host.172 Clearly, therefore, Cistercian nuns were far from being passive participants in the spiritual world of the late Middle Ages. Focus will now turn to Swine Priory, the largest Cistercian nunnery in the north, evidence from which allows for further examination of the themes considered thus far in this chapter.

Silk Purse or Sow’s Ear? Swine Priory: A Case Study in Patronage and Ornament As has already been demonstrated, Swine Priory was the richest and largest Cistercian nunnery in the north and the nuns’ choir survived the Suppression and was transformed into a parish church (Fig.  5.5). More has been written about the history and the art and architecture of Swine than any other Cistercian nunnery in England.173 The priory was the subject of an architectural 169  170 

91, 97. 171 

Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York, ed. by Skaife, p. 25. Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York, ed. by Skaife, pp. 57, 73, 90,

For the origin of the cult, see Walters, ‘The Feast and its Founder’, esp. pp. 3–11. Hamburger and Suckale, ‘Between This World and the Next’, p. 98. 173  An earlier version of the following analysis of the art and architecture of Swine is provided in Carter, ‘Silk Purse or Sow’s Ear?’. 172 

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Figure 5.5. Swine Priory, the nuns’ church.

study by John Nichols, who argued that its comparative grandeur challenged traditional notions about the architecture of nunnery churches.174 Attention has also focused on the splendid alabaster monuments that commemorate members of the Hilton family,175 patrons of the nunnery, and to a lesser extent on the misericords of the late medi­eval choir stalls.176 However, two screens dating from the early 1530s have been overlooked. They, and hitherto neglected documentary sources, will be examined in detail here. The discussion will show that Swine enjoyed considerable gentry benefaction. The priory’s richly decorated church had high-quality liturgical furnishings, extensive painted ornament, heraldic and narrative glazing schemes, and was crowded with the funerary monuments of the local gentry, who nurtured their relationship with the nuns through investment in their art and architecture. 174 

Nichols, ‘The Cistercian Nunnery of Swine Priory’. Routh, Medi­eval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, pp. 106–16. 176  Remnant, Catalogue of Misericords in Great Britain, pp. 184–85. 175 

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The priory was founded before 1153 by Robert de Verli, priest of Swine.177 He was buried at the priory, and in the mid-fifteenth century, his monument ‘besyd ye nuns awter’ was recorded and illustrated by the cleric Thomas Anlaby.178 It has already been noted that in 1177 the priory was apparently claiming exemption from tithes because of its Cistercian affiliation. However, like the other priories discussed in this study, there is some confusion about the identity of the house and the form of religious life observed within it. Until well into the fourteenth century the community at Swine included not only sisters, but also canons and lay brothers, and a master of canons is mentioned as late as 1344. The various components of the community at Swine appear to have lived according to different rules. The canons are referred to as ‘canonici albi’, a designation used for Premonstratensian canons, and in the late thirteenth century Archbishop Romanus of York appealed to the General Chapter of the Premonstratensian Order for help in regulating the spiritual life of the nunnery. However, the lay brothers seem to have been under some form of Cistercian jurisdiction as in 1335 a troublesome lay brother was transferred to Sawley Abbey.179 Swine was one of the nunneries which the Cistercian General Chapter commended to the care of the Order’s abbots in 1533, and at the Suppression it was described as belonging to the ‘Order of St Bernard’.180 The description made by the commissioners in 1535 shows that there was nothing ‘Cistercian’ about the planning and layout of the priory. Nevertheless, its church was on a much grander scale than any other Cistercian nunnery in the north. This is suggested not only by its surviving fabric, but also by antiquarian evidence, which gives an idea of long-since demolished structures. An engraving of 1782 shows the remains of north and south transepts, a broad central crossing tower, the traces of an aisled nave, and a large aisled choir (Fig. 5.6). This cruciform plan was possibly because its early community had both female and male inmates who required different liturgical spaces, the sisters occupying the chancel, with the canons and lay brothers using the nave, which also functioned as the parish church.181 Swine’s cloister has disappeared, but the 1535 177 

Burton, ‘The “Chariot of Aminadab” and the Yorkshire Priory of Swine’. Luxford, ‘“Thys ys to remember”’, p. 33. 179  VCH, Yorks., iii, 180. 180  VCH, Yorks., iii, 181. 181  Some older literature suggested that the nuns’ choir at Swine occupied the nave. However, Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, p. 284, shows that the fenestration of the present parish church closely matches that described in the commissioners’ survey. This lists ‘xiij 178 

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Figure 5.6. Engraving of Swine Priory Church. 1782. Courtesy of Glyn Coppack.

description of the house states that it was to the south of the church. The commissioners also recorded that the chapter house, with the dormitory above, was in the east range, that there was a first-floor refectory in the south range, and a kitchen and chambers were in the west range. As has been seen, the other nunneries surveyed at this time had a broadly similar plan. The chancel at Swine is the most significant architectural remnant of a Cistercian nunnery in the north. The core is late twelfth century. The earliest features on the exterior are the lancet windows in the clerestory and the corbel table. The buildings of the nunnery were destroyed by fire in 1308.182 Modifications to the church in the later Middle Ages are clearly visible. The east window of the north aisle, and the great east window of the church, are both in the late Decorated style, although both were the subject of restorations in the late nineteenth century, and in 2010–11 the east window was further restored. The aisles have Perpendicular fenestration and the doorway of the wyndowes glasid, in alle conteyning by estimacon c ffoote of glasse’. Twelve windows survive in the clerestory, with the east window making thirteen. 182  Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 205.

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Figure 5.7. Interior of Swine Priory Church, twelfth to early sixteenth centuries.

northern porch is also in this style. The late eighteenth-century engraving of the church shows that crenellations were also added to the exterior. Inside (Fig. 5.7), the late twelfth-century round piers have multi-scalloped capitals, and Romanesque chevron ornament is visible on two arches of the north arcade.183 The interior of the church also shows evidence of enlargement and modification in the later Middle Ages. On the north side of the chancel a large Perpendicular arch provides access into a chantry chapel containing three alabaster tomb chests with effigies of five members of the Hilton family dating from c. 1370 to c. 1410 (Fig. 5.8).184 There are two double and one single monument. It seems reasonable to assume that the chapel was constructed to accommodate the earliest of these, the monument of Sir Robert Hilton (d. 1372) and his wife Maud of Campaigne. Their tomb chest is located on the south of the chapel and encroaches into the chancel; abutting it to the west is an early fifteenth-century monument with two effigies which will be described presently. When the herald Warburton visited the nunnery in 1652 he recorded that both these tombs were ‘lately defended with grates of iron’.185 183 

For a description of the architecture of Swine, see Pevsner and Neave, Yorkshire: York and the East Riding, pp. 719–20. 184  For descriptions of these monuments, see Thompson, History of the Church and Priory of Swine, pp. 89–94; Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 212–14; Routh, Medi­eval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, pp. 107–16. 185  Thompson, History of the Church and Priory of Swine, p. 93.

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Figure 5.8. Alabaster monuments at Swine. Late fourteenth to early fifteenth centuries.

Sir Robert’s monument is the earliest alabaster military effigy to survive in Yorkshire. The chest is adorned with six shields, five of which are sculpted with arms. These include the ancient arms of Hilton (two bars) and those of Lascelles (three chaplets). The Hiltons adopted these latter arms after the marriage of Sir Robert’s grandfather William Hilton to Maud, daughter and heir of Sir Roger Lascelles in 1335.186 They appear on the surcoats of all three military effigies in the chapel, and as will be seen, elsewhere in the priory. On the south side of the chest is a moulded ogee-headed arch, in which is a kneeling figure, possibly the Virgin from an Annunciation scene. At the east of the chantry abutting the north wall is an early fifteenth-century tomb chest with a single effigy of a knight. On each end of the tomb is a pair of angels holding shields, and there are also three pairs of angels on the south side of the monument. None have surviving blazon. The angels are half kneeling and are similar to those on the ends of the monument of Sir William Gascoigne (d. 1419), 186 

Routh, Medi­eval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, p. 109.

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Lord Chief Justice, at Harewood.187 Coeval with this single monument is a tomb chest with the effigies of a knight and his lady,188 which abuts the double monument described above. Its chest is decorated with pairs of angels standing on plinths and holding shields, all of which are now blank. The lordship of Swine and pat­ronage of the nunnery were acquired by the Hiltons in the early thirteenth century.189 The monuments in their chantry show that they maintained an intimate relationship with the nunnery well into the late Middle Ages. The heraldic ornament on the tombs and the encroachment of the two double monuments into the chancel of the nuns’ church must have meant that the community was ever conscious of the generosity and importance of the patronal family in the life of the monastery. Doubtless this was intentional and the intercessory prayers of the nuns were sought. There is no evidence that the relationship between patron and priory was deemed as anything other than mutually beneficial. Indeed, the final member of the Hilton male line, another Sir Robert who died in 1431, maintained this relationship, leaving the prioress and nuns a generous £10 for prayers for his soul.190 Some of the furnishings of the priory church also survive. The Suppressionera description of the priory records that the church had ‘xxxvj goode stalls alle along bothe the sydes of waynscott bordes and tymber for the nonnes’.191 Eight of these are extant, all with misericords and a further misericord is incorporated into the post-medi­eval pulpit.192 They have been assigned dates between 1400 and 1530.193 However, it seems likely that they are late fourteenth century. A man with a twisted (Fig. 5.9), forked beard similar to that on one of the misericords can be seen in contemporary manu­script illuminations.194 The square 187 

Routh, Medi­e val Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, p.  109; for the Gascoigne monument, see Routh, Medi­eval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, p. 43. 188  The latest tomb is probably that of his son, another Sir Robert, father of the Sir Robert known to have died in 1431; see Routh, Medi­eval Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, p. 116. 189  Thompson, A History of the Church and Priory of Swine, p. 95. 190  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, ii, 16, 23. 191  Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, p. 281. 192  Williamson, ‘A Note on the Hidden Misericord of Swine’. 193  A date of c. 1400 is suggested by Bond, Wood Carvings in English Churches, p. 226 and repeated by Nichols, ‘The Cistercian Nunnery of Swine Priory’, p. 283. However, Remnant, Catalogue of Misericords in Great Britain, pp. 184–85, dates them a century later; Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 211 says 1500, and Morris, East Riding of Yorkshire, p. 311 suggests 1531. 194  For instance, London, Westminster Abbey, MS 37, fol. 157r.

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Figure 5.9. Late fourteenth-century misericord of the head of a man, Swine Priory.

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Figure 5.10. Female head on misericord at Swine Priory. Late fourteenth century.

headdress on the alabaster effigy of Catherine Norwich, wife of Sir William de la Pole, who died in 1366, at Holy Trinity Hull,195 is similar to that worn by the female head which adorns one of the misericords (Fig. 5.10).196 A late fourteenth-century date would mean that the stalls are broadly coeval with the Hilton chantry, and it is possible that its construction was accompanied by a refurnishing of the church and the donation of the stalls. The visitors in 1535 noted that each of the Cistercian priories in Yorkshire had a rood screen, and a portion of Swine’s is extant (Fig. 5.11). Also at the church is a largely intact parclose screen at the west end of the chapel containing the Hilton tombs at the east of the north aisle (Fig. 5.12).197 Both screens have a hybrid of late Gothic and Renaissance ornament and, as will be discussed, their style is Netherlandish. 195 

For this monument, see Routh, Medi­e val Effigial Alabaster Tombs in Yorkshire, pp. 73–74. 196  This style of square headdress evolved from French and German fashions in the middle of the fourteenth century; see Newton, Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince, pp. 96–97. 197  For detailed descriptions, see Vallance, ‘The History of Roods, Screens and Lofts in the East Riding’, pp. 173–76.

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Figure 5.11. Rood screen, Swine Priory. c. 1531.

The chantry screen has thirteen rectangular compartments, and beneath the central three are folding doors. There are upper and lower registers divided by a middle rail. The screen is surmounted by a frieze which has traces of polychrome and contains fragments of a black-letter inscription. The inscription was still largely intact in the mid-seventeenth century and was transcribed thus:198 198 

Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 212.

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ISTA SUETOS SCULPTA SUNT ARMA DOMINI THOMAE DOMINI DE DARCY ET HEREDERUM SUORUM ET FINITUM EST HOC OPUS TEMPORE DOMINI GEORGII DARCY MILITIS FILLI ET HEREDIS DOMINI THOMAE DARCY, 1531

(Below are carved the arms of Lord Thomas, Lord Darcy and his heirs and this work was finished in the time of Sir George Darcy, knight, son and heir of Lord Thomas Darcy, 1531).

Each of the compartments below contains a shield with traces of polychrome as well as tracery. The screen is divided into sections by pilasters, which have honeycomb, spiral, or cylindrical ornament, reminiscent of Netherlandish early Renaissance work. The screen’s middle rail contains fragments of a second black-letter inscription, which was also recorded in the seventeenth century:199 ORATE PRO ANIMABUS DOMINI THOMAE BYWATT’ CAPELLANI HUIS CANTARIAE BEATAE MARIAE ET OMNIUM CAPELLANORUM TAM PRAETERITORUM QUAM FUTURORUM

(Pray for the souls of Master Thomas Bywater, chaplain of the chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all chaplains past and to come).

The surviving portion of the inscription is interspersed with three small shields decorated with the carved arms of the priory’s historic patrons and these will be discussed shortly. Beneath the inscription rail are compartments with linenfold panelling and some retain elaborate blind tracery in their head. The fragmentary rood screen is located before the chancel. Only the dado survives as it is cut off at the middle rail, which also had an indent for an inscription. Its loft and upper portions were removed in 1720 as they were ‘old, decayed and indecent’.200 It is divided into compartments containing linenfold panels surmounted by blind tracery. There are two central doors, each of which is divided into two by a pilaster, and two panels with blind tracery are in the base of each door. The pilasters and the doors’ tracery are broadly similar to those seen on the chantry screen. A distinctive form of ornament, termed ‘Renaissance Gothic’ by one modern scholar, emerged in the Netherlands in the early-to-mid-fifteenth century.201 It was characterized by the use of flamboyant Gothic tracery in vegetal forms 199 

Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 212. Vallance, ‘The History of Roods, Screens and Lofts in the East Riding’, p. 173. 201  The fullest discussion of this artistic genre is Kavaler, Renaissance Gothic. 200 

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Figure 5.12. Screen of the Hilton Chantry, Swine Priory. 1531.

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and Romanesque style ornament on pillars. Pilasters with this type of ornament were used in ecclesiastical furnishings such as screens and choir stalls; for example, the fragments of the stone screen at St Janskerk, Tervuren,202 and the still intact wooden screen at St Nicolaaskerk, Monnikendam.203 It seems likely that this form of ornament was introduced into England by resident Flemish sculptors and craftsmen, such as those who were associated with royal commissions in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. These include the stalls and gates of the chantry of Edward IV at Windsor and the stalls in Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster Abbey.204 The bronze cage surrounding the tomb of Henry VII is known to be the work of Thomas Ducheman,205 and the style of its corner pillars is reminiscent of ornament in the Netherlands. The ornament on the screens at Swine has a number of parallels. The screen before the Hilton chantry is especially close to the rood screen at the former prebendal church at Thame, Oxfordshire.206 Notable similarities include the lack of vaulting, the frieze at the top of the screen (blank at Thame), the cylindrical and honeycomb ornament of the pilasters, the elaborate, vegetal tracery, and the use of linenfold panelling in the lower registers. Prebend Richard Maudeley of Lincoln is known to have commissioned new stalls at Thame in 1529, just two years before the commissioning of the screen at Swine.207 The pilasters on the screen are also similar to those at Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire,208 Dunstable Priory, Bedfordshire,209 Llandinabo, Herefordshire,210 and the parclose screen at Lavenham, Suffolk, which was commissioned by Sir Thomas Spring in 1523.211 The proximity of Swine to the major North Sea trading port of Hull may help to explain this Netherlandish influence apparent in the priory’s screens. 202 

Steppe, Het Koordoksaal in de Nederlanden, pp. 95–110. Elias, Koorbanken en Kansels, pl. 172. 204  Geddes, ‘John Tresilian and the Gates of Edward IV’s Chantry’; Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, pp. 47–58. 205  Stone, Sculpture in Britain, p. 230. 206  Vallance, Greater English Church Screens, pp. 175–76. 207  Lee, A History of the Prebendal Church of Thame, p. 63. 208  Vallance, English Church Screens, pp. 43, 52. 209  Vallance, Greater English Church Screens, pp. 101–02. 210  Vallance, English Church Screens, p. 41. 211  Tracy, Harrison, and Wrapson, ‘Thomas Spring’s Chantry and Parclose at Lavenham’, pp. 241–47. 203 

