25. ABBEY OF MEAUX
The abbey of Meaux or Melsa was founded in
1150 by the Earl of Albemarle, William le Gros,
lord of Holderness, (fn. 1) in lieu of a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land which he had vowed to undertake.
Adam, a monk of Fountains, was invited by the
earl to select a site for the proposed abbey and
decided upon Meaux in Holderness, a wellwooded and well-watered district to the east of
Beverley, in the midst of which was an eminence
called St. Mary's Hill. Striking his staff into the
ground he exclaimed, ' Here shall be ordained a
people worshipping Christ.' (fn. 2) This site the earl
had already begun to empark for his own use, and
he tried to substitute some other place, but the
monk remained firm. (fn. 3) Temporary buildings
were at first erected, and a chapel close by, and
then on 28 December 1150 the earl sent to
Fountains Abbey for thirteen brethren, including
the monk Adam who was to be first abbot.
These ' religious' entered their new home on
1 January, and the abbey became the last of seven
religious houses springing from Fountains, ' all
daughters of one mother' (fn. 4) and all founded before
the parent abbey had attained her majority. (fn. 5)
In the Chronica two well-arranged tables are
given of the lands, &c., acquired during the
abbacies of the first eighteen heads of the house.
In these lists 129 places are particularized where
the properties were situated. (fn. 6) Between 1160 and
1182 a stone church and dormitory were begun (fn. 7) ;
in 1182-97 this church was demolished and a
new one begun, (fn. 8) and in the same period a stone
refectory, wash-house and kitchen were built, (fn. 9)
and a refectory for the lay-brethren begun (fn. 10) ; in
1197-1210 the cloisters were started and another
new church, which was finally finished, its high
altar being consecrated in 1253 (fn. 11) ; in 1220-35
the infirmary was taken in hand (fn. 12) ; in 1249-69
the belfry was erected and the great bell ' Benedict ' hung in it, and a granary also built (fn. 13) ; in
1286-1310 a chamber east of the cemetery was
erected, and the abbot's chamber east of the
infirmary. (fn. 14) The fourteenth abbot (1310-39)
and one of the monks, John of Ulram, decorated
the high altar with paintings, and a chapel was
commenced over the abbey gateway; William,
the eighteenth abbot (1346-69), made numerous
alterations and improvements and founded the
great 'Jesus' bell; and in 1396-9 three bells
were added. (fn. 15)
This development of the monastic buildings
was dictated by the exigencies of the brethren
from time to time. During the first abbacy
strenuous efforts were made to raise the number of monks to forty; later on it sprang up to
fifty; about 1235 another was added by a benefaction ad hoc; another soon followed in the same
way; and in 1249 there were no less than sixty
monks. A century later, 1349, the number had
gone down to forty-two, in 1393 there were only
twenty-eight, (fn. 16) and at the Dissolution there were
no more than twenty-five including the abbot. (fn. 17)
But besides the monks there were varying
numbers of conversi or lay brethren. By the
year 1249 there were no less than ninety of them,
in 1349 there were only seven, (fn. 18) and in the period
1372-96 there were none. (fn. 19)
The first abbot, Adam, had been one of the
little band of monks who in 1132, discontented
with the laxity of the Benedictine Abbey of
York, had founded Fountains Abbey. Since then
he had been active in establishing new foundations
at Woburn and Vaudey, (fn. 20) and he now threw
himself enthusiastically into the task of fostering
the infant community at Meaux. But his zeal
outran his discretion, and liberal as were the endowments which he secured for the abbey, they were
insufficient to support the forty monks whom he
had drawn together. Although he gave up his
own tunics to clothe the novices, circumstances
were too strong for him, and in 1160 the convent had temporarily to be broken up. (fn. 21) Morti
fied by his failure, he meditated resignation, under
pretext of a journey to Rome, undertaken in
connexion with his unauthorized surrender of
certain charters to Archbishop Roger. (fn. 22) Accordingly in 1160 he resigned and retired to an
anchorite's cell in the newly-founded priory of
Watton, where he lived for seven years, until
the church and his cell were burnt down,
when he returned to Meaux, dying there in
1180. (fn. 23)
The second abbot, Philip, Prior of Kirkstead,
who succeeded in 1160, bore office for twentytwo years and maintained the numbers and
spiritual discipline of the house, though he did
not greatly increase its wealth. During the rule
of his successor the house was involved in a costly
lawsuit with the powerful Sir Robert de Thurnham; bad seasons, with a failure of crops, hit the
monks hard, and to crown all, they had to raise
300 marks for the ransom of King Richard.
