Fountains Abbey

BEGI

he simple beginning, the brethren ate and slept and said thei

id that the monks found their first shelter under the yews. But Serlo settled the matter, hundreds of years ago, in favour of the elm. Ulmus, he

the river Skell and the stream from Stank's pond, not far from the eastern boundary of the Abbey site." But the smooth turf covers the place. Only the yews look down from their gentle hill upon the broken walls. There they were when the monks came, a little adventurous company, to begin their life

s Abbey belonged to t

en worsted. They had verified the wise saying, "When anybody does a good thing, all the neighbours join together to keep him from doing it again." They had grown rich in the treasures which are subject to the invasions of moth and rust and thieves, but

y to save his soul, and made a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way back, in Burgundy, he chanced upon a little company of monks, who were encamped in a clearing in the midst of a thick forest. They had built a chapel with the trunks of trees,

went, and a few like-minded brethren with him, in quest of hardship, which they found at Citeaux. This was a wild place in the dark woods, with a deep stream running{5} through the midst

k a fancy for going to church at the monastery chapel, so that the plain place shone with their silks and jewels, and the simple brethren were distracted in their prayers by the neighbourhood of all this fine array. The chapel was becoming a fashionable church. By th

cord." There must be no gold or silver in the church, except a silver cup for the sacramental wine. A single candlestick must suffice for light, and that must be of iron and straight from top to bottom. Vestments must be of common stuff, no more of silk or cloth-of-gold. All the pictures must come

honesty, he took it off the table, carried it into the fields and gave it to the shepherds. The brethren used to notice that in the evening, when the abbot went into the church, he often stopped, after he had shut the door, and pressed against it with his hand. And when they asked him

is good planting came to its proper harvest. One day, in the year 1113, thirty men appeared at the gates of Citeaux, asking to be received as novices. And their leader was a man whose character and strength

, at the head of the Order, sent over a colony which settled in the valley of the Rie, at Rievaux.{9} There they lived their new life

m his son. It was so fine that Richard the prior and a little company of sympathetic brethren, touched by the example of the simple manners

ught confusion into the holy house; they had attempted to break their solemn vows. To this, the prior made appropriate answers, but satisfaction was impossible. Back and forth, the matter was discussed all summer, most of the monks taking the abbot's part. At last, in October, the archbishop came. There was a noisy meeting in the cloister; abbot and archbishop, monks and seculars; with the townsfolk crowding at the abbey gate. "Your church is interdicted!" cried the archbishop, raising his voice above the din. "I

shop's house. Even this little company were not all of one mind, for presently two of them were homesick and went back; of whom Ralph "made terms with his flesh and his belly clav

les into the country, he established them upon a piece of his own land, in the narrow valley of the Skell. The deed of gift of this land-the "charter of foundation"-is still preserved at Studley Royal

hey made a thatched hut, with the trunk of the great elm for roof-pole, and having{13} chosen the prior Richard to be their abbot, they began with contented minds to live the life of devotion and straitness for which they had longed amidst the pernicious comforts of

lves more perfectly to God. They took life very seriously. They had stout convictions, and

men of Fountains with great kindness, finding in them a spirit kindred with his own. He sent them back with a gracious letter, which is still preserved. Fratribus charissimis et desideratissimis, he wrote, Ricardo abbati et hiis qui cum eo sunt, frater Bernardus abbas Clareva

eed, continued to be good to them, and the neighbours occasionally sent things in,-housewive

the friendly elm, as the narrative says, affording them food as well as shelter. One day, they said, the Lord Christ knocked at the door, in the guise of an ill-clad, hungry man, and asked an alms in the starving time, when they had but two loaves and a half, and no prospects of more.

ifferent matter. This was destitution rather than poverty, so that, the next year, when there appeared no likelihood of any betterment, the abbot made a journey to Clairva

ntains as they faced the reproaches of their brethren; and being now an old man and tired of the world,{17} he had resolved to say his prayers for the rest of his life with them. Thus he had resigned his high position, and turned his back on his splendid minster, and had cas

person. And each added to the treasury. Then Robert and Raganilda de Sartis, owners of the neighbouring estate of Herleshow, gave{18} it to the monks, adding to it the forest of Warsall. Also Serlo de Pembroke, a young courtier-juvenis quidam de domo regis-lying at the point of death, gave them his country-seat at Cayton, an

im from payment of "taxes, danegelds, assises, pleas and scutages." Also, a lit

the brethren, increasing their possessions, pouring down showers of benediction, being a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left. What perfection of life, he cries, was there at Fountains! What emula