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The bulk of the town’s trade in the later Middle Ages was with the Low Countries and individuals of Netherlandish origin were certainly resident in the port.212 Continental sculpted retables were also being imported into Hull, and at least four were acquired for the port’s two parish churches between 1438 and 1521.213 However, screens are large, cumbersome objects, which would be difficult and expensive to transport by ship, and rather than being imported they are much more likely to have been the work of craftsmen working locally.214 Flemish influence can also be detected in other screens in northern England, including that surrounding the chantry of Prior Rowland Leschman (d. 1499) at the Augustinian priory of Hexham, Northumbria,215 where the roses in the heads of the tracery are similar to those on the rood screen at Swine, and also the screen of Prior Thomas Gondibour (d. 1507) at the Augustinian cathedral priory at Carlisle.216 There is robust evidence that carvers who were at the very least of Netherlandish descent were working in fifteenth- and early sixteenthcentury Yorkshire. James Dam was active in York between 1457 and 1485, and it has been suggested that he was from Damme, near Bruges. It is possible that he was related to the David Dam who worked on the central tower of York Minster in 1470–71.217 In 1516, a Thomas Flemyng, ‘carvour’, was admitted as a freeman of the City of York, and a John Flemyng, also a carver, gained the same privilege in 1538.218 It is also possible that native carvers, such as Thomas Hynde, documented in Hull in 1526,219 were influenced by the style introduced by craftsmen with Netherlandish connections, especially as it has long been recognized that continental prints were an icono­graphic source for woodcarvers working in northern England at the end of the Middle Ages. Examples include misericords of c. 1520 at Beverley Minster, close to Swine, which are based upon woodcuts in

212 

Selected Rentals and Accounts of Medi­eval Hull, ed. by Horrox, p. 155. Woods, Imported Images, pp. 113–15. 214  Tracy, Continental Church Furniture in England, pp. 11–12. 215  Hunter Blair, ‘Prior Leschman’s Chantry Chapel in Hexham Priory Church’. 216  Tracy, ‘The Stylistic Antecedents of the Gondibour Screen at Carlisle Cathedral’, pp. 175–98. 217  Harvey, English Mediaeval Architects, p. 78. 218  Register of the Freeman of the City of York, i: 1272–1558, ed. by Collins, pp. 239, 259. 219  Selected Rentals and Accounts of Medi­eval Hull, ed. by Horrox, p. 121. 213 

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the Biblia pauperum.220 Similarly, figurative sculpture at the Newcastle Packet, a late medi­eval timber-framed house in Scarborough, has been shown to have a source in German and Netherlandish prints.221 The Netherlandish influence, use of Renaissance ornament, and overall quality of the screen at Swine reflect the high status and metropolitan connections of its donor, Sir George Darcy (c. 1499–1558). The Darcys were an ancient gentry family, whose estates were originally centred on Lincolnshire. By the late thirteenth century they had become established in Yorkshire, with their principal seat at Temple Hirst, near Selby. The family rose to prominence and was briefly ennobled in the fourteenth century. They were benefactors of the Augustinian priory of Newburgh, and John, second Lord Darcy, was buried there in 1356, as was Philip, Lord Darcy, in 1399. Selby Abbey was also favoured by the family, and was the location of the burial of John, Lord Darcy, in 1411. There was a decline in their status in the early fifteenth century, but they nevertheless remained a substantial gentry family. Their fortunes were restored in the early sixteenth century by Thomas Darcy (c. 1465–1537), who was a talented soldier and was ennobled by Henry VIII and made a Knight of the Garter. His son George, the patron of the screen, was knighted in 1513 after distinguishing himself at the Battle of Flodden. He was established with his own seat at Gateforth, close to Temple Hirst, and occupied a number of offices in Yorkshire. Sir George was summoned to the royal court in 1524, his father recommending him to the care of Cardinal Wolsey.222 Sir George was associated with a number of northern monasteries, serving as steward for the estates in Barnsley of Pontefract Priory and those of St Mary’s Abbey, York, at Garforth and Deighton.223 He acquired the lordship of Swine and patronage of the priory through his marriage to Dorothy Melton in 1511. Dorothy’s family had in turn acquired the patronage of the priory and the lordship of the manor in 1431 through marriage with the Hiltons.224 The three coats of arms decorating the inscription on the dado rail of the chantry 220 

Grössinger, ‘The Misericords of Beverley Minster’. Pacey, ‘German Prints, Flemish Craftsmen, and Yorkshire Buildings’. 222  For the early history of the Darcy family, see Verduyn, ‘The Darcy Family’. Details of Sir George Darcy’s career are provided in Smith, Land and Politics in the England of Henry VIII, pp. 67, 194, 241, 250. For his summons to court in 1524 and association with Wolsey, see L&P Henry VIII, iii.1, 228. 223  Smith, Land and Politics in the England of Henry VIII, p. 67. 224  For the descent of the patronage of the priory and lordship of Swine, see Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 199–202. 221 

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screen at Swine illustrate the descent of the priory’s patronage: Hilton (a trefoil leaf ),225 Melton (a crosslet), and Darcy (a sexfoil voided). As has already been seen, the Hilton connection with Swine extended back to the early thirteenth century and the priory accommodated the Hilton’s mausoleum. An alabaster monument in their chantry is still adorned with their arms and those of their familial connections. An early nineteenth-century description of the priory notes that the family’s arms were also glazed in the chapel’s east window.226 Recognition of the importance of the Hiltons’ relationship with the nunnery is suggested by the inscription ‘vni[u]s fundatoris de Swyne’ (one of the founders of Swine) beneath the arms of Sir Robert Hilton in Jenyns’ Ordinary, an armorial roll from the second half of the fifteenth century with depictions of the arms of aristocratic and gentry families, many of which had strong connections with the north. The passage of the patronage of the convent to the Darcys is similarly recorded in this manu­script by an inscription beneath the arms of Piers de la Hay which reads ‘vnius fundatoris de Swyne Abbey postea Melton modo Dacy’ (one of the founders of Swine Abbey [sic], later Melton, now Darcy).227 Members of local elite families, such as the Constables, Bucktons, and Salvins, were also generous benefactors of Swine and many were buried there.228 The mother of Thomas Anlaby was buried before the cloister door on the south side of the nuns’ choir beneath a ‘throw [through] ston’ with an incised cross on the top,229 evidence of how monuments were strategically located to maximize on the intercessory opportunities provided by the liturgical day of the nuns. This and almost all the other medi­eval monuments are now lost, but a description of the church published in 1824 states that there had been ‘several ancient’ grave covers in the aisles and other parts of the church.230 The priory was still benefiting from a large number of bequests in the final years of its existence, but these may have been partly because the church also served a parish.231

225 

Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 212. Thompson, History of the Church and Priory of Swine, p. 94. 227  BL, MS Add. 40851, fol. 65v. 228  For gentry burials at Swine, see Poulson, History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, ii, 209–10. 229  Luxford, ‘“Thys ys to remember”’, p. 33. 230  Thompson, History of the Church and Priory of Swine, p. 126. 231  Cross, ‘Monasticism and Society in the Diocese of York’, p. 133. 226 

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However, bequests to Swine by members of the local elite can be related to the description of the priory made by the commissioners in 1534–35. This mentions that the cloister had ‘wyndowes rounde aboute, and all glasid, except one, which conteyn in alle by estimacon cccm xx ffoote of glasse’.232 The glazing of the cloister appears to have occurred in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Thomas Hedon, gentleman, of Mardon, Holderness, requested burial before the image of Our Lady of Pity at the priory in 1504, and left the priory 20s for the glazing of its cloister.233 In 1505 Robert Garner, alderman of Hull, willed ‘that my wyffe make a glasse wyndowe for her and me in Swyne abbey cloister of the north side’.234 Thanks to this benefaction, Swine was the only Cistercian nunnery in northern England to have a glazed cloister. These were normally associated with richer houses. The Cistercian nunnery of Wienhausen, Lower Saxony, had glazed windows in its cloister by c. 1280,235 and Lacock Abbey, the wealthy house of Augustinian nuns dedicated to St Bernard, rebuilt its cloister in the late fifteenth century and glazed its windows.236 In addition, richer houses of Cistercian monks in England and Wales were also building glazed cloisters at this time, including Byland and Kirkstall.237 The second inscription on the screen at Swine also provides evidence of patronage by the clergy, naming the chantry’s chaplain, Thomas Bywater. The registers of the archbishop of York record that he was from Ledsham, a village in the West Riding, close to the Darcy seats at Gateforth and Temple Hirst, and that he was ordained priest at York in 1526.238 He is documented as the ‘lady priest’ at Swine at the Suppression, when he was receiving a salary of £2 and a further £2 13s 4d in allowances.239 The screen was far from being an isolated example of clergy benefaction at the priory. The generous bequest of Bishop Skirlaw’s has already been discussed, and it is clear that the priory also profited from other bequests. In c. 1400, Peter, vicar of the parish church at Swine, bequeathed the nunnery twelve volumes in Latin, and in 1486 Thomas 232 

Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, p. 281. Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, iv, 224. 234  Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 39. 235  Hayward, ‘Glazed Cloisters and their Development in the Houses of the Cistercian Order’, p. 100. 236  Pevsner and Cherry, Wiltshire, p. 285. 237  Robinson and Harrison, ‘Cistercian Cloisters in England and Wales’, pp. 151–52. 238  Cross, York Clergy Ordinations, p. 32. 239  London, TNA SP 5/2, fols 132r, 134r. 233 

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Hornby, chaplain of York, left Dame Anne Vavasour, a nun of Swine, a life of St Katherine in English.240 It is likely that gentry and clerical benefactors also contributed to the glazing and other decoration of the church at Swine. In the eighteenth century, ‘storied glass’ was still present in the east window at Swine.241 This seems to have been part of a wider decorative scheme. The 1535 description of the priory records that the church roof was ‘coueryd with leade, and sylid wtyn wt boourdes paynted’.242 Plaster ceilings at Hampole were also painted. Excavations recovered fragments of plaster painted blue and ornamented with golden stars,243 a typical late medi­eval decorative scheme intended to represent the heavens. Surviving continental evidence shows that the churches of Cistercian nuns often had elaborate painted decoration. An especially notable example is the nuns’ choir at Wienhausen, Lower Saxony.244 It is possible that there was also figurative wall painting at Swine. The removal of whitewash from the piers in the Hilton chapel in the early nineteenth century uncovered an incised image of the Virgin with a crown and lily on one of the piers. Below ‘AVE M’’ was inscribed in ‘Gothic letters’, and on the same pillar, ‘on the side towards the chancel’ there was a second inscription. However, this could not be read because of the ‘foul bedaubings’ of whitewash.245 The Gothic script beneath the image suggests that the work was late medi­eval, and as has been seen, the inscription on the chapel’s early sixteenth-century screen records that the chantry was dedicated to the Virgin. The description of the image suggests that it was similar to the representation of the Virgin on the seal of the prioress of Swine at the time of the Suppression. This is decorated with an image of her crowned and seated on a bench-type throne, holding the Christ Child on her left knee. Below, the prioress is shown kneeling in prayer.246

240 

Bell, What Nuns Read, pp. 170–71. Thompson, History of the Church and Priory of Swine, p. 126. 242  Coppack, ‘How the Other Half Lived’, p. 281. 243  Whiting, ‘Excavations at Hampole Priory’, p. 205. 244  Die Zisterzienser, ed. by Elm and Roth, pp. 460–62; Park, ‘Cistercian Wall and Panel Painting’, p. 199. 245  Thompson, History of the Church and Priory of Swine, p. 100. There is now no trace of either the indent of the painting or the inscription. 246  Ellis, Catalogue of Seals in the Public Records Office, p. 21. 241 

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The parish church at Swine was also the home to a guild of St Mary. It is first recorded in 1484 and until its suppression in 1547 received a large number of bequests, mostly from husbandmen, but also on occasion from the local gentry. It occupied premises close to the priory, which were granted to the guild by John Melton in 1480. The guild was more popular by far than the parish’s other guild, which was dedicated to St Peter, as well as the parish guilds in nearby Beverley and Hull. The presence of the nunnery, and its dedication to the Virgin, could explain this popularity, and it is notable that the guild’s priest also celebrated Mass within the priory church.247 Thanks to an enduring relationship with the patronal family, the church at Swine was provided with screens of the highest quality and latest fashion. The heraldry on the screen emphasized that the Darcys were the latest in a line of families who contributed to the art and architecture of the priory. This gentry benefaction funded the glazing of the cloister and church and doubtless its painted ornament. Thanks to this generosity the art and architecture of Swine Priory, and doubtless other Cistercian nunneries in the northern counties, was much more silk purse than sow’s ear.

Summary and Conclusion The north’s Cistercian nunneries, including Swine, were unquestionably poor, but that does not mean that their art and architecture were uninteresting. As has been shown, the patronage of local secular elites and clergy helped maintain the convents’ buildings and augmented the possessions of the priories. The gentry favoured Cistercian nunneries with their burials until the very end of the Middle Ages. However, it should be noted that prioresses were also, on occasion, patrons. Occupying positions of local status, they usually originated from the gentry families who were such important benefactors of their convents. Perhaps it was family means, rather than the resources of the convent, which paid for the illuminated book owned by Prioress Wade of Swine, and the monuments of Prioress Ryther of Nun Appleton and Prioress Pudsay of Esholt. It is notable that both their monuments are decorated with the arms of the respective families. Surviving evidence allows some insights into the spiritual world of Cistercian nuns. Images of the Virgin, to whom all these Cistercian nunneries were dedicated, proliferated and were the focus of both individual and communal ven247 

Crouch, Piety, Fraternity and Power, p. 62.

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eration. As elsewhere in England, burial before images of Our Lady of Pity was esteemed. Depictions of the Instruments of the Passion and Wounds of Christ indicate that northern Cistercian nuns were well integrated into the religious mainstream of late medi­e val society. Indeed, through their promotion of the cult of Richard Rolle, the nuns of Hampole helped shape this devotional world, and their nunnery accommodated his image and shrine, which were the focus of pilgrimage and offerings. The material evidence for the devotional world of Cistercian nuns has all but disappeared, as have most of the fruits of the gentry benefaction which the nunneries enjoyed. Discussion will now turn to the fate of the art and architecture of northern Cistercian abbeys and nunneries at the Suppression and its immediate aftermath.

Chapter 6

Suppression and Survival

B

etween 1536 and early 1540, every house of Cistercian monks and nuns in northern England was suppressed, a fate which befell all the monasteries of England and Wales during Henry VIII’s Suppression of the Monasteries.1 The resulting loss to their art and architecture has been apparent throughout this book, which has been an examination of the questions and issues pertaining to ruins and fragments, augmented by contemporary and antiquarian descriptions of long-lost buildings and treasures. This chapter will show why it has been necessary to use material of this kind.2 It will demonstrate that investment continued in the buildings and possessions of Cistercian abbeys and nunneries until the very eve of the Suppression. The meticulous efforts to seize everything of value from the dissolved monasteries will be outlined. The attempts made by dispossessed monks and nuns to salvage the possessions of their former houses will be discussed, and it will be demonstrated that in many instances this was because of an enduring attachment to the religious life. It 1 

There is an enormous literature on the Suppression. Standard studies include: Basker­ ville, English Monks and the Suppression of the Monasteries; Knowles, RO, iii; Woodward, The Dissolution of the Monasteries. For a more recent overview, see Carter, ‘The Making of Britain’s Ruins’. The Suppression of Cistercian houses in the British Isles is outlined and discussed in Coppack, The White Monks, pp. 123–32. The economic state of Cistercian and Benedictine monasteries in late medi­eval Yorkshire and the prosopo­graphy of the last generation of their inmates is considered at length by Woodward, ‘The Benedictines and Cistercians in Yorkshire in the Sixteenth Century’. Woodward’s prosopo­graphical work has been superseded by Cross and Vickers, Monks, Friars and Nuns. 2  For an earlier and expanded version of this chapter, see Carter, ‘“It Would Have Pitied Any Heart to See”’.

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will also be argued that members of the laity had complex motives for seeking to acquire property from the suppressed religious houses, not least religious conservatism and affection for the monasteries.

Sustained Investment in Art and Architecture The refurbishment of northern Cistercian monasteries continued until the very eve of the Suppression. At Aysgarth Parish Church is a fragmentary screen inscribed with the date 1536 and initials of Adam Sedbar (Fig. 6.1), who was elected abbot of Jervaulx in 1533. As will be discussed later, the abbot became involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace, leading to his execution and the suppression of his monastery just one year after the commissioning of this screen. The account book of Whalley Abbey continues to record payments for building works throughout the 1530s, and even in 1537, the year of the abbey’s suppression, lead to the value of 30s was purchased.3 A significant corpus of evidence suggests that the fabric of northern Cistercian houses was well maintained and the buildings well furnished at the time of their suppression. Among the forty-two servants of Sawley Abbey at the time of its dissolution were the mason Richard Coyre and the carpenter James Wadynton.4 When Sir Arthur Darcy arrived at Jervaulx Abbey to oversee its destruction in the summer of 1537 he said it ‘was as fair a church as I ever did see’.5 The quality of materials used in the construction of Cistercian monasteries is suggested by the cannibalizing of late Perpendicular window tracery from Whalley to rebuild the parish church at Old Langho, Lancashire, in c. 1557 and the incorporation of woodwork and masonry from the monastery at the mansion of the Shireburns at Stonyhurst, Lancashire.6 Inventories of the possessions of Fountains, Rievaulx, and Whalley, taken at the time of their suppression (which will be discussed in greater detail shortly), also demonstrate the material richness of Cistercian abbeys.7 The possessions of Cistercian houses were also being enriched by lay patrons in the years immediately before the Suppression. Numerous instances have 3 

Manchester, Greater Manchester County Records Office, LI/47/4/5, fol. 302r. 4  Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay, ed. by McNulty, ii, 185. 5  L&P Henry VIII, xii.2, 59. 6  Hartwell and Pevsner, Lancashire: North, pp. 14, 478 (Old Langho); 652 (Stonyhurst). 7  Memorials Fountains, ed. by Walbran and Fowler, i, 254–59; ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott; Coppack, ‘Suppression Documents’.

