St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Part 17

[531] The first Cistercian monastery in Scotland, founded in 1136 by David I. It was a daughter of Rievaulx, from which, as we have seen, Waltheof was called to be its abbot. Its church of St. Mary was consecrated July 28, 1146. It is on the bank of the Tweed, not far from Old Melrose, the site of a community founded in the seventh century, of which St. Cuthbert was a member. See James A. Wade, _History of Melrose_.

[532] Deacons.

[533] _Runcinus_, the Old English _rouncy_ (Chaucer, _Prol._ 390).

From this incident the inference is clear that during the whole journey to Rome and back most of Malachy's companions were always on foot, and that the party went at a walking pace.

[534] 1 Sam. iii. 19. Cp. Matt. x. 29.

[535] An important date. Since Malachy died on November 2, 1148, he must have reached York not earlier than November 1139. For reasons for putting the visit somewhat later see _R.I.A._, x.x.xv. 247 f.

[536] "Within a few days," says Jocelin in his version of the story!

See _AA.SS._ l.c.

[537] After leaving York Malachy no doubt followed approximately the line of the Roman road known as Erming Street to London and Canterbury. Thanks to the preservation of the Itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric on his journey from Rome to Canterbury in 990 (Stubbs, _Memorials of St. Dunstan_ (R.S.), pp. 391-395), to our knowledge of the routes of travellers contemporary with Malachy, and to the rare mention in the _Life_ of places through which he pa.s.sed, we can follow him almost step by step from Canterbury to Rome and back. He probably sailed from Dover, and landed on the French coast at or near Wissant.

Thence he went by Arras, Rheims, Chalons-sur-Marne, Bar-sur-Aube, Lausanne, Martigny, and over the Great St. Bernard to Ivrea. Then he followed the beaten tract through Vercelli, Pavia, Piacenza, Pontremoli, Lucca and Viterbo to Rome. On the whole journey, from Bangor to Rome and back, the company traversed about 3000 miles on land, besides crossing the sea four times. Allowing for stoppages at Rome, Clairvaux and elsewhere, and for a weekly rest on Sunday, Malachy must have been absent from Ireland about nine months. For details see _R.I.A._ x.x.xv. 238 ff. The marginal dates are based on that investigation, and are to be regarded merely as approximations.

[538] Ps. cxix. 14.

[539] Gen. x.x.xiii. 10, etc.

[540] Pref. - 2.

[541] Malachy probably "turned aside" from the main road at Bar-sur-Aube, from which Clairvaux is distant eight miles. A few words may be said about this famous monastery and its first abbot. Bernard, the son of a n.o.bleman named Tescelin and his saintly wife Aleth, whose memory exercised a powerful influence on the lives of her children, was born at Fontaines, a mile or two from Dijon, in 1090. In Oct. 1111 he persuaded his brothers and many of his friends to embrace the religious life. Early in the following year the whole band, thirty in number, entered the austere and now declining community which had been established in 1098 at Citeaux, twelve miles from Dijon. Their arrival was the beginning of the prosperity of the great Cistercian Order. In 1115 Bernard was sent out, with some brothers, by the abbot, Stephen Harding, to found a daughter house on the river Aube, in a valley which had once been known, from its desolation, as the Valley of Wormwood. After incredible hardships a monastery was built, and the place was so transformed by the labours of the monks that henceforth it deserved its newer name of Clara Vallis, or Clairvaux. The community rapidly increased in numbers; and in 1133, in spite of the opposition of the abbot when the proposal was first made, the building of a large monastery on a different site was begun. It was probably far advanced when Malachy arrived in 1140 (Vacandard, i. 413, 423). It was just completed when he came again in 1148 (see p. 143, n. 5). St.

Bernard died on August 20, 1153. At this time he was the most powerful ecclesiastic in Europe, not excepting his nominee Pope Innocent II.

(see p. 72, n. 3). Doubtless the main purpose of Malachy's visit to Clairvaux was to secure St. Bernard's support of the pet.i.tion which he was about to present to the Pope. For further information about St.

Bernard the reader may consult _V.P._, Vacandard, J. Cotter Morison, _The Life and Times of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux_ (1868), and Richard S. Storrs, _Bernard of Clairvaux, the Times, the Man, and his Work_ (1892).

[542] _Yporia._ Its ancient name was Eporedia. From it there are two routes across the Alps, by the Great St. Bernard and the Little St.

Bernard respectively.

[543] Luke vii. 2.

