dave_a_mbs
Super Member
Offline
Afterlife Knowledge Member
Posts: 1655
central california
Gender: 
|
Hi Juditha - here's a little history. It seems that insurgents against the Dissolution were responsible for some of the bloodshed.
If I can figure out how to down load them, I'll add a couple pictures later.
dave
The History of Cleeve Abbey in Somerset
by Edward Foord
C L E E V E
A B B E Y
Cistercians in Somerset
To Washford, six miles from Minehead, on the road to Taunton, are the ruins of the Cistercian Abbey of Cleeve, situated in a beautiful valley which well deserves its monkish title of Vallis Florida - the Valley of Flowers. Whatever opinions may otherwise be entertained concerning the monks of the rule of Citeaux, it cannot be denied that they had a "genius for selecting beauty spots". Cleeve is no exception to the general rule of Cistercian houses. Its situation is as fine as those of the majority of its fellows, though it cannot compare with that of Tintern or of Fountains.
Cleeve Abbey has been called the ecclesiastical gem of the district which is perhaps saying very little, for if England be mapped into twenty-mile squares very few of them will be found devoid of a jewel of this description. The true interest of Cleeve is that it has preserved its domestic buildings almost intact, whereas, in the majority of English monasteries, the church is the principal surviving feature and the domestic portions are fragmentary or non-existent. At Cleeve, it is the church which has vanished.
The house was founded between 1186 and 1191 by William de Roumare, grandson of a baron of the same name who played a considerable part in Anglo-Norman history under Henry I and King Stephen. As William III de Roumare died before 1198, the building of the abbey was probably begun some years earlier. It was founded as a prebend of the famous Norman Abbey of Bec but, as the distance made it difficult for the latter effectively to control it, the Somersetshire house was leased to the Cistercians in return for an annual rent of forty marks.
Very little is known of its history, since it claimed exemption from episcopal visitation. The first abbot was a certain Ralph, who brought with him twelve monks from the Cistercian house of Reresby. It was never a large or wealthy house. The largest known number of monks was twenty-eight. At the Dissolution, there were only seventeen and its yearly rental was £155. It may, at one time, have been richer, for its last two abbots were extravagant and seem to have depleted their resources by making presents in order to gain the support of the local gentry. Certainly, this poor little abbey had the good-will of its neighbours, for it is on record that they were very anxious to avert its dissolution, urging, amongst other things, that there were in it, seventeen priests of honest life who kept hospitality. Among these seventeen was John Hooper, afterwards the extreme Protestant Bishop of Gloucester. The abbey was granted to Robert, Earl of Sussex, and by him or his successors the church was destroyed for the value of its materials; but the domestic buildings survived and were used as the outbuildings of a farm. Their roofs, for obvious reasons, were not demolished and the result is that they have been wonderfully well preserved. They are now carefully maintained by English Heritage and furnish an almost unsurpassed example of the domestic portion of a monastery.
Edited from Edward Foord's "Wells, Glastonbury & Cleeve" (1925)
Another description: Set deep in the beautiful Washford Valley on the borders of Somerset and Devon lie the substantial remains of Vallis Florida, a 13th century Cistercian monastery. More familiarly known as Cleeve Abbey, the monastery was founded by the Earl of Lincoln's grandson in 1198, and colonised with monks from the Cistercian house that his grandfather had founded in Revesby over half a century earlier.
Cleeve Abbey never ranked as one of the great Cistercian houses and, even during the short period it prospered, only 28 monks lived at the monastery. During the 14th century Cleeve Abbey suffered badly from financial instability which, in turn, resulted in little additional building work, staffing problems, and a general lack of discipline amongst the Order. In the 15th century, when Abbot David Juyner was first appointed to Cleeve Abbey, the situation began to improve, and throughout his long rule much new building was undertaken. His successors, the most noted of whom was Abbot Dovell, continued this trend until Cleeve Abbey was eventually surrendered to the Crown in 1536.
Another description:
Historical Description
At Cleeve, as with so many other monasteries, it was those buildings which could easily be adapted to secular uses which survived the Dissolution.The church on the other hand, was completely destroyed, both for the value of its materials and to prevent the monks from returning to the abbey at some future date. It was a relatively simple building, in keeping with the original Cistercian spirit of austerity.