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Figure 6.1. Screen inscribed with the initials of Abbot Adam Sedbar of Jervaulx, Aysgarth Parish Church. 1536.

been referred to in the preceding chapters. A few more examples can be cited showing the enduring importance of the spiritual services of the Cistercians. Dame Joan Thursecrosse of Hull made her will on 17 September 1533, requesting the prayers of the monks of Kirkstall for her soul and leaving the community ‘a white standdyng peic of silver with parcel gilt with rownde knop’.8 Burial at Cistercian monasteries remained valued. In his will dated 30 August 1530, John Maupas, labourer of Hull, requested ‘my bones to be moldid wtin the sanctway of Swine Also I wit to the Priorse of Swyne one ambling colt foall’.9 Until the very end, the prayers of Cistercian monks continued to be esteemed. On 20 November 1539, just two days before the suppression of Kirkstall Abbey, William Matthew, dyer of Leeds, made a will leaving the monastery’s abbot and convent 13s and 4d for a Mass and Dirige for his soul.10

Suppression and Despoiling This enduring support for the monasteries could not save them from suppression by the commissioners of Henry  VIII. The suppression of the religious houses was generally orderly, thorough, and destructive. This was largely due to the Crown’s desire to realize the full monetary value of the buildings, plate, vestments, and the other monastic properties that were seized. Inventories can 8 

Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 170. Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. by Raine, v, 294. 10  Testamenta Leodiensia, ed. by Lumb, p. 14. 9 

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leave little doubt that the Cistercian monasteries were worth plundering. The contents of the church at Fountains included plate worth in excess of £509, and a further £16 of plate was in the abbot’s house. Even the plate of the small nunnery at Rosedale, was worth £9, and ‘le plate and other jeweles’ at Sawley were valued at £72 2s 1d.11 All was destined for the king’s jewel house in the Tower.12 Lead was stripped from the roofs and melted into sows, one of which survives from Rievaulx with a royal stamp to identify it as the king’s property.13 Rievaulx was sold to Thomas Manners, earl of Rutland, the monastery’s patron. He was clearly eager to realize the full monetary potential of his acquisition and the contents of the abbey were inventoried, listing everything that was saleable. The west window of the church was ‘bestowed to Helmsley Castell’ at a cost of £30 13s 4d, and the other glass from the monastery was sorted into three sorts, the best to be kept, the second type to be sold, and the worst to be stripped of its lead which was to be melted. Even the pavement in the church was inventoried.14 Michael Sherbrook’s late sixteenth-century description of the ruination of Roche presents a similar picture of the meticulous seizure of anything of value. Sherbrook was rector of Wickersley, five miles west of Roche, between 1567– c. 1610. Despite being an Anglican clergyman, it is clear from his account that he was sympathetic to monks, stating ‘it would have pitied any heart’ to see the fall of the abbey. His uncle had witnessed the suppression of Roche, and remembered how the lead was ‘cast down into the church’, destroying the tombs beneath. The church was ‘all broken […] and all things of price, either spoiled, carped away or defaced to the uttermost’. The local population participated in the plundering of the house, and ‘it seemeth every person bent himself to filtch and spoil what he could’. Sherbrook’s father thought well of the monks ‘and their religion’, but this did not prevent him acquiring timber from the bell tower, explaining ‘might I not as well as others have some Profit of the Spoil of the Abbey?’ These others included the monks themselves, one of whom attempted to sell the door to his cell.15 The account can leave little doubt that 11 

Yorkshire Monasteries: Suppression Papers, ed. by Clay, pp. 150, 152. Account of the Monastic Treasures Confiscated at the Dissolution, ed. by Turnbull, pp. 25, 32. 13  Coppack, The White Monks, p. 129. 14  Coppack, ‘Suppression Documents’, pp. 226–31. 15  Tudor Treatises, ed. by Dickens, pp. 123–26. Sherbrook himself owned a book from Roche’s library (Cam­bridge, Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity Library, MS Gg. 3.33); see Carter, ‘Michael Sherbrook’. 12 

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sheer opportunism rather than hostility to the religious life was the reason for popular participation in the despoliation of the abbey.16

Destruction of the Fabric This despoliation inevitably had consequences for the fabric of the monasteries. However, the level of damage varied considerably between houses. In 1542, masons were employed at Meaux ‘to see it taken down’, resulting in the near total destruction of its standing fabric, with stonework and rubble from the monastery used to build the defences of the nearby port at Hull.17 Only earthworks survive of the monastery. Although remarkable in their own right, they only hint at the former splendour of the abbey.18 At the other extreme, the church at Holm Cultram survived the Suppression without major damage. This was because, as has already been discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, unusually for a Cistercian abbey church, it not only served the monastic community but was also a parish church. At the time of the abbey’s suppression in 1538, the ‘eighteen hundred houselynge people’ of Holm Cultram petitioned Thomas Cromwell for the preservation of the monastic church, explaining that it was ‘not only unto us our parish Churche […] but also a great ayde, socor and defence for us agent our neghbors the Scots’.19 However, the parish was unable to maintain the fabric of the church, which was equal in size to Carlisle Cathedral.20 The crossing tower collapsed in 1600, destroying much of the chancel.21 There were initially plans to spare the buildings of Fountains Abbey. It was suppressed on 26 November 1539, but the monastery was among the former religious houses which were considered as suitable for conversion into cathedrals, in the case of Fountains serving a diocese which was to be carved out of the huge see of York, covering the archdeaconry of Richmondshire.22 The plan 16 

A point made by Aston, Broken Idols, p. 180. Colvin, History of the King’s Works, v.2, 475. 18  Arguably the most significant material remains from the monastery are the tiled pavements, revealed by excavations conducted between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. For the most recent discussion of the pavements, see Stopford, Medi­eval Floor Tiles of Northern England, pp. 309–16. 19  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 130. 20  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 29. 21  Gilbanks, Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey, p. 138. 22  L&P Henry VIII, xiv.1, 587; L&P Henry VIII, xiv.2, 429; Memorials of Fountains, ed. 17 

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never reached fruition and Fountains was sold to Sir Thomas Gresham in 1540. By 1544, he was stripping lead from the monastery.23 Nevertheless, the church and many of the claustral buildings at Fountains still stand to roof level, and the buildings of Kirkstall Abbey are similarly well preserved. As will be seen, this state of preservation may have been significant during the restoration of Catholicism under Mary (1553–58) when some former monks hoped for the refounding of their abbeys. In some instances, the destruction was both thorough and rapid. Robert Southwell was one of the commissioners charged with the suppression of Furness in April 1537. The monks were still present when the dismantling of the abbey began and three months later, Southwell wrote to Cromwell stating that ‘the leade is all moltene and cast into sowys with the Kynges marke fyxsyde therto’, that the tower was ‘clere dissolvede’, and that the church had been taken down.24 Evidence of such destruction can be seen at Jervaulx, where the grooves left by the ropes used to pull down the piers supporting the roof of the chapter house remain clearly visible.25 However, not all the buildings within monastic complexes were targeted for demolition. At Furness ‘convenyent edifices standing’, probably the abbot’s lodging to the south-east of the precinct, were left intact as a house for the farmer or caretaker.26 The new lay owners also frequently repurposed monastic buildings. The lodging of Abbot Paslew at Whalley was converted into a manor house, although it was much altered in the seventeenth century.27 The gatehouse chapel at Rievaulx was retained to serve the parish (though quickly fell into ruin), as were the gatehouse chapels at several other Cistercian abbeys in England, such as Coggeshall and Tilty, both in Essex, Hailes, Gloucestershire, and Merevale, Warwickshire.28 John Browne, the final abbot of Kirkstall is purported to have retired to his monastery’s inner gatehouse, and the building has clearly been converted into a dwelling, the entrances blocked using tracery salvaged from the by Walbran and Fowler, i, 304–06. 23  Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 130. 24  Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 350. 25  I am most grateful to Dr Glyn Coppack for drawing my attention to this evidence of the destruction of Jervaulx on a visit to the site in April 2008. 26  Hope, ‘Abbey of St Mary in Furness’, p. 224. 27  Harwell and Pevsner, Lancashire: North, pp. 695–96. 28  For a discussion of these chapels and their reuse at the Suppression, see Hall, ‘English Cistercian Gatehouse Chapels’.

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abbey, most probably the infirmary.29 One of his brethren, Thomas Bertlett, lived at the monastery’s grange at Allerton, which subsequently became a centre for Catholicism until the eighteenth century.30 The final abbot of Holm Cultram, Gawen Borrodale (c. 1536–38), was praised by the royal commissioners for his ‘good services’ to the king, and these appear to have been remembered when his abbey was suppressed in May 1538. He was appointed rector of the parish now centred on the church of his former monastery. His income from tithes amounted to over £100 per year, equalling the pension paid to Marmaduke Bradley, the last abbot of Fountains. Moreover, in June 1538 he was also granted several buildings within the former monastic precincts, including ‘that vault or loft where William Marchel late monk did […] dwell, and one other vault or loft called le Sekeman House [infirmary] […] and all the orchard and garden’.31 Roland Blyton, the compliant last abbot of Rievaulx, acquired the monastery’s grange at Welburn and its associated mansion.32

Dispersal, Survival, and Preservation Despite the confiscations and destruction recorded above, books, liturgical furniture, vestments, and sculpture survive from northern Cistercian houses and the fate of other now lost items can be gleaned from contemporary documents and the antiquarian literature. There appear to have been attempts to conceal the possessions of monasteries before the arrival of the commissioners charged with their despoliation. For instance, in June 1537 Sir Arthur Darcy wrote to Cromwell reporting that he had recovered a chalice from Sawley Abbey ‘brybbed’ from the king before the suppression of the house.33 Pewter vessels at Roche were hidden in rocks near the monastery.34 Images were also deliberately concealed. An alabaster panel of the Entombment from Kirkstall Abbey was in the museum of the Leeds antiquarian Ralph Thoresby (1658–1725) in the early eighteenth century. According to Thoresby it ‘was supposed to have been an Altar-Piece at Kirkstall Abbey, where being concealed at the Dissolution of the house; it was found about fifty years ago [i.e., c. 1660]’. Thoresby had 29 

Barnes, Kirkstall Abbey, p. 88. Lonsdale, ‘The Last Monks of Kirkstall Abbey’, pp. 206, 212. 31  Register and Records of Holm Cultram, ed. by Grainger and Collingwood, pp. 153–63. 32  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 171. 33  L&P Henry VIII, xii.2, 59. 34  Tudor Treatises, ed. by Dickens, p. 124. 30 

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another sculpture from Kirkstall which may also have been similarly hidden, a panel of unspecified material depicting the ‘offering of the Three Kings – drapery well performed, it was sent to me from besides Kirkstall Abbey’.35 A statue of the Virgin was found buried near Whalley Abbey in the nineteenth century and plausibly comes from the monastery. Three fifteenth-century alabaster panels depicting the Nativity, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin (Fig. 1.23), probably from a retable showing the Joys of the Virgin, were buried at Fountains, where they were excavated before 1854.36 The insights these provide into Cistercian spirituality were discussed in Chapter 3, so too the large limestone relief sculpture of the Annunciation to the Virgin dating to c. 1500 (Fig. 1.26), which was likewise discovered in the mid-nineteenth century at Fountains, where it was concealed in a wall in the southern-most chapel of the south transept.37 A fifteenth-century alabaster of the Trinity, now at Ampleforth Abbey, was found buried at nearby Byland,38 and its good preservation suggests it too may also have been deliberately hidden. There was active resistance to the Henrician Reformation at several northern houses. In July 1535, Sir Francis Bigod, an enthusiastic supporter of the Royal Supremacy and his chaplain, Thomas Garrade, a Lutheran sympathizer, visited Jervaulx to preach the ‘trew Worde of God in the presence of the abbott and his brethren’. As Garrade was declaiming the authority of every bishop and priest to forgive sin, he was interrupted by one of the brethren, George Lazenby, who, inspired by a vision of the Virgin in the Lady Chapel of the nearby Carthusian priory at Mount Grace, asserted the primacy of the pope, subsequently signing documents, in the presence of Bigod and the compliant Abbot Sedbar, expressing his support for the jurisdiction of the pope. This defiance led to the execution of the monk at York in August of the same year.39 The conservatism of the Jervaulx community is further suggested by the rescuing of Lazenby’s head as a relic by his fellow monk, Thomas Mudde, who was to become a noted recusant during the reign of Elizabeth.40 This was far from the only instance of defiance. 35 

Thoresby, Ducatus Leodiensus, p. 48. Coppack, Fountains Abbey, p. 91. 37  Walbran, Illustrated Guide to Ripon and Harrogate and Fountains Abbey, p. 110. 38  Nelson, ‘The Byland Abbey Trinity Preserved at Ampleforth Abbey’. 39  L&P Henry VIII, viii, 1025, 1069; ix, 37. This well-known instance of opposition to the Royal Supremacy is discussed in Knowles, RO, iii, 368–69 and Dickens, Lollards and Protestants in the Diocese of York, pp. 79–81. Also see, Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, pp. 134–35. 40  Aveling, Northern Catholics, p. 44; Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, pp. 137–38. 36 

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Brother Robert Moreby of Fountains was executed in 1538 after stating at the abbot’s table that the commons of Wales were ready to rise in opposition to the recent religious changes;41 the community at Furness Abbey would not listen to the reformist sermons of Robert Legate, a Franciscan friar, who was sent to the abbey by the royal visitors to preach to the monks.42 It is therefore unsurprising that dispossessed monks and nuns sought to rescue possessions of their former monasteries. In some instances, this occurred with permission. When his house was suppressed, Abbot Henry Cundall of Roche was awarded a pension of 50 marks and allowed to take away ‘his books, and the fourth part of the plate, the cattle […] the household stuff, a chalice, a vestment and £30 in money at his departure’.43 Either by agreement or subterfuge, monks from other houses also seem to have taken away books, vestments, and altar plate; possessions which would have been useful in the priestly lives they followed after the dispersal of their communities. The final page of a printed missal of the use of York from Byland is inscribed with the name ‘Ricard[us] Helmysley’.44 Brother Richard Peerson, alias Helmsley, was a monk of Byland at the time of its Suppression when he received a dispensation to change his habit and a pension of £5 6s 8d. He was an ordained priest and the repair of several leaves of the missal using fragments of an early fifteenth-century manu­script suggests that he made good use of the missal during the priestly life he adopted after leaving the monastery. Brother John Pynder received a pension when Rievaulx was dissolved on 3 December 1538, but did not survive long. He made his will in January 1539, leaving Thornton Parish Church, Yorkshire, a ‘whit vestment, a corporax, tow alter cloth and a messe boke’.45 Given the shortness of the interval between the suppression of his monastery and the drafting of the will these possessions must have come from Rievaulx. Thomas Bartlett, a monk of Kirkstall at the time of its suppression in 1539, left vestments to Leeds Parish Church in 1542,46 and it also seems likely that they came from his monastery. Similarly, another former Kirkstall monk, Richard Elles, left his sometime monastic brother, Anthony 41  L&P Henry VIII, xiii.1, 941 nos 1 and 2; xiii.2, 156; Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 136. 42  Haigh, Last Days of the Lancashire Monasteries, p. 28. 43  L&P Henry VIII, xiii.2, appendix, 25. 44  Missal secundu[m] usum insignis ecclesie Eboracen[sis], Cam­bridge, Cam­bridge Uni­ver­ sity Library, F150.a.4.1. 45  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 180. 46  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 144.