[544] On the death of Pope Honorius II. (February 14, 1130) two Popes were elected by different groups of cardinals, Innocent II. and Anacletus II. St. Bernard espoused the cause of the former, and by his untiring efforts almost all the sovereigns of Europe were enlisted on his side (see Vacandard, chaps. x.-xiii., xviii.; Storrs, pp. 523-540; Morison, pp. 149-165, 209-213). But the schism lasted for eight years.

At length Anacletus died (January 7, 1138), and the surrender of his successor, Victor IV., on May 29, 1138 (_Ep._ 317), left Innocent in undisputed occupation of the papal chair. The news of the pacification was not announced in Scotland till the end of September (Richard of Hexham, 170). It probably reached Ireland a little later. It must have been after he was a.s.sured of the end of the schism that Malachy proposed his journey to Rome, _i.e._ at the end of 1138 or in 1139.

[545] _Quo uenerat._

[546] Ps. xxi. 2.

[547] Luke xvi. 2 (vg.).--For Gilbert see p. 47, n. 3. Patrick, successor of Gilbert in the see of Limerick, was consecrated by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who was himself consecrated on January 8, 1139 (W. Stubbs, _Reg. Sac. Angl._, p. 45). His profession of obedience (Ussher, p. 565) appears in the roll of professions at Canterbury immediately before that of Uhtred of Llandaff, who was consecrated in 1140 (Stubbs, _l.c._). If we a.s.sume that Gilbert resigned his see and his legatine commission at the same time, this gives 1139-40 as the date of Malachy's journey, in agreement with the hint of St. Bernard in - 36. It is possible that Gilbert's resignation of his office as legate was sent to Rome by Malachy.

[548] Cashel. See p. 65, note 4.

[549] Fleming in 1623 saw a mitre of Malachy at Clairvaux, which was supposed to have been the one placed on his head by Innocent at Orbiers, ten leagues away, his wooden drinking cup was preserved: it was in a leathern case, adorned with Irish interlacings (_Irish Ecclesiastical Record_, vii. 63).

[550] Cp. 2 Cor. i. 15.

[551] Gen. xxii. 18; xxvi. 4.

[552] Compare the pa.s.sage concerning a brother who had been sent from Clairvaux to Sweden in 1143, and had founded a daughter monastery there: "The lord [St. Bernard] sent to his faithful servant learned and discreet persons from the parts of Germany and England, by whom the discipline of monastic religion founded in that kingdom increased and bore worthy fruit among peoples who had indeed heard the name of monk, but had never before seen a monk" (_V.P._ vii. 54). It was literally true that no monastic communities had previously existed in Sweden (C. H. Robinson, _Conversion of Europe_, p. 482 f. Cp.

Vacandard, ii. 416). But the pa.s.sage before us cannot be construed as an a.s.sertion that Ireland was in like case; for in - 12 mention is made of the "monks" of Bangor in the time of Congall. St. Bernard (or Malachy, if the words are really his) must be taken to mean simply that the so-called monks of the decadent contemporary Church of Ireland were not monks in the true sense of the word. (Cp. Lett. iii.

- 2). There is nothing to be said for the explanation suggested by Lanigan (iv. 114) that the "nations" are nations other than the Irish, who had no monks. For where were those nations to whom the Irish might send colonies of monks? The fact is that the Latin word for "nations"

(_gentes_) may quite well mean here what it certainly means in - 42, the Irish tribes.

[553] He left others in other Cistercian houses (- 35).

[554] Cp. Letter i. - 1.

[555] Ps. xc. 12.

[556] Gilla Crist Ua Condoirche was probably a native of the district of Bangor (- 14). He seems to have been one of the four who were left by Malachy at Clairvaux; and, as is here stated, he was the first abbot of Mellifont. He seems, however, to have proved not well suited for the office, for he was sent back to Clairvaux for further instruction (Letter iii. - 3). Some of the Clairvaux brothers (if not all of them) refused to remain in Ireland, and it is perhaps hinted that the cause of their return was dissatisfaction with his administration (_ib._ - 2). About 1150 he was promoted to the bishopric of Lismore, and at the Synod of Kells in 1152 he appeared as papal legate (Keating, iii. 317). He was present at the consecration of the church of Mellifont Abbey in 1157 (_A.U._) As legate he also presided at the Synod of Cashel in 1172 (Giraldus, _Expug._ i. 34). He died in 1186 (_A.L.C._). Felix, bishop of Lismore, attended the Lateran Council of 1179 (Mansi, xxii. 217). Christian must therefore have resigned his see before that date.

