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Religious and Secular Motives for some English Monastic Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Richard Mortimer
Richard Mortimer*
Affiliation:
University of LondonInstitute of Historical Research
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Extract

Hanc autem donationem feci eis pro salute memorati domini mei illustris Regis Henrici et pro salute anime mee et Berthe uxoris mee, et omnium antecessorum et successorum nostrorum. Thus briefly Rannulf de Glanville explains his foundation of Leiston abbey, and we have no reason to doubt his word. This motive is completely conventional and occurs in virtually every contemporary monastic foundation charter, which underlines its validity rather than detracting from it. Perhaps there is no need to look further; but Glanville’s is not the only voice to be heard on the foundation of Leiston abbey, and the founder does not answer all the questions we should like to ask. Did he perhaps have other motives? How did he go about choosing a religious order? To these questions we have to find our own answers. We can arrange facts in a suggestive series, and then ascribe more or less simple intentions which explain them. The shortcomings of such a method are obvious, though the results can be plausible and are often the only ones available. The unreliability of the answer is our penance for the temerity of the question.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 15: Religious Motivation Biographical and Sociological Problems for the Church Historian , 1978 , pp. 77 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1978

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References

1 Leiston Cartulary (BL MS Cotton Vespasian E xiv) fols 3535/v. See Mortimer, R. C., ‘An edition of the Cartulary of Leiston Abbey’, PhD thesis London 1977 Google Scholar.

2 MA 6 pt 1 pp 380-1; Ellis, A. J. and Bickley, F., Index to the Charters and Rolls in the British Museum (London 1900) 2 pp 106-7Google Scholar.

3 Leiston Cartulary.

4 MA 6 pt 2 p 769; BL Harley Roll N 20.

5 Giraldi Cambrensis Opera , RS 21, 4 (1873) pp 244-5Google ScholarPubMed.

6 Leiston Cartulary fols 33v-4r; Pipe Roll 19 Henry II, P[ipe] R[oll] S[ociety] (London 1895) p 132—£10 allowed on honour of Eye account: the full yearly allowance was £20, Pipe Roll 21 Henry II, PRS (1897) p 126.

7 Colvin, [H. M.], [ The White Canons in England ] (Oxford 1951) p 358 Google Scholar. My indebtedness to this work will become clear.

8 Leiston Cartulary fols 1r-9r, 29r-32v, 39r, 40v-1v.

9 Ibid (fols 31r-2v.

10 Ibid fols 34r, 11v, 17v-18r. In some cases it has been erased and rewritten.

11 Colvin pp 345-8.

12 EYC 3 pp 318, 326; BL MS Harley 3640 fol 41r; Jeayes, I. H., A Descriptive Catalogue of Derbyshire Charters (Derby 1906) no 1079 Google Scholar.

13 BL MS Cotton Vespasian E xxiii fols 5r/v; Eyton, R. W., Court, Household and Itinerary of King Henry II (London 1878) pp 245-6Google Scholar.

14 Dickinson, J. C., The Origin of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London 1950) pp 126-30Google Scholar.

15 Colvin pp 101-4.

16 Ibid pp 106-7.

17 Ibid pp 107-8, 343 no 8.

18 Chromca Magistri Rogeri de Hovedene , RS 51 (1868-71) 4 p lxiii nGoogle ScholarPubMed.

19 EYC 5 nos 359, 335.

20 Colvin pp 348-9.

21 Ibid pp 349-50.

22 Farrer, W., The Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey, Chetham Society (Manchester 1898) 2 pt 1 Google Scholar, frontispiece; compare MA 6 pt 2 p 906 no 1.

23 Colvin pp 150-3.

24 Ibid p 165; Stenton, D. M., The Earliest Lincolnshire Assize Rolls, Lincoln Record Society (1926) pp xxiv–xxv Google Scholar.

25 Saltman, A., The Cartulary of Dale Abbey (HMSO London 1967) p 4 Google Scholar.

26 Colvin pp 178-89, 191-3.

27 Hinnebusch, W. A., The Early English Friars Preachers (Rome 1951) p 107 Google Scholar; Briwerre founded Dunkeswell, Devon (Colvin p 153 n 4), and Theobald Walter Arklow (MRHI p 126).

28 Cheney, C. R., Hubert Walter (London 1967) p 154 n 4Google Scholar.

29 P1. Lefevre, F., Les Statuts de Prémontré (Louvain 1946) pp 91-3Google Scholar. De construendis abbatns is part of the earliest legislation.

30 Colvin pp 30-1. The evidence cited is rather scanty.

31 Ibid p 38.