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Jackson, a vestment and altar cloth in 1550.47 Several other wills and bequests demonstrate the close relationships and solidarity which existed between former religious after the Suppression.48 Nuns also appear to have salvaged liturgical plate and vestments from their priory churches. Dame Katherine Nendyke was prioress of Wykeham at the time of its suppression in August 1539. Two years later she made her will, leaving the parish church at Wykeham ‘an honest silver chalice’, and to the altar of Our Lady at Kirby Moorside, Yorkshire, she bequeathed a vestment of white damask, an alb, and a silk hanging.49 Former monks from several Yorkshire monasteries made efforts to preserve intact the libraries of their monasteries. Robert Barker was the final prior of Byland Abbey and he is likely to be the Robert Barker who in 1541 was presented to the prebendary and vicarage of Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He died in 1548–49 and a second Robert Barker occupied the same vicarage between 1558 and 1582. In his will, the second Robert Barker listed ninety-nine named printed books together with ‘fortye other olde written bookes of which ar of small valewe’. The named books were all written before 1500, have a theo­logical bias, and display no evidence of the ‘new learning’ of the early sixteenth century or Reformation Protestantism. It is highly probable that these volumes constituted a substantial portion of the library of Byland Abbey, removed at the Suppression and kept together at Driffield by the monastery’s last prior, the elder Robert Barker.50 A similar attempt was made to preserve the library of Kirkstall Abbey. In 1558 Edward Heptonstall, sometime monk of Kirkstall, left Leeds Parish Church a copy of the Sermones dis­ cipuli (probably the work by Johannes Herlot published in Co­logne in 1504) together with a vestment of silver and white damask. To John Hepstonstall’s schoolboy son he bequeathed all the books in the chest at the foot of his bed, together with all the other books in his custody, which had once belonged to Kirkstall, requiring his executors to keep them safely and restore them to the abbey ‘if it go up in their times’.51 A similar attempt to salvage the monastic library was made by William Brown, last prior of the Benedictine priory of 47 

Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 145. Cross, ‘Community Solidarity among Yorkshire Religious after the Dissolution’. 49  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, pp. 595–96. 50  Cross, ‘A Medi­eval Yorkshire Library’. 51  Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 146. For a discussion of the preservation of monastic books, including by former religious, see Carley, ‘The Dispersal of the Monastic Libraries and the Salvaging of the Spoils’. 48 

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Monk Bretton, Yorkshire. With at least three former monks, William Brown settled at Worsborough Hall, near the site of their priory. At his own expense, Brown acquired thirty-one books from the priory’s library instructing in his will of 1557 that his books, together with a vestment and other property should be returned to Monk Bretton, should the priory be restored.52 Nuns from Kirklees similarly attempted to maintain a form of communal existence after the Suppression, as Joan Kyppes, the last prioress, and four of her sisters are reputed to have retired to nearby Paper (or Papist) Hall.53 The monks of Whalley may also have sustained some sort of community life, an antiquarian source describing how they clung to their ruinous buildings ‘like a few surviving bees about a suffocated hive’.54 The monastic life was briefly restored during the reign of Mary, when several religious houses were refounded.55 Even though none were Cistercian, former monks of Roche and Rufford appear to have anticipated the formal reestablishment of their monasteries. In 1555 the surviving brethren assumed their monastic titles when vouching for the good character and suitability for ordination to the priesthood of Richard Moresley, a novice of Roche at the time of its suppression in 1538.56 This hope, even expectation, that their houses would ‘go up again’ suggests that the ex-religious did not believe that their houses had been permanently dissolved in the 1530s and this must surely have been a motive for the salvaging and preservation of former monastic property by individual monks and nuns and their community solidarity after the Suppression. It also calls into question the thoroughness of the destruction of the churches and cloistral buildings during their suppression. Clearly enough was left for individual ex-religious, even the remnants of entire communities, to believe that the repair and repopulating of their monasteries was viable. This belief seems especially credible for Kirkstall, where most of the buildings remained largely intact well into the eighteenth century.57 52 

Cross, ‘Monastic Learning and Libraries in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, p. 263. Cross and Vickers, Monks, Nuns and Friars, p. 577. For this and other instances of the maintenance of a communal life after the Suppression, see Cunich, ‘The Ex-Religious in PostDissolution Society’. 54  Whitaker, An History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 184. 55  Knowles, RO, iii, 421–23. 56  Cross, ‘The Reconstitution of Northern Monastic Communities in the Reign of Mary Tudor’. 57  The crossing tower was intact until 1779 and the west range remained roofed until the eighteenth century; see the description of the site in Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, p. 119. Although it is beyond the geo­graphical boundaries of this study, it is nevertheless of note that 53 

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However, the reassembly of estates to make the restoration of these northern Cistercian communities viable was never a realistic prospect. As an act of political necessity, the legal validity of the sale of monastic property had been recognized by the Marian regime. Indeed, there are numerous instances of religiously conservative nobility and gentry acquiring monastic lands and property. It will be recalled that as its patron, Sir George Darcy donated a screen to Swine Priory in 1531. Sir George attempted to obtain the lands of Swine Priory after its suppression,58 and also acquired some estates of Evesham Abbey.59 Sir Robert Brandling of Newcastle (d. 1563) obtained some estates of Newminster Abbey and of St Bartholomew’s Priory in Newcastle. This was despite his religious conservatism, which was attacked in a fiery sermon by John Knox in 1552.60 The material possessions of several Cistercian monasteries similarly passed into the hands of gentry who were to become noted for their post-Reformation Catholicism. The Towneley family of Towneley Hall, near Burnley, Lancashire, had been associated with Whalley Abbey since the fourteenth century. 61 Their seat was to become a centre of Catholicism from the Reformation until its sale to the local council in the early twentieth century.62 Manu­scripts and other possessions of Whalley Abbey found their way to Towneley Hall after the Suppression. These include the set of fifteenth-century Mass vestments (a chasuble and two dalmatics) which are now in the collections of the Towneley Hall Museum and Art Gallery (Plate 1 and Fig. 3.6), and the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, which according to credible tradition, were removed from the abbey in 1537 by Sir John Towneley (1473–1541).63 The set is probably the ‘one vestment of red clothe of gold with an image on a crosse on the bak with tynnacles for a deacon and a sub-deacon belonging to the same’, listed in the abbey’s Suppression-era inventory.64 the chancel and transepts of Abbey Dore, a Cistercian house in Herefordshire, were in a sufficiently sound state of preservation in the early seventeenth century for them to be repaired and rededicated as an Anglican parish church; see Tonkin, ‘The Scudamore Restoration’. 58  Woodward, Dissolution of the Monasteries, p. 83. 59  L&P Henry VIII, xiv.1, 904 (4). 60  Walsh and Foster, ‘The Recusancy of the Brandlings’, p. 36. 61  Coucher Book or Cartulary of Whalley Abbey, ed. by Hulton, iv, 1023. 62  For the Towneley’s post-Reformation Catholicism, see Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire, pp. 89, 293, 318. 63  King, Opus Anglicanum, p. 102. 64  ‘Inventory of Whalley Abbey’, ed. by Walcott, p. 108; Monnas, ‘Vestments from Whalley

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The mourning vestment from Jervaulx with the rebus of Abbot Robert Thornton (Plate 2) also survived because of its acquisition and continued use by a Catholic family. The vestment was purchased by the V&A in 1902 from Mrs Alice Hedley, and was said to come from the Hexham area. 65 The front of the vestment has been altered and has a ‘fiddle back’ form, a shape of chasuble fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,66 therefore clearly indicating that it remained in use for Catholic worship after the Suppression. Mrs  Hedley’s husband was Dr William Snowden Hedley, brother of John Cuthbert Hedley, a Benedictine monk and Roman Catholic bishop of Newport, Wales.67 The Hedley family was originally from Morpeth, Northumberland, and appears to have had a long history of Catholicism, with a Henry Hedlie of Morpeth listed in the recusant roll for 1595.68 Similarly, Mrs Hedley’s family (Foster of Scrainwood) was also a Northumberland recusant family.69 The Southworths of Samlesbury Hall, near Blackburn, Lancashire, had been benefactors of Whalley Abbey since the fourteenth century.70 Like the Towneleys they also became a staunchly Catholic family after the Reformation.71 Nevertheless, Sir Thomas Southworth (1517–46) was one of the commissioners appointed to survey monastic properties, and this role would have enabled him to acquire windows from Whalley Abbey, which were incorporated into the wing he added to his manor house at Samlesbury.72 Ornamental stonework was removed from Holm Cultram Abbey to nearby Raby Cote, the site of one of the monastery’s granges and home of the family of Abbot Robert Chamber from the fifteenth century. Raby Cote remained in the possession of the Chamber family after the Suppression and the house there was rebuilt in c. 1600 by Thomas Chamber (d. 1619).73 The east front’s plinth is made up Abbey’, p. 411. 65  It was purchased together with a maniple and two chasubles (V&A 695-1902 and 696-1902), both cut from copes. However, there is no evidence suggestive of the medi­e val provenance of these other vestments. 66  For vestments of this shape, see Johnstone, High Fashion in the Church, p. 108. 67  Burnand, Catholic Who’s Who and Year Book, p. 22. 68  Miscellanea: Recusant Records, ed. by Talbot, p. 35. 69  Bossy, ‘Four Congregations in Rural Northumberland’, p. 102. 70  Coucher Book or Cartulary of Whalley Abbey, ed. by Hilton, pp. 120, 517, 850, 940. 71  Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire, pp. 262, 283, 292, 293, 318. 72  Emery, Greater Medi­eval Houses of England and Wales 1300–1500, ii, 572. 73  Hyde and Pevsner, Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness, p. 90.

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of fragments of a cornice naming Abbot Chamber, and also at Raby Cote is a stone image of the Virgin and Child with flanking saints. Sculpted beneath are the abbey’s arms and Abbot Chamber’s monogram and his name also occurs in the inscription beneath (Fig. 3.9). The post-Reformation records of the parish of Holm Cultram suggest that the Chamber family conformed to the Protestant settlement and the family does not figure in the history of post-Reformation Cumbrian Catholicism.74 The removal of an image with such explicitly Catholic overtones may suggest either the retention of hidden Catholic sympathies, or alternatively an enduring familial association with the abbey. In other cases, the acquisition of images by local elites seems to have been because of their conservative religious opinions. Several branches of the Constable family remained Catholic after the Reformation. The Rievaulx inventory records that an image of ‘The Trinitie Ower Lady Saynt Margaret’ was sold to Mr Robert Constable.75 His precise identity is unclear, but he is probably the Robert Constable who in 1538 was paying 22s in rent to the abbey for properties at Billesdale and Raysdale.76 He is also likely to be the Robert Constable whose ex libris inscription appears in an exceptionally fine early thirteenth-century copy of Roger of Howden’s Historia Anglorum which has other inscriptions dating between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries showing that it was originally from Rievaulx.77 Robert Constable was far from being the only member of the northern gentry who acquired and prized former monastic books. In many cases, this must have had a religious motive. A printed missal, which is almost certainly from Jervaulx Abbey, rapidly passed into the ownership of a gentry family which became noted for its recusancy. Its title page is inscribed ‘Chris. Wyvill’, probably Christopher Wyvill, the son of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill (d. 1558) of Constable Burton, near Jervaulx. The births and deaths of members of the Wyvill family between 1538 and 1566 are recorded in the missal.78 Throughout the sixteenth

74 

For evidence of the family’s religious conformity, see Grainger, ‘The Chambers Family of Raby Cote’; for recusancy in Cumberland, see Hilton, ‘The Cumbrian Catholics’. 75  Coppack, ‘Suppression Documents’, p. 228. 76  Cartularium abbathiae de Rievalle, ed. by Atkinson, p. 315. 77  London, Inner Temple, MS 511.2. Constable’s ownership inscriptions occur on fols 131v and 132r. Evidence of a Rievaulx provenance occurs on fols 1r, 58r, and 111r. 78  Carter, ‘Renaissance, Reformation, Devotion and Recusancy in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire’, p. 139.

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and seventeenth centuries the Wyvills were a prominent recusant family, 79 and are also known to have acquired vestments and liturgical equipment necessary for the celebration of the Mass from Masham Parish Church at the Reformation.80 Books from Fountains (and St Mary’s Abbey, York), were in the library of the strongly recusant Constables of Everingham Park in the East Riding and others were in the ownership of Inglebys of Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, a family with a tradition of recusancy in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.81 Other belongings of Cistercian monasteries survived because of their acquisition by parish churches. Often these churches had historic connections with the monasteries whose property they obtained. Eighteen choir stalls and their associated canopies from Whalley Abbey (Fig. 1.7) were removed at the Suppression to the nearby parish church, the advowson of which was owned by the monastery.82 Screens (Fig. 1.8, Fig. 6.1) and bench-ends (Fig. 2.3, Fig. 2.5) from Jervaulx were removed to Aysgarth Parish Church.83 Jervaulx was a major landowner in the parish and in 1397 Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, granted the advowson of the parish to the abbey.84 Moreover, the parishioners and clergy of Aysgarth appear to have shared the religious conservatism of the monks at Jervaulx. In 1566 rood images, a pyx, crismatory, a corporax, and a Latin hymnal were all found concealed in the parish church.85 Stalls and screens were far from being the only monastic property acquired by parish churches. The churchwarden accounts of Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, record the purchase in 1542 of vestments that had formerly belonged to Roche Abbey.86 There is also evidence of the movement of monuments to parish churches at the Suppression. The grave slab of Abbot Thornton of 79 

Aveling, Northern Catholics, pp. 101, 175, 176, 246, 260, 262, 264, 320, 354, 359. Aveling, Northern Catholics, p. 22. 81  Sharpe, English Benedictine Libraries, p. 678. 82  Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, p. 4, who also notes a further eight misericords which are almost certainly from the monastery are now at Blackburn Parish Church. 83  Purvis, ‘The Ripon School of Carvers’, pp. 165–67; Tracy, English Gothic Choir-Stalls, p. 72. Measurement of the screen at Aysgarth by Dr Glyn Coppack provides further evidence of its Jervaulx provenance, its dimensions almost exactly fitting the plinth for the pulpitum at the monastery. 84  VCH: County of York, North Riding, i, 200–14. 85  Aveling, Northern Catholics, p. 21. 86  Aveling, The History of Roche, p. 91. 80 

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Jervaulx (Fig. 4.5) discussed in Chapter 4 is now at Middleham Parish Church, Yorkshire, and is decorated with the same rebus as the one that adorns his vestment (Plate 2). Currently mounted on a wall beneath the tower, it was formerly positioned in front of the pulpit.87 The inscription on the monument reads: ‘ORATE PRO A’I’A DOMYNI ROBERTI THORNETON. ABBAT’. HUI.’ DOMI. JOREVALIS. VICESMI SC’ DI’ (Pray for the soul of Sir Robert Thorneton, twenty-second abbot of this house of Jervaulx). The reference to ‘this house of Jervaulx’ means that there can be little doubt that its original location was the abbey. The parish church at Middleham was dedicated to St Mary and St Alkeda and from 1477 was a collegiate foundation. Middleham is no more than five miles from Jervaulx and there appear to have been close connections between the college and the monastery, the abbot of Jervaulx proclaiming in 1482 the papal bull establishing the college.88 The dean of Middleham at the time of the suppression of Jervaulx in 1537 was William Willes (1535–59). It is likely that Dean Willes was responsible for the removal of Thornton’s monument from Jervaulx to his church, especially as there is firm evidence that Willes was acquiring property from the suppressed monastery. An illuminated thirteenthcentury Bible has ex libris inscriptions indicating its Jervaulx provenance and the volume is also inscribed with the name of Dean Willes and the date 1538 (‘m. Wil[lia]m Wille dein of mydilh[a]m anno | d[omi]ni 1538’).89 Willes appears to have had conservative (if flexible) religious sympathies. In July 1547, early in the reign of the Protestant Edward VI, he was pardoned for ‘all heresies &c. committed by him’.90 However, in 1559 he made a traditional Catholic will, which also refers to the relic of St Alkede ‘that is in my chyst’.91

87 

Documents Relating to the Foundation and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Middleham, ed. by Athill, p. xx. 88  Documents Relating to the Foundation and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Middleham, ed. by Athill, pp. 12, 19. 89  BL, MS Royal 3 E VI. The Jervaulx ex libris inscriptions occur on fols 1r and 268r; the ownership inscriptions of Dean Willes are on fols 76r and 283r. 90  Documents Relating to the Foundation and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Middleham, ed. by Atthill, p. 19. 91  Wills and Inventories from the Registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmond, ed. by Raine, p. 129.

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Summary and Conclusion Evidence from Cistercian houses in northern England can contribute to current historical controversies about the vitality of late medi­e val religion and responses to the English Reformation. The screen at Aysgarth inscribed with the initials of Abbot Sedbar of Jervaulx and the date 1536, and expenditure listed in the Whalley account book in 1537, demonstrate beyond doubt that patronage of art and architecture at northern Cistercian monasteries continued until the eve of the Suppression. Individual monks and nuns played an important part in the preservation of their monasteries’ possessions after the Suppression. This was not simply for personal profit. The will of Edward Heptonstall, former monk of Kirkstall, suggests a hope, even expectation that his monastery would be restored and the property he had salvaged would be returned to communal use. The concealment of sculpture at Byland, Fountains, and Kirkstall is likely to have had a similar motive. Other monastic property was salvaged by the local gentry or acquired by parish churches, which often had intimate associations with the houses of monks and nuns whose property they acquired. It is notable that many of those who acquired monastic books, plate, vestments, and liturgical furnishings were to become noted for their enduring attachment to traditional religion. All this evidence suggests that many of the monks and nuns remained attached to their way of life and that the monasteries continued to enjoy widespread support among the local elites. It supports a conclusion that art and architecture provides evidence of vitality in northern Cistercian monasticism until the very moment of the Suppression (indeed, beyond).

Conclusion

H

istorians and art historians have, for the most part, judged the Cistercians in the late Middle Ages through the prism of a perceived twelfth-century golden age. In contrast, this book has sought to provide a more balanced and empathetic interpretation of the buildings and possessions of the late medi­eval Cistercians. There were five aims: (i) to show that study of late medi­e val Cistercian art and architecture is rewarding and profitable; (ii) to ask whether art and architecture could provide any insights into the Order’s vitality in the late medi­eval period; (iii) to determine the religious identity asserted in the art and architecture of the Cistercians; (iv) to make a contribution to debates among historians about the condition of monasticism in the late Middle Ages and the causes of the English Reformation; (v) to inspire research focusing on the art and architecture of the Cistercians elsewhere in the British Isles and Europe. The extent to which these aims have been met will be examined in turn.

1. Is Cistercian Art and Architecture in the Late Middle Ages a Viable and Rewarding Area of Scholarship? This study has shown that a wide range of extant material, and also documentary and antiquarian evidence is available for the study of the art and architecture of Cistercian monks and nuns in the late Middle Ages. Although much of this evidence was already known to scholars, for the most part, it had never been the subject of detailed analysis. The sumptuously illuminated breviary of Abbot Huby, his magnificent tower at Fountains, the mourning vestment of Abbot Thornton of Jervaulx, the striking monument of Abbot Chamber at Holm Cultram, and the early sixteenth-century screens at Swine Priory were among the artefacts to have received their first systematic analysis in the research that contributed to this book. Much previously unknown material —

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including three copies of a printed missal from the same edition — has also been uncovered. The reinterpretation of some well-known artefacts also shows that the study of late Cistercian art is rewarding. For instance, since the turn of twentieth century an abbatial monument in the choir at Fountains has been widely accepted as that of Abbot Swinton, the indent of a mitre elevated above the head interpreted as evidence of his resignation. However, it has been possible to show that the mitre was in fact elevated to show a doctoral cap, and that the monument in all probability commemorates the scholarly Abbot Greenwell, a Doctor of Divinity, whose acquisition of the pontificalia and good services as a patron earned him burial in such a prestigious location. Clearly, therefore, evidence is available for the study of the Order’s art and architecture in the late Middle Ages and its exploration can afford new insights into the buildings and possessions of the Cistercians and the nature of Cistercian monasticism in the two or so centuries before the Suppression.

