ABBEY.] HISTORICAL SKETCH-WILLIAM AND ERNISIUS. 249 It seems worthy of remark, that all the priors who were hostile to the old monastery died 'by Divine visitation.' William, who first despoiled the place of its herds and storehouses, being deposed by the fraternity, forfeited his right of sepulture among the priors. Clement seemed to like this place of study and prayer; yet, after the example of Heli [Eli], the priest, as he neither reproved nor restrained his brethren from plunder, and other offences, he died by a paralytic stroke. And Roger, who was more an enemy to this place than either of his predecessors, and openly carried away everything which they had left behind robbing the church of its books, ornaments, and privileges-was also struck with a paralytic affection long before his death, resigned his honours, and lingered out the remainder of his days in sickness and solitude. In the reign of King Henry the First, when the Mother-Church was as much celebrated for her affluence as for her sanctity-two qualities which are seldom found thus united—the fame of so much religion attracted hither Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, who was at that time Prime Minister; for it is virtue to love virtue, even in another man; and a great proof of innate goodness it is to show a detestation of those vices which hitherto have not been avoided. When he had reflected with admiration on the nature of the place, the solitary life of the fraternity, living in canonical obedience, and serving God without a murmur or complaint, he returned to the King, and related to him. what he thought most worthy of remark; and after spending the greater part of the day in the praises of this place, he finished his panegyric with these words-" Why should I say more? The whole treasure of the King and his kingdom would not be sufficient to build such a cloister." Having held the minds of the King and the Court for a long time in suspense by this assertion, he at length explained the enigma, by saying, that he alluded to the "cloister of mountains," by which this church is on every side environed. But William-the warrior who first discovered this place-and his companion. Ernisius, a priest, having heard, perhaps—as it is written in the Fathers, according to the opinion of Jerome" that the church of Christ decreased in virtues as it increased in riches"-were often used devoutly to solicit the Lord, that this place might never obtain great possessions. They were exceedingly concerned when this religious foundation began to be enriched by its first lord. and patron, Hugh de Lacy, and by the lands and ecclesiastical benefices con *This was before the New Abbey had been thought of; or, in the original words, " Before the Daughter had existence; and I sincerely wish," adds the devout historian, "that she had never been produced." inhospitable region-the Augustine monks of "the Great St. Bernard," and holding no intercourse with the world around them, unless by means of those pilgrims who resorted to their shrine, and spread abroad † Resembling in many respects-though in a less the fame of their sanctity. VOL. 11. 2 K ferred upon it by the bounty of others of the faithful. From their predilection to poverty, they rejected a great many offers of manors and churches; and being situated in a wild spot, they would not suffer the thick and wooded parts of the valley to be cultivated and levelled, lest they should be tempted to recede from their eremitical mode of life. But whilst the Mother-Church increased daily in riches and endowments, a rival Daughter--as we shall see―availing herself of the hostile state of the country, sprang up at Gloucester, under the protection of Milo, Earl of Hereford; as if, by Divine Providence, and through the merits of the saints, and prayers of those holy men (of whom two lie buried before the high altar), it were destined that the Daughter-Church should be founded in superfluities, whilst the Mother continued in that laudable state of mediocrity, which she had always affected and coveted. "Wherefore let the active reside there, the contemplative here; there the pursuit of terrestrial wishes, and here the love of celestial delights; there let them enjoy the concourse of men, here the presence of angels; there let the powerful of this world be entertained, here let the poor of Christ be relieved; there, I say, let human actions and pompous declamations be heard, but here let reading and prayers be heard only in whispers; there let opulence, the parent and nurse of vice, increase with cares; here let the virtuous and golden mean be all-sufficient. "In both places, the canonical discipline instituted by St. Augustine, which is now distinguished above all other orders, is observed; for the Benedictines, when their wealth was increased by the fervour of charity, and multiplied by the bounty of the faithful, under the pretext of a bad