Once more the convent had to be broken up, (fn. 24)
the monks dispersed amongst the different houses
of the order, but after fifteen months William de
Rule, rector of Cottingham, feeling the approach
of his death, became a novice in the abbey,
bringing with him £200. This enabled the convent to reassemble, but Abbot Thomas, a worthy
man of no great ability, feeling his own incompetence, resigned in December 1197. (fn. 25) By the
advice of the father Abbot of Fountains the monks
elected Alexander, a monk of Ford Abbey, who
was intimate with the justiciary, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury. By his influence the
justiciary was induced to appeal to Robert de
Thurnham on behalf of the monks, but it was
not until the sudden death of his master, King
Richard, in 1199 that Sir Robert consented to
restore the lands in dispute. Other costly lawsuits followed, and Abbot Alexander, a man of
character and courage, led the opposition of the
Cistercians to King John's demands for an aid or
grant of money. (fn. 26) He further instigated Archbishop Geoffrey and the expelled bishop to complain to the pope against the king; and on a second
demand for an aid from the Cistercians he alone
resisted this infringement of their privileges.
Meaux was also one of the three English houses
which maintained the privileges of the order by
continuing to celebrate mass during the Interdict. (fn. 27)
His courageous conduct made him a marked man
and brought down the king's vengeance upon his
house, so that once more almost all the monks had
to leave the abbey, fortunately obtaining hospitality from Earl Baldwin of Albemarle. To avert
further catastrophe Abbot Alexander resigned in
1210 and retired to Ford, where he died two
years later. (fn. 28) Meanwhile the abbey had purchased
the king's goodwill by a fine of 1,000 marks.
The payment of this large sum by the succeeding
abbot, Hugh, formerly Prior of Meaux, so crippled
the abbey that the monks had once more to abandon it for a short time, and as all the English
Cistercian houses were suffering from the king's
exactions and could hardly support their own
members, some of the monks went to St. Mary's,
York, some to Bridlington Priory, some to
Cistercian houses in Scotland, and the rest were
quartered in batches in neighbouring castles and
villages. (fn. 29)
The convent reassembled at the beginning of
November 1211, and settled down to their normal
life, building, acquiring property, and quarrelling
with their neighbours. About 1260, during the
abbacy of William of Driffield, the sub-prior of
Meaux was instrumental in averting an armed
struggle between the military tenants of Holderness and the royal forces sent to coerce them into
rendering certain disputed feudal services. (fn. 30)
Abbot William, a man of wonderful sanctity but
inferior as an administrator to his predecessor,
Michael Brun, died in 1269, and a few years
later we find the abbey burdened with a debt of
nearly £4,000. (fn. 31) Roger, the thirteenth abbot,
who succeeded in 1286, considerably reduced the
debt, but the most important event of his rule
was the surrender to the king in 1293 of the
abbey's manor of Wick, where Edward I founded
the port of Kingston-on-Hull. Besides granting
lands in exchange the king caused Master Richard
of Ottringham to place under Meaux a chantry
which he was founding and endowing. (fn. 32) By the
terms of this chantry seven monks were to reside
at Ottringham, but as this resulted in a scandalous
relaxation of the monastic rule the chantry was
removed, thirty years after its foundation, to a
chapel just outside the gates of the monastery. (fn. 33)
Abbot Adam of Skyrne by the time of his
death in 1339 had reduced the debt of the house
to below £400, but it was speedily brought up
again by the mismanagement of his successor,
Hugh de Leven, and by the inundation of the
monastic estates on the sea-coast. (fn. 34) During
Abbot Hugh's rule a crucifix was carved for
the quire of the lay brethren by a man who
was so much of a religious enthusiast that
he only worked upon it on Fridays, fasting, and
so much of an artist that he employed a nude
model. (fn. 35) The crucifix proving miraculous, leave
was obtained for women to visit it, but as a
source of income this expedient proved disappointing, as more came out of curiosity than
devotion, and their entertainment cost more than
their alms brought in.