2. Does the Study of Art and Architecture Tell Us Anything about the Vitality of Cistercian Monasticism in the Late Middle Ages? The Order’s art and architecture during this period has often been interpreted as evidence of its decline, spiritual malaise, and deviation from its early ideals and austerity. However, there was a constant process of development, adaptation, and change taking place in Cistercian monasteries. The world of the late medi­ eval patrons discussed in this study was radically different from that of the twelfth century, and it is important to emphasize that the Order’s legislation on matters artistic (which was not, in any case, as prescriptive or monolithic as previously thought by scholars) had ceased to apply by the beginning of the fourteenth century. Cistercian patrons used heraldry to advertise their patronage. But there was much more to their patronage than a fondness of luxury objects and selfaggrandizement. Patronage was an abbatial duty, a rite of passage and the contributions of individual abbots were enshrined in the institutional memories of their houses. Above all patronage was an act of piety. Abbot Huby was deeply conscious of his Cistercian identity and was an energetic reformer, motives for his extensive patronage. The Cistercians also considered their investment in art and architecture as a path to salvation. This is made explicit in the biblical text, ‘justorum autem anime in manu di sunt’ (The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God), embroidered on the mourning vestment of Abbot Thornton.

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The Cistercians also continued to benefit from external patronage, though it must be acknowledged that this was on a modest scale, and that the most important contributions from this class of patron were largely historic, their grants of estates in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries providing the income which funded the activity of late Cistercian patrons. The ‘antiquarian’ heraldic ornament in the Furness cartulary shows that the Cistercians remained conscious of their early benefactors. Nevertheless, family traditions of patronage were maintained at Jervaulx, Newminster, Rievaulx, and many of the nunneries. This can be interpreted as evidence of confidence in the health of Cistercian monasticism and the efficacy of the prayers of intercession offered by the monks and nuns.

3. Does Art and Architecture Provide Insights into the Religious Identity of the Cistercians? Even though the Order’s restrictive legislation on art and architecture had long ceased to apply, it is arguable that the Cistercians remained aware of their older traditions. The use of architectural ornament shows restraint, as can be seen when the towers at Fountains and Kirkstall are compared with the contemporary tower at the Augustinian priory of Bolton. The inscriptions with texts from the liturgy on Abbot Huby’s tower were appropriate to its liturgical function and significance. There is clear evidence that the Order’s long tradition of Christ-centric piety found material expression in the late Middle Ages, be it the miraculous image of Christ Crucified at Meaux, the inscriptions expressing devotion to the Holy Name at Fountains, or shields emblazoned with the Wounds of Christ at Hampole. The location of the images of saints on Huby’s tower display a relationship with the ranking of feasts in the Order’s liturgical calendar and there is abundant evidence that the Cistercians remained deeply devoted to the Virgin and her image. Enduring veneration of twelfth-century saintly abbots found expression in art and architecture and the Order also appropriated the cults of Anglo-Saxon monastic saints. However, by the late Middle Ages, Christ-centric piety and intense devotion to the Virgin were so mainstream that it is impossible to find anything that was truly distinctive in their manifestation at the abbeys and nunneries discussed here. Moreover, for the most part there was nothing unusual about the identity or icono­graphy of the saints represented by images at Cistercian monasteries. Nor was there anything distinctive about the liturgical, para-liturgical, and devotional use of images by the Order. Viewing an image of St Christopher was

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believed to provide a protection against an unshriven death or tiredness, and this explains why his image was located close to the night stairs at Rievaulx, and in all probability several other northern abbeys, his image being readily visible to the monks as they entered the church to sing the night office. St Michael’s image had its usual association with high places and external benefactors at several monasteries and nunneries requested burial before images of Our Lady of Pity. The Cistercians were very much part of the religious mainstream of late medi­eval England. Even if this was a mainstream they had helped shape, their religious art and architecture had little that expressed an explicitly Cistercian identity. Nor can any claims about distinctiveness be made about funeral monuments in Cistercian abbeys and nunneries. The full range of commemorative options available in late medi­eval England would have been encountered in a Cistercian context. However, the monuments of abbots and monks were arguably somewhat more restrained than those of their Benedictine and Augustinian contemporaries. It is notable that the lavishly sculpted tomb chest of Abbot Chamber, which was most likely located in his chantry chapel, has no surviving Cistercian parallel in the British Isles. External benefactors were rewarded with burial within monastic churches, with the most important securing interment within the choir and presbytery. The base of the ruined chantry chapel at Roche Abbey, and the magnificent alabaster tombs in the Hilton chantry at Swine Priory, can leave little doubt that the monuments of the laity had a significant impact on the planning and appearance of the churches of Cistercian abbeys and nunneries. The bequests accompanying requests for burial also materially enriched the monasteries, especially the nunneries.

4. What Does the Study of Cistercian Art and Architecture Reveal about the Suppression? Cistercian abbeys and nunneries remained well integrated into the religious and social fabric of the late medi­eval north. There is no evidence that the Cistercians and their patrons had any inkling of the cataclysmic events that extinguished Cistercian monasticism in northern England. A screen from Jervaulx Abbey is carved with the initials of Abbot Adam Sedbar and the date 1536, just one year before the house was brutally dissolved for its participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The accounts of Whalley Abbey record the purchase of building materials until the very end. Just two days before its Suppression, Kirkstall Abbey benefited from a bequest and the community’s prayers of intercession were sought.

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There is overwhelming evidence that Cistercian monks and nuns remained dedicated to their Order and retained traditional religious beliefs until the Suppression and beyond. They salvaged books, vestments, and liturgical plate from their monasteries. Personal profit was far from being their only motive. In the case of Byland and Kirkstall, substantial portions of the monastic libraries were kept safe by former monks, the will of John Heptonstall, a member of the community at Kirkstall, making clear his desire that the books he had salvaged should be restored to the monastery should it ‘go up again’, and during the reign of Mary former monks of Roche and Rufford apparently hoped for the restoration of their houses and assumed their monastic titles. Vestments from Whalley and Jervaulx, together with many other monastic possessions, were saved because they passed into the hands of local gentry. Their motives included affection for the monasteries, conservative religious beliefs, and sheer opportunism. Regardless of the precise reasons, the writing of this book would have been so much harder had it not been for their actions. Scholars owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have acted as custodians of the art and architecture of the Cistercians over the past five hundred years.

5. Avenues for Further Research This book was based on evidence from thirty or so northern monasteries, a third of the total number of houses of Cistercian monks and nuns in medi­eval England and Wales. Indeed, comparative evidence from Cistercian monasteries beyond the geo­graphical parameters of this study was frequently called upon, showing that developments in the art and architecture of the Order in northern England, a heartland of the Cistercians, had clear parallels elsewhere in the British Isles, indeed Europe. However, the late medi­eval evidence from southern England and elsewhere is clearly worthy of study in its own right. It would be rewarding to explore how the social, political, and devotional conditions prevalent in other regions impacted on the art and architecture of the Cistercians. The patronage of Abbot Chard at Forde and Abbot King at Thame was referred to on more than one occasion. The motives for this patronage could profitably be investigated, especially as scholars have often viewed it so negatively. It has already been shown that the retrospection present in the art and architecture of several northern houses was also present at Hailes, and that abbots were active patrons of the art and architecture of this house, which also attracted generous external benefaction.1 1 

Carter, ‘Abbots and Aristocrats’.

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It is therefore to be hoped that this book will act as a spur, and that the late medi­eval art and architecture of the Order’s monasteries elsewhere in the British Isles and Europe will receive the scholarly attention it undoubtedly deserves.

Biblio­graphy

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Index

Adam, abbot of Valle Crucis: 116 n. 108 Adam, Jean, printer and bookseller: 32 Adlingfleet Parish Church: 116 Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx and saint see saints Alexander VI, pope: 53 Allerton Grange, grange of Kirkstall: 99, 305 Alnwick, Augustinian priory: 130, 233 altars: xxx, 12, 37 n. 127, 38, 47, 50, 65, 66, 75, 81, 85, 91, 93, 103, 105 n. 65, 107–09, 114, 118, 119, 122, 123, 125, 128–29, 133, 137, 139, 199, 211–12 burial in front of: 147–52, 185, 189–91, 202, 219, chantries at: 193–94, 196, 221 see also entries for individual monasteries altarpieces see retables Amboise, Georges de, cardinal: 32 Anglo-Scottish warfare: xl, xlii, 24, 61 Anlaby, Thomas: 187, 245 Annunciation to the Virgin see Virgin Mary Arthington, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1, 208, 219, Arthington, Isabel, prioress of Hampole: 225 Ashton-Under-Lyme Parish Church: 137 Augustinian monasticism: xxxiii, 27, 37, 150, 202, 213, 272 Aysgarth Parish Church, screens and benchends from Jervaulx: 8, 56, 57, 71, 252, 265, 267 Baldwin of Forde, abbot of Forde: 105 Banke, Alexander, abbot of Furness: 17 Bar Grange, grange of Kirkstall: 186

Barbour, Thomas: 106 Bardeny, William (de), monk of Whitby: 207 Bardney, Benedictine abbey: 159, 181 Bardsey, John, abbot of Kirkstall: 55 Barker, Robert, prior of Byland: 260 Barker, Robert, vicar of Driffield: 260 Barnoldswick, appropriate church and grange of Kirkstall: 61 Bartlett (Bertlett), Thomas, monk of Kirkstall: 259 Barwick, John, abbot of Selby: 160, 170 Basire, James, engraver: 41, 42 Bassenthwaite, Ade (de), burial at Holm Cultram: 187 Baysdale, Cistercian nunnery: 203 n. 1, 207, 208, 209 benefactors: 219 choir stalls: 211 plan: 211 prioresses of see Page, Alice prioress’s lodging: 213 Virgin’s milk, relic of: 226 Beaufort, Joan, benefactor of Hampole: 229 Beaulieu, Cistercian abbey: 51 n. 18. Bebenhausen, Cistercian abbey: 100 Bede, saint: xxxv bell towers: xxxiii, xliv, 16–20, 27, 54, 66–67, 93–100, 212–13, 215, 219, 254. See also entries for individual monasteries bells: 17, 54–55, 66, 68 n. 107, 104–05, 143. See also entries for individual monasteries

312

Benedict XII, pope: xliv, 19, 49, 109 Benedictina, bull for the reform of the Cistercian Order: xliv–xlv, 49–50, 59, 109 Benedictine monasticism: xxxvii, 37, 49, 52, 62, 63, 65, 70, 88, 93, 114, 115, 120, 130, 137, 144, 148, 150, 154, 157, 180, 181, 200, 202, 207, 251 n. 1, 260, 263, 272 art and architecture in western England: xxxiii–xxxiv, xlvi, 49, 63, 69 n. 110, 73, 77 n. 164, 79 n. 172, 80, 88 n. 216, 89, 151 Béthune, Baldwin (de), burial at Meaux: 187 Beverley: 47, 248 Minster: 168, 211, altar of St Cuthbert: 128 canon of see Latham, John misericords: 243 Beverley, Robert of, abbot of Meaux: 164 Bewerley, grange of Fountains, patronage inscriptions at: 59, 59, 72 Biblia pauperum: 244 Bigod, Sir Francis: 258 Billrbeck, Johann, abbot of Dargun: 167 Bilson, John: 44 Black Death: xlv, 127 n. 171 Blyton, Roland, abbot of Rufford and Rievaulx: 257 Bolton Priory, Augustinian monastery bell tower: 60, 94, 95, 271 priors of see Mone, Richard Bolton, John of, abbot of Furness: 60 book trade: 32 Bordesley, Cistercian abbey: 37, n. 127, 44, 177, 195, 200, 201 n. 305 abbot of see Halforde, William Borrodale, Gawen, abbot of Holm Cultram: 257 Bothill, John (de), vicar of Burg, benefactor of Holm Cultram: 76 Bowet, Henry, archbishop of York: 229 Boxley, Cistercian abbey, Rood of Grace: 136 Boyvill, Robert (de), benefactor of Furness: 77 Bradford Parish Church: 137 Bradford, William, benefactor of Sawley: 197 Bradley, grange of Fountains: 75

INDEX Bradley, Marmaduke, abbot of Fountains: 257 Brakspear, Sir Harold: 44 Bramley, grange of Fountains: 76 Brancepeth Parish Church: 37 n. 127 Brandling, Sir Robert: 262 Brimham, grange of Fountains: 60 Brisedale, John of, abbot of Kirkstall: 164 Brompton, John of, abbot of Jervaulx: 83 Brown, William, prior of Monk Bretton: 260–61 Browne, John, abbot of Kirkstall: 256 Brownflet, William, carver at Ripon: 125–26 Brun, Michael, abbot of Meaux: 65 Bubwith, appropriated church of Byland, stained glass at: 62 Buckton family, benefactors of Swine: 245 burials see under entries for individual monasteries Burley, Robert, abbot of Fountains: 161, 167 Burnley Parish Church: 27 Burton, Janet: xliii, 210, Burton, John, abbot of Rievaulx: 53, 88 Burton, John, antiquarian: 36, 40 Burton, Henry, abbot of Rievaulx: 62, 15 Burton, Thomas, abbot of Meaux Chronicle: 38–39, 47, 65–66, 68, 79, 104, 105, 145, 149 monument: 160, 160, 162, 167 Bury St Edmunds, Benedictine abbey: 148 Butler, John, abbot of Newminster: 60 Byland, Cistercian abbey: xxxvii, xxxviii, 3, 3, 44, 108, 208, 246, 260 abbots of see Kylburn, Thomas; Sutton, Thomas appropriated church see Bubwith benefactors: 73, 74 burials at: 115, 145, 152, 153, 154, 159, 163, 165, 187, 189, 190 choir stalls: 13 cells for monks, provision of: 22 chantries: 192 cloister, rebuilding of: 18 coat of arms: 62, 83 n. 195 gatehouse chapel of St Mary Magdalen: 192 ghost stories: 187 heraldry at: 84 infirmary: 22

INDEX library: 63, 64, 260, 267, 273 missal from: 259 monks of see Barker, Robert; Helmsley, Richard; Gilling, John Pietà: 115 printed books, purchase of: 28 sacking in 1322: xlii. See also Byland, battle of sculpture: 258, 267 seal: 109 suppression: 260 Virgin Mary, images of: 115, 163 Byland, battle of: xlii Byland, John, tenant and benefactor of Kirkstall: 186 Bywater, Thomas, chaplain and benefactor of Swine: 240, 241, 246 Calder, Cistercian abbey: xxxviii, 10, 41 abbots of see Richard; Willoughby, Robert (de) bell tower: 16, 18 building works: 10 burials at: 160, 162, 183 n. 200, 185 gatehouse: 22 grammar school at: 24 n. 65 Calverley, Alice, nun of Esholt: 219 Calverley, Sir Robert, benefactor of Esholt: 219 Canterbury, ecclesiastical province of: xl, 151 Carlisle, 109 Augustinian cathedral priory: 27, 243, 255 priors of see Gondibour, Thomas; Senhouse, Simon see of: xxxviii Cartmel, Augustinian priory choir stalls: 27 Harrington monument: 175, 176 carvers see Brownfelt, William; Hynde, Thomas castles see Piel; Wolsty Caxton, John, benefactor of Hampole: 229 Caxton Master: 217 Chamber, Robert, abbot of Holm Cultram: xlii, 51, 76, 81, 110, 152, 263 chantry at Holm Cultram: 81, 150 funerary monument: 62, 170–77, 172, 201–02, 269, 272 pontificalia, grant of: 167, 174

313

porch built by at Holm Cultram: 34, 34, 54, 69, 110, 134, 135 rebus: 34, 112, 172, 264 Virgin Mary, veneration of: 110, 112 Chamber, Thomas: 263 chantries: 47, 81, 82, 128, 138, 150, 171, 192, 193, 194, 196, 220, 221, 235, 242, 243, 272. See also entries for individual monasteries Chard, Thomas, abbot of Forde: xxxi, 32, 53, 273 Charlton-on-Otmoor Parish Church: 242 Chertsey, Benedictine abbey: 137 choir stalls: 7, 7, 10, 13, 27, 32, 55, 65, 93, 152, 161, 167, 176, 211, 232, 242, 265. See also entries for individual houses Cirey, Jean de, abbot of Cîteaux: 114, 119 Cistercian Order art and architecture, legislation concerning: xxx, xxxliii–xxxliv austerity: xxx–xxxii burials, legislation concerning: 142–44, 182–83 Capitula: 143, 182 Chapter of English abbots: 111 ‘decline’: xxx–xxxii, xliv diet, regulations concerning: xliv, 19, 20, 59, Ecclesiastica officia: 142–43, 178 Exordium magnum: 93 Exordium parvum: 191 finances: xliv, 49, 50 General Chapter of: xxix, xxxi, xxxiii, xl, xliii, xliv, xlv, 20, 31, 38, 39, 52, 66, 93, 99, 102, 105, 119, 130, 142, 147, 149, 168, 169, 182–83, 193, 208, 233 habit: xxx, 170, 260, 209 historiography of: xxx–xxxiv lay brotherhood: xlv, 10, 12, 18, 21, 27, 36, 65, 101, 194, 233 monks ownership of personal property: xliv, 63 university education: xliv reform of: xliv seals, regulations regarding: 50, 109 settlement of northern England: xxxiv–xxxv, xxxvi–xliii Cîteaux, Cistercian abbey: xl, 35, 36 n. 118, 144, 206