dispensation, corrupted, by gluttony and indulgence, our Order—that is, the Augustinian—which, in its original state of poverty, was held in high estimation. The Cistercian order, derived from the former, at first deserved praise and commendation, from its adhering voluntarily to the original vows of poverty and sanctity, until ambition, the blind mother of mischief, unable to fix bounds to prosperity, was introduced; for as Seneca says, 'Too great happiness makes men greedy, nor are their desires ever so temperate as to terminate in what is acquired." Here the author, as if to contrast them with those of Llanthony Prima, indulges in a learned and eloquent apostrophe against the luxury and pride of several orders of monks. He concludes it with this anecdote: "I have judged it proper to insert in this place an instance of an answer which King RichardCœur de Lion-made to Fulke, a good and holy man, by whom God, in these our days, has wrought many signs in the kingdom of France. This man had, Seneca's Morals. ABBEY.] HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH. 251 among other things, said to the king, "You have three daughters, namely, Pride, Luxury, and Avarice, and as long as they shall remain with you, you can never expect to be in favour with God." To which the king, after a short pause, replied, “I have already given away those daughters in marriage-Pride to the Templars, Luxury to the Black Monks, and Avarice to the White."* "It is a remarkable circumstance," he continues, " or rather a miracle, concerning Llanthony, that although it is on every side surrounded by lofty mountains, not stony or rocky, but of a soft nature, and covered with grass, yet Parian stones are frequently found there, and are called Freestones, from the facility with which they admit of being cut and polished; and with these the church is beautifully built. It is also wonderful, that when, after a diligent search, all the stones have been removed from the mountains, and no more can be found; yet, upon another search, a few days afterwards, they reappear in greater quantities to those who seek them." After some farther remarks on the manners of the monastic orders, the venerable author thus beautifully concludes:-" In these temperate regions I have obtained, according to the usual expression, a place of dignity, but no great omen of future pomp or riches; and possessing a small residence near the castle of Brecheinoc [Brecknock ?], well adapted to literary pursuits, and to the contemplation of eternity,† I envy not the riches of Croesus; happy and contented with that mediocrity, which I prize far beyond all the perishable and transitory things of this world." So far the monk of Llanthony-whose partiality is very excusable; but, unfortunately, the act or charter of Edward IV., uniting the two abbeys, gives a different colouring to the transactions between the two abbeys-mother and daughter. It recites that, owing to the depredations committed on the convent by the neighbouring inhabitants, and the frequent removal of the priors and other members of the convent, the religious functions were negligently performed, and acts of charity and hospitality to strangers no longer exercised: Also, that as John Adams, the prior, had profusely squandered away the revenues of the church, maintaining only four canons besides himself, who paid no attention to the holy duties of the establishment: And whereas all due regard and reverence were paid to the sacred offices of the church by the mem This anecdote, somewhat differently told, we have already noticed in the sketch of Tinterne Abbey. †This reminds us of a visit to a celebrated monastery in Tuscany, where the writer was received by one of the superior monks with great politeness and hospitality. In the course of the evening he mentioned the principal circumstances of his life-"court in trigue, dissipation, extravagance, and moral depravity; at last," said he, "I became utterly disgusted with the life I had led, and flew for refuge to this sanctuary, where I have lived many years, and found, to my soul's content, that there is no happiness in this life but in preparing for the next-pensare, pensare, sull' éternità.”— Ed. bers of the monastery of new Llanthony near Gloucester, the king hereby grants all the lands--both in England, Wales, and Ireland--now appertaining to the convent of Llanthony in Wales, to the prior of the convent of Llanthony near Gloucester, to have and to hold for ever, on the payment of the fine of three hundred marks, and on condition that he maintains an establishment—dative and removable at will-of a prior and four canons, as the mother-church, for the purpose of performing religious service and mass for the souls of its founders. "Thus," continues our author," in the short period of thirty years, we see the simple chapel of St. David transmuted into a spacious and elegant abbey; that same building nearly deserted, and another, still more magnificent, erected and translated from the solitary banks of the little river Hodni, to the rich and luxurious shores of the Severn." Milo, Founder of Llanthony Secunda.