Jervaulx was originally founded in 1145 by Acarius Fitz Bardolph, lord of Ravensworth. According to the foundation story, a group of monks from Savigny, Normandy, led by Peter de Quinciacus, wished to establish a house in Yorkshire along Cistercian lines. They sought land from the lord of Ravensworth, who gave them a site at Fos, by the River Ure, now known as Wensleydale. In 1146 the monks were refused membership of the Savigniac Order.
Roger of BYLAND (1142-1196) petitioned on their behalf and was initially refused on the grounds that the community was too weak to survive independently, but Roger’s persistence, perhaps coupled with the fact that the Savigniac Order was now absorbed into the Cistercian family, eventually secured their acceptance. Roger was one of the original group that left Furness for Calder in 1134. Gerold led the Savigniac group from Furness to Calder in 1134, to establish a new community in Cumberland. In 1142, following the death of Abbot Gerold, Roger was elevated to the abbacy. Byland was founded as a Savigniac house in 1134, but was brought within the Cistercian family following the absorption of the Savigniac Congregation in 1147. By the late twelfth century Byland, Fountains and Rievaulx were described as 'the three shining lights of the North.
The community of Byland started as a colony of monks sent from Furness, to Calder, Cumberland, in 1134, but moved to several locations before finally settling at the present site, near the village of Coxwold. The monks of Jervaulx were formally acknowledged as part of the Cistercian Order in 1150, at the intervention of Bernard of Clairvaux. The site at Fors was exposed to wind, rain and fog, which made it difficult for the community to ripen their crops. The monks sought to relocate, and their request was granted by Roger de Mowbray; in 1156 they moved some sixteen miles east, to the present site on the south bank of the River Ure / Jore.
John of Kingston, a monk of Byland led a colony of nine monks from his house to instruct the new community in Cistercian customs; John presided as the first abbot. Roger of Byland retired of old age in 1196, after an abbacy of over fifty years. However, he remained as a monk of Byland and indeed it was he who provided his successor, Philip, with information for the foundation history, compiled in 1197. Philip had previously presided as abbot of Lannoy in Beauvais. Jervaulx was suppressed in 1537 and the buildings demolished early in 1539. The standing remains of the abbey include part of the church and claustral buildings, as well as a watermill; the pulpitum screen with part of the stalls can now be seen in Aysgarth Church. Today, BYLAND abbey remains include one of the largest cloisters in England, which was glazed in the fifteenth century to keep out the cold. Excavation has recovered stunning thirteenth-century floor tiles in the church, as well as the only stone lecturn base in England. Byland’s altar is now at Ampleforth Abbey.
The SAVIGNIAC ORDER had its origins in 1105 when Vitalis of Mortain established a hermitage in the forest of Savigny. The community later followed the Benedictine Rule, wore grey habits and founded daughter-houses. By 1147 the Order was experiencing financial and administrative problems, prompting the head of the Savigniacs, Abbot Serlo of Savigny, to approach the General Chapter of Cîteaux in 1147, seeking the absorption of his congregation. His request was accepted and this brought fourteen houses in England and Wales within the Cistercian family.
HOLMCULTRAM abbey, near Carlisle in County Cumbria was founded in 1150 by Prince Henry, son of David I King of Scotland. Prince Henry ruled over the province in the north of England called Cumberland, which had been ceded to Scotland by King Stephen (1135-54). Holmcultram was intended as an affiliation of King David’s own foundation of Melrose, and the first monks were thus brought from this abbey. Holmcultrum was the richest and most influential of the religious houses in Cumberland and Westmoreland, yet its proximity to the border meant that the house also suffered greatly during the years of hostility between Scotland and England. Although Holmcultrum did not remain a purely Scottish institution: it had friends and benefactors on both sides of the border and King Henry II of England extended his protection to it after he re-established his authority over this area in 1157.
Great damage was inflicted upon the abbey during the Scottish attack of 1319 and for a while the monks had to find shelter in neighbouring religious houses. The abbey was one of the Cumbrian houses at which Edward stayed during his expeditions against Scotland. In 1428 the house was reported to have been in a state of disrepair. The house also occupied a pre-eminent position amongst the religious houses of England: the abbot of Holcultram was summoned to parliament and to the great councils of state between 1294 and 1312; the abbot was also selected to pray for the souls of Edmund, earl of Cornwall (1296) and for Joan, queen of France (1305).
The value of the house in 1535 was assessed at £477, and despite all its problems there were still twenty-four monks at the time of the Dissolution (March, 1538). Following the Dissolution the local people petitioned Thomas Cromwell for the use of the church, which they were duly granted. Unfortunately, the church does not seem to have been kept in good repair and in the sixteenth century the tower fell. In 1724 a Trust was set up to ensure that the parts of the church still used for worship were restored to a good state. The western parts of the nave remain in use as the parish church of Abbey Town.
At the time of the Dissolution the total income of the abbey was valued at £537, which made St. Mary’s by far the richest monastery of the Cistercian Order in Ireland. Only two English Cistercian houses, Furness and Fountains, exceeded this income. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 when the last abbot, William Laundie, surrendered his title. Following the dissolution of the house, the goods and chattels were sold off by the royal commissioners: the sale yielded the huge sum of £192. By 1541 the abbey had been taken over by John Travers, master of the king’s ordinance, and the church was transformed into an arsenal for the royal army. The abbot’s lodging and garden was occupied by Leonard Grey, the lord deputy, as a convenient dwelling close to the city of Dublin.
St. Mary’s was founded in 1139 for the Benedictine monks of Savigny. In 1147 the Savigniac order was united with the house of Citeaux and the community at St. Mary’s became Cistercian. St. Mary’s appears to have become subject to Combermere (Cheshire) at this time and in 1156-7 affiliation was transferred to Buildwas (Shropshire). In 1301 an unsuccessful attempt was made to break away from affiliation with Buildwas. St. Mary’s was founded three years before Mellifont and this led to conflict between the two houses over seniority in Ireland. The General Chapter recognized the claims of St. Mary’s in 1313. St. Mary’s sent out two colonies to establish daughter-houses, at Dunbrody (1182) and Abbeylara (1214). The monks were compelled to undertake extensive reconstruction of the abbey project following a fire in 1304, which was said to have destroyed abbey, church and steeple. St. Mary’s was one of the largest and most important monasteries in Ireland. The abbey, situated opposite the old city of Dublin, was frequently involved in the affairs of city and state.
In 1399 the abbot of Dublin, Stephen Ross, was absolved by Pope Boniface IX from every penance he had earned for impurity, unfair treatment of clerics, leaving his monastery without permission, entering convents of nuns, carrying forbidden arms, showing a lack of respect for hid superiors, conspiring against them and other people, and frequenting taverns. In the later Middle Ages Abbot Walter Champfleur of St. Mary’s laboured in vain to reform the Order, and when he died in 1497, as ‘an aged, prudent and learned man’, he was much lamented.
In 1543 a substantial part of the abbey was leased to James, earl of Desmond; the grant included the abbot’s lodgings, the abbot’s chambers and the infirmary. Most of the monastic buildings had disappeared by the 1680s when this part of the city was redeveloped by Sir Humphrey Jervis and Sir Richard Reynell, only the chapter-house escaped demolition. A life-size oak Madonna is the only relic known to have survived from the abbey, and is now preserved in the Carmelite church in Whitefriar Street. The chapter-house has been restored and now houses an exhibition, which is open to the public throughout the year.