314

abbots of see Cirey, Jean de coat of arms: 26 correspondence of English abbots with: xxix, xli, xliii, 31, 39, 52, 67, 99, 136 Clairvaux, Cistercian abbey: xxxiii n.22, 107, 128, 144, 147 coat of arms: 71 filiation of: xli visit of the queen of Sicily, 1517: 34 Clark, James: xxxii Claxton, William (de), burial at Holm Cultram: 186 Clement VII, pope: xl, 53 n. 34 Clervaux, John, burial at Rievaulx: 190, 191 n. 245, 199 Clervaux, Simon (de), rector of Lith, chantry at Rievaulx: 193 Clifford, Lady Margaret, benefactor of Esholt: 217 Clifton, Walter, abbot of Warden: 58, 113 Clifton, wool-house and manor of Byland: 25 Cluniac monasticism: xxx, 193 Clyderhow, Robert (de), parson of Wigan, burial at Sawley: 195 Cockerham, William of, abbot of Furness: 153 Combermere, Cistercian abbey: 84, 85 The Contemplation on the Dread and Love of God: 222 Constable family, benefactors of Swine: 245 Constable, Sir Robert, benefactor of Rosedale: 210 Conyers family, benefactors of Fountains: 79 Conyers, Christopher, rector of Rudby and benefactor of Jervaulx: 65, 74 Copgrove, Robert, abbot of Fountains: 158 n. 88 Coppack, Glyn: xxxiv, 10, 204, 211, 213 Coppendale, Stephen, chaplain of Beverley Minster and benefactor of Meaux: 128 Corpus Christi, feast of: 105–06, 230–31 Cotman, John Sell: 115 Council of Constance (1414–18): xliii Council of Mainz (813): 147 Council of Pisa (1409): xliii Coxwold, Roger, abbot of Fountains: 158 Coyre, Richard, mason at Sawley: 252 Craven, Nicholas, mason: 27

INDEX Cromwell, Thomas: 135, 255, 256, 257 Cross, Claire: 39, 186, 210 Crosse, Robert (del), benefactor of Meaux Abbey: 47 Crosthwaite, appropriated church of Fountains: 61 Croxden, Cistercian abbey: 191, 194 Crystall, Thomas, abbot of Kinloss: 68 n. 107 Cundall, Henry, abbot of Roche: 259 Dacre, Thomas, lord Dacre: 37, 81, 177 n. 164 Dacre, William, third Baron Dacre of Gilsland: 84 Daiville, Reiner (de), benefactor of Byland: 73 Dalton, castle and borough of Furness: 25, 61, 61 Dalton, William, abbot of Furness: 56 Virgin, veneration of: 111–12 Dam, David, mason of York: 243 Dam, James, craftsman of York: 243 Darcy, Sir Arthur: 252, 257 Darcy, Sir George, benefactor of Swine: 240, 244–45 Darcy, Thomas, lord Darcy, benefactor of Swine: 240, 244 Darnton, John, abbot of Fountains patronage: 53 rebus: 53, 54 Dautre family, chantry at Sawley: 192 Dene, John, canon of Ripon and benefactor of Fountains: 74 Denton, Robert (de), abbot of Furness: 154 Dependen, Sir John, benefactor of Handale, Kirklees, Sinningthwaite: 210, 229 Dickens, Geoffrey: xxxv Divine Office: 92, 93, 99, 100, 176, 193 Dobson, Barrie: xxxii, xxxviii Dodsworth, Margaret, benefactor of Sinningthwaite: 218, 219 Dodsworth, Roger, antiquarian: 40, 62, 77 Driffield, Roger of, abbot of Meaux: 65 Driffield, William of, abbot of Meaux: 17, 65 Drynghow, William, abbot of Meaux: 149 Ducheman, Thomas, craftsman: 242 Dugdale, William, antiquarian: 40 Dunfermline, Benedictine abbey: 115 Dunstable, Augustinian priory: 242

INDEX Durham Benedictine cathedral priory: xxxvii, 95, 128 episcopal monuments: 158 Henry VI, image of: 137 Jesus altar: 37 n. 127, 103 Liber vitae: 178 Pietà: 114 relics: 128, 129 see of Durham: xxxviii Eddius Stephanus: xxxv Edward I, king of England: 25 Edward II, king of England: xlii burial of entrails at Holm Cultram: 184 Edward III, king of England: 137, 193, 214 Edward IV, king of England: 242 Edward VI, king of England: 266 Egremont, Elias of, cellarer of Furness: 178 Ellerton, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 204, 208, 209, 218 bell tower: 212, 213 burials: 218 Elles, Richard, monk of Kirkstall: 259 English Heritage: 44 Esholt, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1, 204, 209, 210, 213, 214, 231 alehouse at: 210 bell tower: 215 benefactors: 217–18 burials: 217–18, 224, 248 Charter: 217, 226 dormitory: 211 nuns of see Calverley, Alice Pietà: 226 plan of: 211, 212 possessions of: 209, 219 prioresses of see Mohaut, Johanna de; Ward, Joan; Ward, Matilda prioress’s lodging: 208 visitation: 207, 209–10 Esk, Richard, chantry priest at York: 228 Esk, Richard, monk and scribe at Furness: 74, 80–81, 112 Everingham Park: 265 Fervor amoris: 222 Fitzhugh family, patrons of Jervaulx: 83, 185 burials at Jervaulx: 185, 189, 190

315

Fitzhugh, Henry, fourth baron Ravens­ worth, benefactor of Jervaulx: 190 Fitzjohn, Eustace, benefactor of Fountains: 73 Five Wounds of Christ, veneration of: 225, 229, 249, 271 Flaxley, Cistercian abbey: 154 Le Flemying family, burials at Calder: 185 Flodden, battle of: 86, 244 floor tiles: 8, 59, 73, 108, grave covers made from: 199–200, 201 n. 305 Folwod, John, glazier: 28 Forde, Cistercian abbey: xxxi, abbots of see Baldwin of Forde; Chard, Thomas fortifications at Cistercian abbeys and granges: 23, 60–61 Fountains, Cistercian abbey: xxix, xxxiii, xxxvii, xxxviii, xxxix, xlii, 2, 41, 43, 44, 208, 255 abbatial lodging: 21, 58 abbots of: xli, 50, 52, 61, 128. See also Bradley, Marmaduke; Burley, Robert; Copgrove, Robert; Coxwold, Roger; Darnton, John; Gower, William; Greenwell, John; Huby, Marmaduke; John of Kent; Monkton, Robert; Ripon, John; Swinton, Thomas altars: 12, 85, 129, 152, 194 altar plate: xxxii, 91 appropriated churches: 61 bell tower: 16, 17, 18, 27, 79, 92, 93–100, 96, 269 benefactors: 65, 67, 73, 74, 75, 76, 76, 79–80, 81, 183, 184 building works: 10, 13, 43, 67, 74, 75 burials: 144, 145, 148, 149, 152, 153, 158, 160, 161, 164, 165–69, 180, 184, 187, 189, 190, 191, 270, 271 bursars’ accounts: 27, 37, 50, 62, 106 Chapel of the Nine Altars: 53, 67, 70, 71, 74, 75, 85, 122, 123, 149 cloister: 187 coat of arms: 83 n. 195, 129 Corpus Christi, observance of feast at: 105, 106 ‘Fountains elm’: 33

316

granges: xlii, xlv, 25 heraldry at: 53, 54, 68, 72–73, 79, 80, 84 Holy Name, veneration of at: 103–04, 271 hospitium at York: 25 inventory: 71, 91, 252, 254 lay hospice: 24 misericord (meat dining room): 59 monks of see Kydde, Thomas; Rypon, John pontificalia, grant of: 70, 165, 167 President Book: 67, 144, 164, 168 processional markers: 102, 102 refenestration: 18 relics: 129, 137, 138 sacristy: 16 St Oswald, veneration of: 129–30 St Wilfrid, veneration of: 131–32 saints, images of: 121–24, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126 sculpture: 29, 31, seal: 109, 110 suppression: 255–56, 259, 265 vestments: 62, 75, 91 Virgin Mary girdle of: 138 images of: 29, 31, 109, 110, 114, 115–17, 258, 267 workmen at: 24, 27, 28, 169 Franks, John, benefactor of Meaux Abbey: 48 Furness, Cistercian abbey: xxxvii, xxxviii, xli, 4, 43, 44, 52, 133 abbots of see Banke, Alexander; Bolton, John of; Cockerham, William of; Dalton, William; Denton, Robert (de) almshouse: 24 altars: 129 attacked by the earl of Derby: 87 bell tower: 17, 19, 96, 256 benefactors: 76, 77, 80, 189 building works: 10, 13, 14, 15 burials: 152, 153, 154, 178, 189, 191, 195 cartulary: 7, 56, 77, 78, 80, 88, 271 castle of see Dalton Castle and Piel Castle coat of arms: 26, 83 n.195 dormitory,: 87 gatehouse chapel (capella ad portas): 111, 111 glaziers at: 28 grammar and song school: 24

INDEX granges: 25, 110 infirmary, conversion into abbatial lodging: 22 London, abbatial lodging at: 26 misericord (meat refectory): 20 monks of see Egremont, Elias of; Esk, Richard; Stell, John pilgrimage to: 111, 136 refenestration: 18 sacristy: 15 scriptorium: 26 sculpture: 8, 113, 126 seal: 109 sedilia: 14, 14 stained glass: 28, 28 suppression: 256, 259 urban properties: 25 Virgin Mary images: 110, 111, 112 veneration: 111–12, 137 Gaignières, François Roger de: 154, 155 Gaillon, château de: 32 Galilee porches, burial in: 188–89, 188 Garendon, Cistercian abbey: 105 n. 55, 122 n. 145 Garner, Robert, benefactor of Swine: 246 Garrade, Thomas: 258 Gateforth, seat of Sir George Darcy: 244, 246 gatehouses at Cistercian abbeys and granges; 22–25, 22, 23, 44, 110, 116, 228 chapels: 84, 111, 111, 192, 256 see also entries for individual monasteries genealogies: 47, 77, 79 Giffard, Walter, archbishop of York: 209 Gilchrist, Roberta: 211, 229 Gilling, John, monk of Byland: 63, 64 girdle relics: 138 Gisborough, Augustinian priory: 174, 175, 208 Glaswryth, Geoffrey (le), glazier: 51 n. 18 Glasyar, Robert, glazier: 28 glaziers: 28, 50, 67 n. 105, 169. See also Folwod, John; Glaswryth, Geoffrey (le); Glasyar, Robert; Petty, John Gondibour, Thomas, prior of Carlisle: 176, 243

INDEX Gower, Richard, abbot of Jervaulx: xliii, 70 seal: 70 Gower, William, abbot of Fountains: 149, 168 Grange Hall, grange of Byland: 25 granges: xlii, xlv, 24–25, 48, 50, 51, 60, 75, 76, 79, 80, 110, 112, 124, 130, 143, 186, 257, 263. See also entries for individual monasteries Graystock, Ranulph de, burial at Newminster: 189 Great Schism: xl Great Urswick Parish Church, stained glass: 26 Greenfield, William, archbishop of York: 158, 208, 214 Greenwell, John, abbot of Fountains: 67, 130, 270 monument: 165, 168–69, pontificalia, grant of: 70, 270 Gregory the Great, pope: xxxvii depicted as doctor of the church: 168, 168 Mass of: 197, 198 Grose, Francis: 42 Grosvenor, Sir Robert: 84 Grymston, Johanna, nun of Wykeham: 230 Hailes, Cistercian abbey: 37 n. 127, 84 n. 205, 115 n. 118, 136, 151, 256, 273 Halforde, William, abbot of Bordesley: 163 Hall, John, vicar of Huddersfield and benefactor of Kirklees: 227 Haltemprice, Augustinian priory: 47 n.2 Hamburger, Jeffrey: 230 Hamerton, Isabella, benefactor of Fountains: 74 Hamerton, Richard, benefactor of Sawley: 74 Hampole, Cistercian nunnery: xxxvi, xxxix, 203 n. 1, 207, 208, 209, 213, 226, 249 benefactors: 215, 216, 217, 226 burials: 218 cult of Richard Rolle at: 103, 228–29, 240 heraldry at: 225, 229–30 library: 219 painted ceiling: 247 prioresses of see Arthington, Isabel prioress’s lodging: 225 Psalter from: 215, 216 refectory: 212

317

Handale, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1, 207, 209, 215 benefactors: 208, 210, 215, 219 plan of: 211 Harrington family, burials at Calder: 185 Harrison, Stuart: 17 Hawkshead, grange of Furness: 25, 110 Hay, Piers (de la), benefactor of Swine: 245 Hedley, Alice: 263 Hedley, John Cuthbert, bishop of Newport: 263 Hedon, Thomas, benefactor of Swine: 227 Helmsley Castle: 254 Helmsley, Richard, monk of Byland: 259 Helmsley, William, abbot of Rievaulx: 67–68 Helton, Isabella (de), nun of Keldholme: 226 Henry II, king of England: 81 Henry VI, king of England veneration of at Whalley Abbey: 137–38 Henry VII, king of England: xliii, 86, 242 Henry VIII, king of England: 244, 252, 253 Henry Murdac, abbot of Fountains and arch­ bishop of York: xxxix, 128, 129, 133 Heptonstall, Edward, monk of Kirkstall: 260, 267, 273 heraldry: 34, 37 n. 127, 41, 48, 49, 54–59, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 69, 70–72, 70, 72, 77, 79–87, 80, 82, 88, 95, 113, 155, 173, 201, 202, 225, 248, 270. See also entries for individual monasteries Herkenrode, Cistercian nunnery: 225, 228, 231 Hesirig, Johanne, benefactor of Baysdale and Handale: 219 Heslington, William, abbot of Jervaulx, rebus of: 55, 56, 57 Hexham, 243 Augustinian priory: xxxvii, 128, 243, priors of see Leschman, Rowland High Melton Parish Church: 225 Hilton family monuments and chantry at Swine: 232, 235–37, 236, 238, 244–45, 247, 272 Holm Cultram, Cistercian abbey: xxxviii, xli, 3, 6, 80, 120, 135 abbots of see Borrodale, Gawen; Chamber, Robert; Pym, Robert; Raybankes, Robert (de); Rydecar, William

318

altar of the Holy Saviour: 81, 150, bell: 55 bell tower: 17 benefactors: 84 burials: 62, 155, 157, 159 n.91, 162, 164, 167, 170–77, 183 n. 200, 184, 186, 187, 201–02 castle of see Wolsty infirmary: 257 monks of see Marchel, William parochial function of abbey church: 136, 255 patronage: 53, 54, 69, 76, 151 pontificalia, grant of: 174 porch: 34–36, 34, 54, 69, 110, 134, 134, 135, 135–36 refenestration: 18 sacking of by Scots: xlii, 133 urban properties: 25. See also Newton Arlash and ‘Wavermouth’ Virgin Mary, images of: 110, 112 Holy Name of Jesus, veneration of: 97, 103–05, 106, 228, 230 n. 163, 271. See also entries for individual monasteries Hondt, Christiaan de, abbot of Ten Duinen: 72 Hope, William St. J.: 43–44, 96,97, 98, 121, 126, 165, 167 Hornby Chapel: 87 Hornby, Thomas, benefactor of Swine: 246–47 Horncastle, Richard, abbot of Bardney: 159 How Hill, grange of Fountains, chapel of St Michael: 124 Huby, Marmaduke, abbot of Fountains: xxix, xliii, 24 n. 64, 25, 29, 37, 52, 67–68, 76, 77, 79, 106, 124, 129–33 breviary: 31–32, 57, 129–30 heraldry, use of: 54, 59, 59, 70–72, 72 St Oswald, veneration of: 129 signet ring of: 35, 36 tower built by at Fountains: 17, 18, 27, 79, 80, 92, 93–100, 96, 102, 103–04, 121–23, 138, 269, 270 Virgin Mary, veneration of: 117 Hugh of Leven, abbot of Meaux: 26–27, 66, 68, 101, 136, 151, 164, 192, Hull: 255 trade with the Continent: 242–43