—Under this head, it is recorded in the Abbey Chronicle, that in the reign of King Henry, son of the Conqueror, there flourished a certain warrior of noble family named Gwalterus, or Walter, who was Constable, under the King, of the Castles of Gloucester and Hereford. The said Walter caused to be erected on his own demesne the Castle of Gloucester, and dying some time thereafter, his remains were conveyed to Llanthony Abbey, in Wales, and there buried. The aforesaid Walter left an only son, Milo by name, whom King Henry created Earl of Hereford; and moreover, by way of augmentation to the said earldom, made over to him and his heirs for ever a grant of the whole Forest of Dean. This Milo, first earl of the name, took to wife Sibylla, heiress of Brecknock, and daughter of Bernard and Agnes of New March. †―The offspring of this marriage were five sons and three daughters, namely, Roger, Henry, Walter, Matthew, and William, Margery, Bertha, and Lucy. He founded the Abbey or Priory of New Llanthony, near Gloucester, on the 25th of May, 1136, being the first of King Stephen's reign; and dying on Christmas-eve, 1143, was buried in the chancel of the Abbey which he had founded seven years before. After his demise, he was succeeded in his titles and estates by each of his five sons, one after the other; but all of whom died without legitimate issue. Hereupon his possessions were shared in equal proportions by his three surviving daughters. ‡ Lucy, his third daughter, was married to Herbert Fitz-Herbert, and had for her share and dowry the Forest of Dean, and other estates in England. § The offspring of this marriage was a son named Peter, who became the father of a long line of descendants. * Sir R. C. Hoare, quoting Giraldus. Orig. Nova Marchia. Chr. New March? See the account already given of the Clare family. § In those times the Wye was considered the boundary between England and Wales. ABBEY.] THE FOUNDER AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 253 Bertha, second daughter of Count Milo, married William de Brewes, and took for dowry the lordship of Brecknock. The offspring from this marriage were three sons, William, Egidius, and Reginald. William, their eldest son and heir, in the time of King John, having made war upon his enemy Guenhunewyn, subdued him, and slew no less than three thousand Welsh in one day at Elbel. This battle took place on the morrow of St. Lawrence the Martyr, in the year of our Lord 1498. But for this rebellious act he was disinherited by King John; and, without trial, condemned to quit the realm of England. He died in exile; while his unhappy wife and their only son, being thrown into prison by the same heartless and arbitrary power, died shortly after in captivity. Egidius, the second son, became Bishop of Hereford; and Reginald de Brewes, the third son, after the death of King John, and that of his two brothers the afore-named William and Egidius, was pronounced heir to all the possessions which had been forfeited by his brother William, and took possession of the same accordingly. He married a daughter of William de la Bruere, and had by his wife a son whom he named William de Brewes, quartus. The latter espoused the lady Eve, daughter of the renowned William, Earl Marshall, so frequently mentioned in these pages. By this union he had issue four daughters-Isabella, Matilda, Eve, and Alionora. Of these, Isabella was married to David, son of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales. But at a great festival where he presided, immediately after the Paschal Feast, in 1229, Llewellyn conceiving a bitter jealousy between his wife and the said William de Brewes, most treacherously caused the latter to be ignominiously hanged—an atrocity which threw the whole Welsh frontier into the greatest confusion and alarm; for at that time King Henry was still in France with a large army; and in his absence the country was but ill provided with the means of enforcing the law. Matilda, the second daughter, married Roger Mortimer, Lord Wigmore, from whom sprang a numerous progeny. Ebe, the third daughter, married William de Cartello. Alionora, the fourth and youngest, married Humphrey de Bohun, with the lordship of Brecknock, which for some time had belonged to the Counts or Earls of Hereford. Among the names here mentioned, those of Bertha and Lucy, daughters of Milo, are to be held in special reverence as eminent patrons and benefactors of New Llanthony. And here, for the present, we take leave of the genealogical table, which exhibits in many striking examples the instability of fortune, the frailty of human nature, the vanity of riches, and the uncertain tenure of life. • See ante, founders and benefactors of Tinterne Abbey |