An unsuccessful mission
When the illustrious hermit, Robert of Knaresborough, was nearing death
in 1218, the monks of Fountains hurried to his cell with a Cistercian
habit, so that the holy man could be buried in the white garment. Read
more..
In addition to these external demands, the three Johns
had to deal with the general business of administering the abbey and its
estates. This meant addressing matters of discipline and reform, of recruitment
and patronage, maintaining the upkeep of the abbey’s buildings and
conducting an annual visitation of its daughter-houses. The latter was especially
difficult given the size of family that Fountains had spawned and the fact
that one of its daughter-houses, Lyse, was in Norway. For the abbot of Fountains
personally to visit each of these foundations every year, to travel to the
General Chapter meeting at Cîteaux and keep up with all his other
engagements relating to the abbey and its estates, was impossible. Fountains
clearly struggled, for the abbot was reprimanded on several occasions for
failing to visit Lyse in person; in 1213 Fountains was relieved (or deprived)
of this duty, when the task was passed to Alvastra, in Sweden.
The Irish abroad
In 1228 Fountains was one of several communities who received a
request from Abbot Stephen
of Lexington, who had conducted a rigorous
visitation of the Cistercian abbeys in Ireland and found them in
serious need of reform. Stephen wrote to the abbot of Fountains,
asking him to receive for a temporary period, certain Irish monks
who had repented of their wrongdoings, but had yet to complete
their penance for these crimes. Abbot Stephen informed Fountains
that their Irish brethren would remain with them in Yorkshire for
about two years, until they had completed their penance; after
this they could return to Ireland. Four of these Irish miscreants
were sent to Fountains. They came from the abbeys of Baltinglass (Co.
Wicklow) and Jerpoint (Co.
Kilkenny), which had been made subject to Fountains in 1227. There
were three brothers from Jerpoint
- Brendan, the sub-prior of Jerpoint, ‘M’, a monk of
the house, and ‘C’, formerly precentor -
Malachy, former abbot of Baltinglass.(75) Malachy’s
spell at Fountains clearly did not have the desired effect for
he was
later
denounced by Abbot
Stephen as ‘that perverse and wily fox’, and noted
for his malice at the General Chapters of 1231 and 1233.(76)