INDEX Hulton, Cistercian abbey: 195 Hyke, Cecilia, prioress of Kirklees: 231 Hyltoft, Joan, nun of Nun Cotton: 222 Hynde, Thomas, carver: 243 indulgences: 79, 111, 130, 136, 215, 229, 231 Inkeley, John, abbot of Rievaulx: 57, 58 inscriptions architectural, as evidence of patronage: 34, 52, 53–54, 59–60, 59, 62, 69, 74, 76, 130–33, 151, 225 liturgical source of: 35, 54, 96–98, 96, 99–100 Instruments of the Passion, depictions of: 225, 229, 230. See also entries for individual monasteries inventories: xxxii, 28, 38, 39, 47–48, 56, 71, 86, 91 n. 4, 99 n. 34, 105–06, 109, 113, 119, 122, 124, 126, 127, 128, 147, 209, 262, 264. See also entries for individual monasteries Islip, John, abbot of Westminster: 150 n.45 Jackson, Anthony, monk of Kirkstall: 260 Jamroziak, Emilia: xxxii Jervaulx, Cistercian abbey: xxxviii, 41, 44, 106, 108 abbots of see Brompton, John of; Gower, Richard; Heslington, William; Sedbar, Adam; Snape, Peter (de); Scrope, Thomas (le);Thornton, Robert benefactors: 65, 85, 86, 185, 189, 190, 193 burials: 145, 146, 149, 155, 156, 157, 162–63, 185, 189, 190, 191 chantries: 193 granges: xlv heraldry at: 71, 83, 84, 85, 86 infirmary, conversion into abbot’s house: 22 missal from: 129, 197, 264 monks of see Mudde, Thomas; Lazenby, George pontificalia, grant of: 70 screen and bench-ends from: 7, 8, 55, 56, 57, 71, 265, 267. See also Aysgarth Parish Church seal: 109, 154

INDEX suppression: 252, 256, 266, 267 vestment from: 6, 27, 56, 263 Virgin Mary, girdle of: 138 John XXIII, anti-pope: 70 John, earl of Warenne, benefactor of Roche: 192–93 John of Kent, abbot of Fountains: 67 John of Tynemouth, hagiographer: 120 Juliana of Cornillion: 105, 231 Keldholme, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1 altar plate: 221 benefactors: 226 nuns of see Helton, Isabella (de) visitation: 214 Kerbriand, Jean, printer in Paris: 32 Killingbeck, Robert, abbot of Kirkstall: 62 Kilnsea, grange of Fountains: 25 Kinder, Terryl: xxxiii King, Robert, abbot of Thame: 32, 53 Kingswood, Cistercian abbey: 116, 116 Kirby, Margaret, disciple of Richard Rolle: 228. See also cult of Richard Rolle under Hampole Kirby Moorside Parish Church: 260 Kirkham, Augustinian priory: 83, 84, 185 Kirklees, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n.1, 207, 208, 209, 261 bell tower: 219 benefactors: 210, 218–19 burials: 222, 227 chantry: 221 n. 104 choir stalls: 211 Pietà: 227 plan of: 204, 211 prioresses of see Hyke, Cecilia; Kyppes, Joan; Pudsay, Elizabeth; Ryther, Joan; Stainton, Elizabeth prioress’s lodging: 213 Robin Hood legend and: 203 suppression: 261 Kirkstall, Cistercian abbey: xxxiii, xxxviii, 3, 5, 10, 41, 42, 43, 44, 62, 77, 79 n. 169, 106, 107, 130 n. 190, 136, 207 abbots of see Bardsey, John; Brisedale, John of; Browne, John; Killingbeck, Robert; Marshall, William; Wymbersley, William

319

altar plate: 92 n.9 bell: 54–55 bell tower: 16, 17, 18, 20, 51, 271. See also Marshall, William benefactors: 74, 77, 184, 253, 272 building works: 12, 13, 15, 20 burials: 41, 43, 164, 181, 184, 186, 200 coat of arms: 61, 83 n. 195 cloister, rebuilding of: 74, 246 church, liturgical arrangement of: 12, 13, 15, 20, 111, 194 guesthouse: 24 infirmary, division into cells for monks: 22 library: 259–60, 273 misericord (meat refectory): 20 missal from: 197, 198 monks of see Bartlett (Bertlett), Thomas; Elles, Richard; Heptonstall, Edward; Jackson, Anthony; Moreby, Robert; Watson, Thurston refectory: 20 St Bernard, girdle of: 138 sculpture: 41, 125–26, 126, 257–58 seal: 109, 154 sedilia: 15, 15 suppression: 256, 261, 267, 272 Kirkstead, Cistercian abbey: 130 n. 190 Kirkthorpe Parish Church, bell from Kirkstall: 54 Knowles, David: xxxii Kydde, Thomas, monk of Fountains: 76 Kylburn, Thomas, abbot of Byland: 159 Kyppes, Joan, prioress of Kirklees: 261 La Cambre, Cistercian nunnery: 230 Lacock, Augustinian nunnery: 246 de Lacy family, patrons of Kirkstall and Whalley: 77, 138 burials: 184 Lanercost, Augustinian priory: 35, 81, 177 n. 164 Langton, William (de), abbot of Rievaulx: 148 Latham, John, canon of Beverley and benefactor of Nun Appleton: 220–21, 224, 226 Lavenham Parish Church: 242 Lazenby, George, monk of Jervaulx: 258 Lee, Edward, archbishop of York: 212

320

Lee, Sir Tristram, benefactor of Whalley: 76 Leeds Parish Church: 62, 224 Legate, Robert, Franciscan friar: 259 Legenda aurea: 219 Leigh, Gilbert (de), benefactor of Whalley: 76 Leland, John, antiquarian: 33, 40, 79, 117, 119, 131, 147, 203 Leschman, Rowland, prior of Hexham: 150, 243 Leyburne family, burials at Calder: 185 Lindisfarne Gospels: 37 n. 127 Lindley, John, abbot of Whalley: 69 liturgical metalwork: xlii, xxxii, 15, 38, 58, 58, 60, 71, 91, 92 n. 10, 106, 109, 113, 112, 209, 221, 231, 257, 259, 260. See also entries for individual monasteries Llandinabo Parish Church: 242 Lokesmyth, Robert, vestment maker of York: 28 Lollards: xxxvi, 180, 202 London, abbatial residences at: 26 Love, Nicholas, prior of Mount Grace: 116 Lowe, Beatrix, prioress of Swine: 231 Lucy family, benefactors of Sawley: 83 Ludolphus of Saxony: 151 Luxford, Julian: xxxiii, xxxiv, xlvi, 49, 73, 80, 89 Litlyngton, Nicholas, abbot of Westminster Abbey: 69 Magnus, king of Man, burial at Furness: 195 Manchester Collegiate Church: 227 Manners, Thomas, earl of Rutland, patron of Rievaulx: 254 manuscripts, illuminated and decorated: xxxvi, xxxvii n. 52, xlii, xliv, 1, 7, 26, 28, 31, 32, 36 n. 118, 56, 63, 64, 76, 77, 78, 88, 91 n. 2, 105 n.68, 107, 128 n. 178, 135 n.207, 167, 197, 204, 216, 217, 222, 223, 226, 237, 245, 262. See also entries for individual monasteries Marchel, William, monk of Holm Cultram: 257 Marham Abbey, Cistercian nunnery: 206 Markham, Robert (de), monk of Rufford: 181

INDEX Marks, Richard: 4 Marshall family, tenants of Kirkstall: 51 Marshall, John, benefactor of Nun Appleton: 219 Marshall, William, abbot of Kirkstall: 17, 51, 54 Martin V, pope: 70 Mary I, queen of England: 256, 261 masons see Coyre, Richard; Craven, Nicholas; Dam, David; Orchard, William; Sellers, Thomas; Scune, Christopher Matilda, dowager countess of Cambridge burial at Roche: 190, 197, 199 donation to Hampole: 229 Matthew, cantor of Rievaulx: 105 Matthew, William, benefactor of Kirkstall: 253 Maupas, John, benefactor of Swine: 253 Maurice, abbot of Rievaulx: xxxvii Meaux, Cistercian abbey: xxxix, xlv, 19, 133 abbots of see Beverley, Robert of; Brun, Michael; Burton, Thomas (de); Driffield, Roger of; Driffield, William of; Drynghow, William; Ryslay, John (de); Scarborough, William of altars: 128, 149 bell tower: 17 bells: 66, 99 n. 34, 104 benefactors: 47–48 burials: 145, 147, 149, 160, 162, 163, 164, 167, 187 chantries: 192 Corpus Christi, observance of feast at: 105, 106 Chronicle of: 38, 43, 47, 65, 66, 152, 164, 187. See also Burton, Thomas inventory of plate: 47–48 lay brothers numbers of: xlv stalls of: 12 n. 19 library: 105, 178 liturgical plate: 92 n. 4 monks of see Myton, Robert pilgrimage to: 136 relics: 127, 132, 136 retables: 38, 66

INDEX sculpture of Christ Crucified: 17, 101, 102, 136, 151–52, 231 seal: 154 suppression and destruction of: 255 Virgin Mary, images and veneration of: 113 Meaux, Sir John, benefactor of Meaux Abbey: 47 Medilton, Ainste (de): 228 Melrose, Cistercian abbey: 120, 161 Melton family, patrons of Swine: 244–45, 248 Melton, William, archbishop of York: 207, 214 Merevale, Cistercian abbey: 85 n. 205, 111 n. 100, 256 Merlay, Ralph (de), patron of Newminster: 187 Mersden, Richard, prior of Nostell: 230 Micklethwaite, Sir John: 43 Middleham Parish Church: 157, 265, 266 Ministry of Works: 44 misericords: 20, 55, 55, 56, 59, 232, 237, 238, 238, 243, 265 Mitton Parish Church, screen from Sawley Abbey: 29, 30 Mohaut, Johanna (de), prioress of Esholt: 209 Mone, Richard, prior of Bolton tower built by: 94, 94 Monk Bretton, Benedictine priory: 261 Monkton, Robert, abbot of Fountains: 148 Monnikendam, St Nicolaaskerk: 242 Moreby, Robert, monk of Fountains: 259 Mores, Neville, stationer of York: 28 Moresley, Richard, novice at Roche: 261 Moreton, Roger (de), chantry at Rievaulx: 193 Morpeth, John, abbot of Roche: xli Morton, John, cardinal: 69 mottos: 53, 54, 57, 59, 72, 73, 96, 98, 100 n. 36, 129, 130 Mount Grace Priory, Carthusian monastery: xli, 258 prior of see Love, Nicholas Mudde, Thomas, monk of Jervaulx: 258 Munkgate, John de, procurator of the abbots of Fountains and Furness: 76 Myton, Robert, prior of Meaux: 106

321

Nandyke, Katherine, prioress of Wykeham: 260 Neasham, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1 Netherhall, bench-end from Holm Cultram: 177 Newburgh, Augustinian priory: 244 Newcastle, priory of St Bartholomew: xxxix, 37, 203 n. 1, 207, 208, 220, 262 Newton Arlash, borough of Holm Cultram: 25 Netley, Cistercian abbey: 48, 181 n. 187, 191 n.244 Newminster, Cisterican abbey: xxxix, xli, 37, 207, 262 abbots of see Butler, John; Robert of Newminster under saints altars: 190, 191 benefactors: 73, 185–86, 187, 271 burials: 147, 183 n. 200 fortified granges: 24, 60 necrology: 75, 88 refenestration: 18, 74 St Robert, shrine and veneration of: 120, 137, 138, 147 sacking of: xlii Norbury, Geoffrey of, abbot of Whalley: 57 Norton, Augustinian priory: 200 Norton family, benefactors of Fountains: 79 coat of arms on Huby’s tower: 80 Norton, Christopher: xxxiv Nostell, Augustinian priory: 207, 230 Nun Appleton, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n.1, 208, 209, 231 benefactors: 219, 220–21, 226. See also Latham, John burials: 224 chantry: 221 dormitory: 212 infirmary: 213 prioresses of see Ryther, Agnes prioress’s lodging: 213 seal: 226 survey of: 211 vestments: 221 Nun Cotham, Cistercian nunnery: 207 Nunnykirk, grange of Newminster: 60

322

Obazine, Cistercian abbey: 157 oblations: 111 n. 100, 136, 137 Old Langho Parish Church, window tracery from Whalley: 252 Old Warden Parish Church, stained glass at: 58 Orchard, William, master mason: 68 n. 107 Ottringham, Richard of, benefactor of Meaux: 79 Overton, William, benefactor of Rievaulx: 74 Oxford, University of: xxxvi, 168, 179–80, 202, 228. See also Rymington, William All Soul’s College: 28 St Bernard’s College: 39, 67–68, 106–07 The Queen’s College: 173 n. 150 Page, Alice, prioress of Baysdale: 208 Pakefield Parish Church: 127 Paper (Papist) Hall, Mirfield: 261 Park, David: xxxiv, 83 n. 196 Parr family, patrons of Jervaulx: 86 Paslew, John, abbot of Whalley: 52, 71, 106, 256 Paslew, Thomas, abbot of Fountains: 152 Pecke (Peck), William, vicar at Ripon Mins­ ter and benefactor of Fountains: 76 Peers, Sir Charles: 44 Percy family: 77, 81, 208, 215 burials: 82, 184–85, 187, 189 heraldry: 83, 217, 225 Percy, Elizabeth, nun of Wykeham: 215 Percy, Henry, tomb at Fountains: 189, 190 Percy, Sir William, steward of Hampole: 215 Perwyn of Doncaster, monument at Roche: 200, 201 Pest, Richard, abbot of St Mary Grace’s: 143 n. 6 Peter, abbot of Rievaulx: 155 Peter von Grosmaringen, abbot of Bebenhausen: 100 Petty, John, glazier and benefactor of Furness: 28 stained glass angel attributed to: 28 Pevsner, Nikolaus: xxxi Pickering, John, prior of the York Dominicans: xxxvi Picturesque, appreciation of northern monasteries: 42 Piel Castle: 60, 60

INDEX Pilgrimage of Grace: xxxvi, 252, 272 Pilkington, Sir John, benefactor of Fountains: 74 Pipewell, Cistercian abbey: 115 n.18, 122 n.145, 125 n.156, 138 n. 225 pontificalia, grants of to Cistercian abbots: 52, 70–72, 88, 165, 167, 169, 174, 176, 270 Pontefract Castle: 220 Cluniac priory: 244 Pontefract, Robert of, monk of Whalley: 17 processions: 12, 13, 102–03, 105, 152, 175, 191, 231 Procter, Geoffrey, tenant and benefactor of Fountains: 75 Pudsay, Elizabeth, prioress of Kirklees: 224, 231, 248 Pym, Robert, abbot of Holm Cultram: 157 n. 78 Pynder, John, monk of Rievaulx: 259 Raby Cote, grange of Holm Cultram: 51 sculpture from Holm Cultram at: 76, 84, 86, 112, 112, 263 Ralph, abbot of Kirkstall: 92 n. 9 Randulf Fitzbarndolf, founder of Jervaulx: 83 Raventhorp, John, priest, benefactor of Byland: 115 Raybankes, Robert (de), abbot of Holm Cultram: 155 Redman, Richard, abbot of Shap: 94 Reginald I, king of Man, burial at Furness: 195 Regnault, François, bookseller: 32 relics: 38, 113, 118, 119, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132, 133, 136, 138, 139, 226, 258, 266. See also entries for individual monasteries retables: 29, 39, 61, 66, 85, 91, 105 n. 65, 109, 211, 243, 258, 259. See also entries for individual monasteries Richard, abbot of Calder: 160 Rievaulx, Cistercian abbey: xxxix, xli, 3, 5, 5, 33, 41, 44, 88, 120, 143, 271 abbots of see Blyton, Roland; Burton, John; Burton, Henry; Helmsley, William; Inkeley, John; Langton,

INDEX William (de); Maurice; Spencer, William; William benefactors: 73, 84 n. 203, burials: 62, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 153, 155, 158, 185, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 197, 199 chantries: 193 chapter house, modifications to: 19 church, liturgical arrangement of: 10, 12, 15, 194 crossing tower: xxxiii dormitory, modification to: 19 foundation: xxxvii gatehouse chapel: 256 granges: xlv heraldry at: 84 infirmary, conversion into abbot’s house: 22, 53 inventory: 252 library: 40, 57, 128, 178 manuscripts from: xxxvii n. 32 metalwork: 57, 58, 74 monks of see Pynder, John pulpitum screen: 12, 13 relics: 118, 137, 138. See also Aelred under saints St Christopher, image of: 126, 196–97, 272 sacking of: xlii sculpture: 29, 30, 91, 108, 264 seal: 109 shrines: 118–19, 137, 147. See also Aelred and William of Rievaulx under saints suppression f: 254, 256, 257, 259, 264 tannery: 24 Virgin Mary, images and veneration of: 108, 115–17, 191, 195 Rigton, William, abbot of Fountains: 158 Rilston family, chantry at Roche: 194, 201 Ripley Castle: 265 Ripon: xlii Anglo-Saxon monastery of St Wilfrid: 131–32 Minster: 14, 27, 95, 125–26, 131, 137, 195 canons and chaplains of see Dene, John; Pecke (Peck), William; Sober, John pilgrimage to: 130 Ripon, John, abbot of Fountains: 152, 167 Rites of Durham: 114