On the Friday before Passion Sunday 1349,
as the monks were singing ' He hath put down
the mighty from their seat' they were flung to
the ground by an earthquake shock, and the
meaning of the portent was seen later in the year
when on 12 August Abbot Hugh and five monks
died of the Black Death, which in that one
month carried off twenty-two monks and six lay
brethren, and at its departure left only ten
survivors out of a congregation of fifty. (fn. 36) With
rents diminished by the death of tenants and
lands untilled for lack of labour the new abbot,
William of Dringhow, was forced to raise ready
money by ruinous sacrifices, and the cellarer,
John Ryslay, was not slow to turn this to his
own advantage. Ryslay bribed the Abbot of
Fountains to visit Meaux in 1353 and deprive
Abbot William, and when the monks elected
Thomas of Sherborne the visitor refused him because he was blind in one eye and appointed
John Ryslay. (fn. 37) The new abbot continued to
persecute his deprived predecessor and tried to
take away his allowance, but Dringhow escaped
and fled to Rome, where he got himself reappointed and issued a citation against Ryslay,
who at once resigned, in July 1356, and
eventually retired to Roche Abbey. (fn. 38) Robert of
Beverley was at once elected, and Dringhow was
persuaded to acquiesce in his election by the
grant of a very liberal allowance. On the death
of Abbot Robert, in November 1367, William of
Dringhow was again elected. Ryslay was then
at Rome and commenced proceedings against
Dringhow, but the latter obtained his adversary's
recall by the Abbot of Roche, and held office till
his death in 1372. (fn. 39)
William of Scarborough, who was elected in
1372, appears to have had an artistic temperament; he enriched the fabric of his church, but was
extravagant and lax in discipline. After more
than twenty years' rule, when he was nearly eighty,
he desired to resign, but his monks, who appreciated his laxity and feared the advent of a stricter
disciplinarian, refused their assent, and it was only
by the intervention of the Duke of Gloucester,
patron of the abbey, that he was able to retire
from office in 1396. (fn. 40) The ensuing election was
hotly disputed, but eventually the bursar, Thomas
Burton, a man of considerable ability, was
appointed. Very soon, however, a faction within the convent began to try to unseat him, and
two monks were sent to a general chapter of the
order which was sitting at St. Mary of Graces,
London, to protest that Burton had been forced
upon the abbey by the Duke of Gloucester and
the Abbot of Fountains. The Abbots of Roche
and Garendon were appointed to inquire into the
matter, but upon arriving at Meaux found the
abbey held against them by armed force by
Robert Burley, Abbot of Fountains, and Abbot
Thomas Burton, who had meanwhile sent to
Rome to procure a bull annulling all the commissions issued by the chapter held at St. Mary
of Graces. This bull appears to have been
brought to them by a foreign monk, Sigismund; (fn. 41)
and when the visiting Abbots of Roche and
Garendon returned, accompanied by the representative of the patron, the Duke of Albemarle,
they were admitted and confronted with the bull
annulling their powers. By their good offices,
however, a compromise was effected and peace
restored. Soon afterwards Abbot Burton went
to Vienna to represent the Yorkshire abbots at a
general chapterand had the honour of taking the
place of the absent schismatic Abbot of Clairvaux.
On his return the Abbot of Fountains held a
visitation and revived all the old trouble by trying
to punish those who had formerly disobeyed
Abbot Burton. The offenders appealed to Rome,
and Burton, to save his house the expenses
of protracted litigation, resigned on 24 August
1399, and devoted himself to writing the history of his abbey until his eyesight failed, some
eight years before his death, which occurred in
1437. (fn. 42)
The successor of Burton was William Wendover, who had been degraded from the post of
prior for his opposition to the late abbot. (fn. 43) He
was a man of learning and many merits, but
unbusinesslike, and during his rule the officials of
the convent abused their powers, the bursar,
Robert Lekynfeld, even accumulating so much
money that he was able to go secretly to Rome
and get himself appointed Bishop of Killaloe, in
which capacity he acted as suffragan to the
Bishop of Lichfield. (fn. 44)
Meaux had a splendid library and a wonderful
collection of relics, a list of books and treasures
being given in the Chronica. (fn. 45)
The abbey was surrendered on 11 December
1539 by the last abbot, Richard Stopes, who
received a pension of £40. (fn. 46) The prior, George
Throstyl, received a pension of £6, fourteen of
the twenty-three monks pensions of £6, and
the remaining nine pensions of £5 each, all
being in priests' orders. (fn. 47)
The gross value at the Dissolution was
£445 10s. 5½d., and the net £298 6s. 4½d. (fn. 48)
Abbots Of Meaux (fn. 49)
Adam, 1150-60
Philip, 1160-82
Thomas, 1182-97
Alexander, 1197-1210
Hugh, 1210-20
Geoffrey, 1220-1
Richard, 1221-35
Michael Brun, 1235-49
William, 1249-69
Richard, 1269-70
Robert, 1270-80
Richard de Barton, 1280-6
Roger de Driffield, 1286-1310
Adam de Skyrne, 1310-39
Hugh de Leven, 1339-49
William de Dringhow, first abbacy, 1349-53
John de Ryslay, 1353-6
Robert de Beverley, 1356-67
William de Dringhow, second abbacy,
1367-72
William de Scarborough, 1372-96
Thomas Burton, 1396-9
William Wendover, 1399
John Ripon, resigned 1413 (fn. 50)
John Hoton, occurs 1436, died 1445 (fn. 51)
Philip Dayvill, elected 4 March 1445, died
1458
John Sutton, elected 7 October 1458, resigned 1463
William Deryff, confirmed 1 September 1463
Ralph Same, received benediction 17 December 1471
John Clapham, received benediction 4 September 1488
Richard Stoppes, received benediction 22 November 1523, surrendered 1539
An abbot's seal (fn. 52) has an abbot with his crozier.
Legend—
SIGILLUM ABBATIS DE MELSA
The early 14th-century seal (fn. 53) is circular, 2 in.
in diameter, having the Virgin enthroned in a
niche with trefoiled pointed arch, crocketed and
supported on slender shafts; the Child, with
nimbus, on the left knee. In the field on each
side a lion, and above them on the right a crescent, on the left a sun. Legend—
+ VIRGO PVDICA PIA NOSTRI MISERERE MARIA