[557] Mellifont Abbey, the ruins of which still remain in a secluded valley, beside the stream known as the Mattock, about two miles from the Boyne, and five miles west of Drogheda. Some time after Malachy returned to Ireland he wrote to St. Bernard, asking him to send two of the four brothers who had been left at Clairvaux to select a site for the abbey. This request was declined (Lett. i. - 1), and the site--doubtless the gift of Donough O'Carroll (see the doc.u.ment quoted p. 170)--was apparently chosen by Malachy himself. In 1142 (_C.M.A._ ii. 262, _Clyn's Annals_, _Annals of Boyle_), the four brothers, together with a contingent of monks from Clairvaux, arrived, and the monastery was founded, with Christian as its first abbot (Lett. ii.).

Considerable progress was made with the buildings, and endowments poured in. But after a while it became necessary to send Christian back to France for further instruction, and the Clairvaux monks went with him, never to return. In due time Christian resumed his office as abbot, and with him came one Robert, to a.s.sist him in the work of building and organization (Lett. iii). The Abbey Church was not consecrated till 1157, nine years after Malachy's death (_A.U._).

Mellifont remained the princ.i.p.al Cistercian house in Ireland up to the Reformation. After the dissolution (1539) it was granted, with its possessions, to Sir Edward Moore, ancestor of the earls of Drogheda.

The only portions of the monastery which remain in a fair state of preservation are the Chapter House and the Lavabo. The latter belongs to the original building. Excavations made about twenty years ago revealed the ground plan of the entire monastery, most of which was of later date than Malachy. Traces were discovered of the foundation of the eastern portion of the original church, about forty feet west of the east wall of the structure which later took its place. It had six chapels at the east end, four of which were apsidal (_71st Report of Commissioners of Public Works, Ireland_, p. 11).

[558] 1 Sam. ii. 21.--The five daughters were apparently Bective (de Beat.i.tudine) founded in 1147, Boyle, 1147-8, Monasternenagh, 1148, Baltinglas (de Valle Salutis), 1148, and Inislounaght (Janauschek, _Origines Cistercienses_, Vindoboniae, 1877, pp. 70, 92, 113). The last-named seems to have been in existence in 1148 (see - 64), and it may have been an off-shoot of Mellifont, though at an early date it was subject to Monasternenagh (_ibid._ 131). Gougaud (_Les Chretientes Celtiques_, 1911, p. 364) gives Shrule (de Benedictione Dei) the fifth place; but it appears to have been founded (1150?) after the _Life_ was written (Janauschek, p. 114).

[559] Cp. Gen. xxii. 17; xxvi. 4.

[560] David I. of Scotland, son of Malcolm Canmore and St. Margaret, the sister of Edgar the Atheling. He was born in 1084. His sister Matilda was the wife of Henry I. of England; and thus he was uncle of Matilda, the empress, for whom he fought against Stephen, though Stephen's wife, Queen Matilda, was also his niece. In 1113 David married Matilda, the widow of Simon de St. Liz, earl of Northampton (cp. p. 69, n. 1). He succeeded Alexander I. in 1124 and died in 1153.

As the founder of several Scottish dioceses and as having introduced the Cistercian Order into his kingdom he had much in common with St.

Malachy.

[561] This is probably an error. There is no record that David I. had any castles in Galloway; and the chronicles seem to show that at this period his princ.i.p.al residences were at Roxburgh and Carlisle. The narrative suggests that the castle referred to was in the immediate neighbourhood of Cruggleton (p. 78, n. 1), and it was probably the predecessor of that of which the scanty ruins--believed to be of thirteenth-century date--remain on the coast not far from the village.

They are on a peninsula of such natural strength that we may suppose it was in very early times the site of a fortress (_Fourth Report of Commission on Ancient Monuments in Scotland_, vol. i. p. 144).

Possibly, as has been suggested, David was there as the guest of Fergus, lord of Galloway (1124-1161), to whom, subsequently to the Battle of the Standard (August 22, 1138), and probably not long before this visit of Malachy, he had been reconciled after a long estrangement (Agnew, _Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway_, 1893. vol. i.

p. 58).

[562] Phil. ii. 27 (inexact quotation).

[563] 2 John iv. 47.

[564] Acts iii. 4.

[565] Luke vii. 17.

[566] Mark vii. 24.

[567] Isa. li. 3 (vg.).

[568] The only son of David: "a man gentle and pious, a man of sweet nature and of pure heart, and worthy in all things to be born of such a father" (Ailred of Rievaulx, in A. O. Anderson, _Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers_, p. 156). He died before his father, in May or June 1152 (John of Hexham). Two of his sons became kings of Scots, Malcolm IV. and William I.

[569] Rom. ix. 30, etc.

[570] _Crugeldum._ Cruggleton is on the west coast of Wigtown Bay, in the parish of Sorby, Wigtownshire. In pa.s.sing through this village Malachy made a detour, probably in order to visit King David, which considerably lengthened his journey.