323

Robert, abbot of Newminster and saint see saints Robert de Verli, founder of Swine: 233 Roche, Cistercian abbey: xxxix, 44, 197 abbots of see Cundall, Henry; Morpeth, John bells: 99 n. 34 benefactors: 201, 224 burials: 12, 153, 155, 176–77, 186, 190, 194, 199, 200, 201 church, liturgical rearrangement of: 13, 14, 194 chantries: 193, 193, 194, 272 crossing tower: 16, 18 gatehouse: 22, 24 heraldry at: 84, 85 monks of see Moresley, Richard miraculous cross and origin of abbey’s name: 101 reconstitution of the community during reign of Mary I: 261, 273 sculpture: 109, 121 suppression: 254, 257, 259, 265 Robin Hood, legends and ballads: 203. See also Kirklees Robinson, David: xxxiv Rodam, John (de), benefactor of Fountains: 65 Roger de Mowbray, founder of Byland: 187 Rogerson, John, benefactor of Rievaulx: 137 Rolle, Richard: xxxvi, 103 veneration of at Hampole Priory: 228–230, 249 Romsey, Benedictine nunnery: 120, 154 de Roos family, patrons and benefactors of Rievaulx, 73 burials: 185, 189–90, 192, 199 heraldry: 83 Roos, Isabella (de), burial at Rievaulx: 188, 189 Roos, John (de), burial at Rievaulx: 190 Roos, Mary (de), burial at Rievaulx: 190, 199 Roos, Robert (de), benefactor of Rievaulx: 73 Roos, Thomas, benefactor of Sinningthwaite: 219 Roos, Thomas (de), lord of Helmsley, burial at Rievaulx: 185 Roos, William (de), benefactor of Rievaulx: 73

324

rosary, bequests of: 74, 137, 227 Rosedale, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1, 204, 208, 209 altar plate: 221, 254 benefactors: 210 infirmary: 213 inscriptions: 227 visitation: 214, 227–28 Rothley, fortified grange of Newminster: 60 Royaumont, Cistercian abbey: 175 Royden, Richard, benefactor of Hampole: 229 Rufford, Cistercian abbey: xxxix, 44 abbots of see Blyton, Roland benefactors: 73 church, rebuilding of: 73 monks of see Markham, Robert (de) reconstitution of the community during reign of Mary I: 261 visitation: xlv, 99 west range, conversion into abbot’s lodging: 21 Rule of St Benedict: xxx, 20, 26, 49, 63, 93, 178 Rushen, Cistercian abbey: 10 Russell, William, bishop of Sodor and Man, burial at Furness: 195 Rydecar, William, abbot of Holm Cultram, monument: 155, 157, 162, 164, 174, 177 Rymington, William, prior of Sawley and chancellor of Oxford University: xxxvi, monument: 179–80, 179, 202 Rypon, John, cellarer of Fountains, monument: 180 Ryslay, John (de), abbot of Meaux: 184 Ryther family, benefactors of Nun Appleton: 221, 224 Ryther, Agnes, prioress of Nun Appleton: 224 Ryther, Joan, prioress of Nun Appleton: 221, 224, 248 saints Aelred: xxxi, xxxvii, 128, 143, 144, altar and relic at Fountains: 137 Christ-centric piety of: 100, 230 feast of, observance at Rievaulx: 119 girdle of: 138

INDEX St Cuthbert, veneration of: 128 Shrine at Rievaulx: 40, 119–20, 147 Virgin Mary, veneration of: 117 Aleydis: 230 Alkede: 266 Ambrose: 168 Anne, relic at Fountains: 137 Augustine: xxxvii Bernard of Clairvaux: 128 Apologia: xxx, 227 devotions of: 101, 103, 107, 113, 147, 229 cell and oratory at Clairvaux: 34 images: 36, 113, 122–23, 124, 132 relics: 127, 138 sermons: 106, 117 Christopher death, association with: 196, 271 images of at northern Cistercian abbeys: 126–27, 138 Cuthbert, veneration of at northern Cistercian abbeys: 129, 130, 131 Eata, veneration of by Marmaduke Huby: 131 George, image of at Kirkstall: 125–26 Gregory the Great depiction of as doctor of the Church: 168 Mass and trental: 196, 197, 198 James the Great, images of and veneration of at Fountains: 122–23, 123 Katherine, images of and veneration at Fountains and Roche: 121, 121 Lawrence, altar at Fountains: 85 Malachy, relic of at Meaux: 127 Margaret, image of at Rievaulx: 264 Mary Magdalen altar at Newminster: 191 gatehouse chapel dedicated to at Byland: 84, 192 Michael: 138 veneration of at Fountains: 123–25 Ninian: 128 Oswald fictive arms of used by Fountains: 129 veneration of at Fountains: 129–30 Robert of Newminster girdle relic: 138 shrine of at Newminster: 120, 137

INDEX Wilfrid: xxv veneration of at northern Cistercian abbeys: 129–31 William, abbot of Rievaulx, shrine and veneration of at Rievaulx: 118 William of York, veneration of at northern Cistercian abbeys: 132–33, 132 Willibrord: 131 St Albans, Benedictine abbey: 120, 144 n. 11, 148, 150 n. 45, 180, 181 St Mary Graces, Cistercian abbey: 186 n. 222, 191 n. 244 abbots of see Pest, Richard Saltagh, grange of Meaux: 48 Salvin family, benefactors of Swine: 245 Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire, window tracery from Whalley: 263 Savage, Thomas, archbishop of York: 79 Savignac Order: xxxvii Savoy, palace of the, residence of the abbot of Furness: 26 Sawley, Cistercian abbey: xxxvi, xxxix, xli, 44, 77, 132 n. 199, 233 abbatial lodging: 21 abbots of see Stanford, William benefactors: 74, 87, 184–85, 197 building works: 10, 11 burials: 83, 179, 180 n. 179, 184–85, 188, 195 bursars’ accounts: 37, 50 chantries: 192 church, rebuilding of: 13 craftsmen resident at: 252 foundation of: 81 heraldry at: 82–83 monks of see Rymington, William plate: 74, 254 screen from: 7, 29, 30 suppression: 257 Virgin Mary, image of: 110 Sawtry, Cistercian abbey: 136 n. 209 Scarborough, William of, abbot of Meaux: 47, 66, 104, 152, 164 Scrope, Sir Geoffrey (le), benefactor of Roche: 85 Scrope, Sir Ralph, burial at Rievaulx: 191 Scrope, Sir Richard: 84–85 Scrope, Thomas (le), abbot of Jervaulx: 85

325

Scrope vs. Grosvenor, case in the Court of Chivalry: 84–85 sculpture: 29–31, 30, 31, 41, 44, 71, 101, 110, 112, 115, 116, 120, 126, 135–36 alabaster: 7–8, 29, 29, 91, 109 n. 86, 114, 115, 228, 257, 258 ivory: 8, 113, 127 see also entries for individual monasteries Scune, Christopher, master mason: 27, 95 seals: 36, 50, 69, 70, 70, 83, 109, 110, 129, 154, 157 n.78, 176, 226, 228 n. 147, 247 Sedbar, Adam, abbot of Jervaulx, 258, 272 screen with initials at Aysgarth: 55, 252, 253, 267 Selby, Benedictine abbey: 244 abbots of see Barwick, John: 160, 170 Seleth, hermit: 107 Sellers, Thomas, master mason: 27 Senhouse, Simon, prior of Carlisle: 176 Shap Abbey, Westmorland abbot of see Redman, Richard tower: 95, 95 Sheen Palace: 25 Sherbrook, Michael: 254 Sibton, Cistercian abbey: 51 n. 18, 63 n. 79, 65 n. 86 Silkstede, Thomas, prior of Winchester: 32 Singleton, William of, monk of Whalley: 63 Sinningthwaite, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 206, 207, 208, 209, 231 altar plate: 221 benefactors: 210, 219, 220 burials: 218 dormitory: 212 library: 220 refectory: 204, 212, 213, 214 vestments: 219 Skirlaugh, chantry chapel of Bishop Walter Skirlaw: 220 Skirlaw, Joan, prioress of Swine: 220 Skirlaw, Walter, bishop of Durham: 220, 246 Snaith, Ralph, tenant and benefactor of Fountains: 75 Snape, Peter (de), abbot of Jervaulx: 146, 155, 162, 165 Sober, John, chaplain at Ripon Minster: 117 South Cerney Parish Church, fragment of rood image: 151

326

Southwell Minster: 136 n. 209, 220 Southwell, Robert: 96, 256 Spencer, William, abbot of Rievaulx: 57 Spofford, Thomas, abbot of St Mary’s, York: 196 Stainton family, benefactors of Kirklees and Roche: 224 Stainton, Elizabeth, prioress of Kirklees: 222 Stalley, Roger: xxxiv Staneley, Alicia (de), benefactor of Furness: 77, 78 Stanford, William, abbot of Sawley: 29 screen inscribed with name and image of the Annunciation: 30 Stanley, Edward, first lord Mounteagle, bene­ factor of Sawley and Whalley: 86, 88 Stanley, James, bishop of Ely: 227 Stanlow, Cistercian abbey and later cell of Whalley: xl, 1 burials: 184 images: 121, 125 Stapleton, Sir Brian: 228 Stattenaut, Johannes, abbot of Salem: 71 Statute of Carlisle (1307): 50 Statutes of Chichester (1292): 191 Stell, John, illuminator and monk of Furness, 26, 56 Stephen, king of England: 60 Stöber, Karen: 75 Stocking, Cistercian abbey, vision of the Virgin Mary in the cloister at: 108 Stonyhurst College, wood- and stone-work from Whalley: 252 Storres, Thomas, benefactor of Roche: 186 Stratford Langthorne, Cistercian abbey burials: 195 Pietà: 115 n. 118 Stuteville, William (de), burial at Fountains: 189 Suppression of the Monasteries: 251–67 Sutton, Thomas, abbot of Byland: 159 Swine, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n.1, 204, 205, 207, 208, 213, 231, 232 benefactors: 219–220, 232, 237, 245, 246, 248, 253, 262 burials: 199, 227, 233, 245, 246 chantries: 220, 238–45, 272 choir stalls: 211, 232, 235, 236, 237–38, 238

INDEX cloister: 246 dormitory: 209 foundation of: 233 guilds: 248 lay brothers: 233 library: 220, 222 painted decoration: 247 Pietà: 227 plan of: 211 prioresses of see Lowe, Beatrix; Skirlaw, Joan; Wade, Maud seal: 247 screens: 238–45, 239, 241, 262, 269, 272 Virgin Mary, veneration of: 247 Swineshead, Cistercian abbey, Jesus altar at: 105 n. 65 Swinton, Thomas, abbot of Fountains: 106, 167, 168, 270 Syon, Bridgettine abbey: 220 Tarrant Keynes, Cistercian nunnery: 206, 226 Tart, Cistercian nunnery: 206 Tempest family, benefactors of Sawley: 83 Temple Hirst, seat of Sir George Darcy: 248 Tervuren, St Janskerk: 242 Thame, Cistercian abbey: 99 abbots of see King, Robert Thoresby, Ralph, antiquarian: 41, 199 Thornton, Robert, abbot of Jervaulx: 51, 106 monument: 156, 157,165, 265 papal indult to hold lay benefice: 53 vestment: 56, 157, 263 Thorpe Underwood, grange of Fountains: 143 Thursecrosse, Dame Joan, benefactor of Kirkstall: 253 Thurstan, archbishop of York and founder of Fountains: xxix, 33 Tintern, Cistercian abbey, abbatial monument at: 158 Tirplady, Sir William, burial at Byland: 189 Tonge, Thomas, herald: 40 Topcliffe, Robert, abbot of Whalley: xlv Towneley Hall, Lancashire, vestments from Whalley Abbey: 6, 262 trentals: 197 Turner, J.M.W.: 41, 42 Tyndhede, Thomas, benefactor of Kirkstall: 74

INDEX Umfraville family, benefactors of Newminster: 185 Umfraville, Isabelle (de), burial at Newminster: 186, 191 Upsall, Sir Geoffrey, chantry at Byland: 192 Urban VI, pope: xl Vale Royal, Cistercian abbey: 84, 85 Valor Ecclesiasticus: 204, 208, 211 Valle Crucis, Cistercian abbey abbots of see Adam Vernon, Lady Isabella, benefactor of Hampole: 217, 226 Vavasour family, benefactors of Sawley: 83 Vavasour, Anne, nun of Swine: 247 Vavasour, Sir John, benefactor of Ellerton: 218 vestments: xxx, xliv, 1, 6, 38, 39, 53, 62, 63, 68, 86, 88, 170, 214, 219, 221, 253, 257, 259, 260, 261, 265, 267. See also entries for individual monasteries vestments, surviving from Jervaulx: 27, 56, 165, 263, 266. See also Hedley, Alice; Thornton, Robert from Whalley: 27, 108, 109, 262. See also Towneley Hall Villiers-en-Brabant, Cistercian abbey, abbatial burials at: 148 Virgin Mary feasts of: 107 images of at northern English Cistercian monasteries: 6, 29, 29, 30, 31, 112–14, 112, 159, 163, 176 n. 160, 190, 217, 226, 236, 247, 248, 258, 264, 271 Annunciation: 29–31, 115–17, 159, 163, 236, 258 Pietà: 114–15, 114, 196, 199, n. 294 Office of: 107, 111 relics: 138, 226 seals, depiction on: 109, 110, 110, 226, 247 veneration of: 72, 92, 100, 102, 107–17, 137, 147, 190, 193, 205, 214, 226, 240, 248 Wade, Maud, prioress of Swine: 231 devotional manuscript owned by: 222, 223, 248

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Wadynton, James, carpenter at Sawley: 252 Wake, Thomas (de), second baron Wake and benefactor of Meaux: 47 Walter Espec, founder of Rievaulx Abbey and Kirkham Priory: 128 n. 178, 185 Walter Daniel, monk of Rievaulx and author: 117, 144 Walton, John, monk of Whalley: 179 Ward family, patrons of Esholt: 217, 224, 228 Ward, Joan, prioress of Esholt: 217 Ward, Matilda, prioress of Esholt: 218 Warden, Cistercian abbey abbot of see Clifton, Walter morses from: 58, 113 Warburton, John, herald: 36 Wars of the Roses: xxxv Watson, Thurston, monk of Kirkstall: xli Waverley, Cistercian abbey: 168 ‘Wavermouth’, borough of Holm Cultram: 25 Welburn, grange of Rievaulx: 257 West Ritton, fortified grange of Newminster: 60 Westerdale, Isabella, nun of Wykeham: 230 Westminster, Benedictine abbey: 63 abbatial burials: 144, 157 abbots of see Islip, John; Litlyngton, Nicholas chantry of Henry VII: 242 heraldry at: 85 St Christopher, image of: 126 Whalley, Cistercian abbey: xl–xli, 1, 42, 43, 106, 110, 178 abbatial lodging: 256 abbots of see Lindley, John; Norbury, Geoffrey of; Paslew, John; Topcliffe, Robert; Whalley, William bell tower: 17 benefactors: 76, 77, 86–87, 88, 184 building works: 10, 17, 50, 52, 252 burials: 153, 179, 184, 199, 202 bursars’ accounts: 37–38, 50, 62, 137, 252, 267, 272 choir stalls: 7, 7, 27, 55 gatehouses: 22–23, 22, 23, 24, 44, 110 Henry VI, king of England, veneration of at: 137–38 Holy Name, veneration of at: 104 inventory: 56, 86, 91, 109, 124

328

Lady Chapel: 52 library: 63 manuscripts: xxxvi, 76 monks of see Pontefract, Robert of; Singleton, William; Walton, John; Wood, Thomas pontificalia, grant of: 52, 71 refectory: 20 seal: 69 suppression: 261, 265 vestments: 1, 6, 56, 62, 86, 108, 109, 124, 262, 263, 273. See also Towneley Hall Virgin Mary, images of: 110, 137, 258 wages paid to monks: 63–64 west range: 21, 21 Whalley, William, abbot of Whalley: 55, 55 Whitaker, Thomas D., antiquarian: 41 Wienhausen, Cistercian nunnery cloister: 246 painted decoration: 247 William, abbot of Rievaulx and beatus see saints William le Gros, patron of Meaux: 187 William of Lancaster, burial at Furness: 189 William of Malmesbury, monastic chronicler: 183, 202 William of Newburgh, monastic chronicler: xxxvii William Percy, founder of Sawley: 184 Willes, William, dean of Middleham: 266 wills, evidential value of: 39 Willoughby, Robert (de), abbot of Calder: 160, 162 Winchester Benedictine cathedral priory choir stalls: 32 priors of see Silkstede, Thomas bishops of: 31 Winksley, grange of Fountains, inscriptions on the chapel at: 130, 130, 132 Wolsey, Thomas, cardinal archbishop of York: xliii, 31, 244 Wolsty Castle, fortified manor of Holm Cultram: 61

INDEX Wood, Thomas, prior of Whalley: 179 Worcester, Benedictine cathedral priory: 144 n. 11 Wycham, John (de), benefactor of Wykeham: 214 Wykeham, Cistercian nunnery: xxxix, 203 n. 1, 209 benefactors: 214, 219 nuns of see Grymston, Johanna; Percy, Elizabeth; Westerdale, Isabella plan of: 211 prioresses of see Nandyke, Katherine prioress’s lodging: 213 rebuilding: 213–14 seal: 226 vestments: 219 Wyleby, Isabella, benefactor of Hampole: 229 Wymbersley, William, abbot of Kirkstall: 106 Wyvill, Christopher: 264 Wyvill, Robert: 79 Wyvill, Sir Marmaduke: 264 York book trade: 28, 32 city bars: 61 craftsmen: 158, 243 ecclesiastical province of: xxxvii glaziers: 28 Corpus Christi Guild of: 106 liturgical use of: 226, 228, 230, 259 St Christopher Guild of: 196 St Mary’s Abbey: 33, 244, 265 abbots of see Spofford, Thomas urban properties of northern Cistercian abbeys: 25–26 York Minster burials: 164, 171 n. 161, heraldry: 85 images: 137 pulpitum screen: 14 St William, shrine of: 132 York, Thomas, abbot of Holm Cultram: 55

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