The strictness with which the white monks embraced a life of poverty, obedience and prayer, impressed many noble men and women in the late 12tth century, including William, Earl of Roumare, who founded Cleeve some time between 1186 and 1191. Cleeve was never a rich house and its buildings took longer to complete than some. Like many abbeys it experienced great difficulties in the years following the Black Death (1384), when most of its estates were let to tenants and the value of rents fell. By 1450 however, the position had improved sufficiently to allow the Abbot, David Juyner, to re-build the refectory and his own lodgings on an impressive scale. An original wall painting of this time survives in what was probably the Abbot’s ‘office’, but its symbolism is unclear. Despite this recovery the abbey’s income was still too low to save it from dissolution with the other small monasteries in 1536. Its 17 monks were described as ‘priests of honest life, who keep great hospitality’, and locally their departure was much regretted.
There are monks today, and the monastic life still appeals to those who want to live apart from the world, or base their lives on an inner core of tranquillity. To understand a monastic site pupils need at least to believe that this is a rational choice, in the present day, as it was in the Middle Ages; they also need to know a good deal about the society which the medieval monks wished to leave behind. Even in a peaceful and remote location an abbey was always in need of powerful friends: hence Henry III and his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in the early history of Cleeve. Their special interest is commemorated in heraldic tiles belonging to the floor or the original
More history:
In the year 1571 the people of this county had a feud with the Kavanaghs of Carlow, in which 30 gentlemen of rank in Wexford were killed : but it led to no important consequences. In the civil war which broke out in 1641, it was the scene of important military operations ; the Marquess of Ormonde was repulsed, in the early part of it, from before New Ross ; and Duncannon fort was afterwards taken by the Catholic party who thus became masters of the whole. But in 1649 it was reduced to submission by Cromwell, who put the garrison of Wexford to the sword in the same sanguinary manner in which Drogheda had been treated. In the war of the Revolution it was much less distinguished ; and from this period the history of the county presents a perfect blank, until 1798, when it acquired a melancholy notoriety as the chief seat of the insurrection of that year. In the month of April the county was subjected to martial law in consequence of the suspicions of the secret organization of the society of United Irishmen, which had already pervaded most of the other counties, having been extended to it ; but it was not until after actual hostilities had broken out in other parts that any military force was sent hither. The burning of the chapel of Boulavogue, in the parish of Kilcormuck, by the military, and the cruel treatment of the peasantry in order to force them to confess their guilt, hastened the assembly of the people in arms on the two neighbouring hills of Oulart and Kilmacthomas. They were immediately driven from the latter position with some loss, but at the former they routed and cut to pieces the detachment of the military sent to disperse them. Increasing now in numbers and confidence, the insurgents attacked Enniscorthy the next day, and forced the garrison to fall back upon Wexford. Having at the same time cut off a party of infantry and artillery that was advancing from Duncannon fort to strengthen the garrison of the latter place, the insurgents moved upon that also, and the garrison made a hasty retreat to Waterford. At the same time a camp was formed at Vinegar hill, in the immediate vicinity of Enniscorthy, which was the headquarters of the insurgent army during its short existence. The possession of Wexford gave occasion to the slaughter of many of the loyalists who had not been able to effect a timely escape, and also of several of the prisoners brought in from time to time ; nor were these atrocities without their counterpart in the excesses of the royalist soldiery. At the commencement of hostilities Beauchamp Bagnal Harvey, Esq., a Protestant gentleman of the county, who had long signalised himself as an advocate of the people, and an enemy to the severe measures of the Irish government, was chosen general. A few days after the occupation of Wexford, the insurgents attacked the town of New Ross, but after ten hours hard fighting they were repulsed on all sides with considerable loss. Shortly afterwards Harvey was superseded, and the command was given to a Roman Catholic clergyman named Roche. The royal forces which had been collecting from various parts now made a simultaneous attack from all sides on the position at Vinegar hill, which was taken with little difficulty, and the main body of insurgents forced to retreat. The recapture of Wexford immediately followed, and a fresh torrent of blood was poured forth in the punishment of numbers engaged in the rebellion, which was thus terminated in this district, except in the lingering efforts of detached parties.
|
Home
Pages: 1
My spirit guide came to me last night (Read 4704 times)
