BISHOP MONKTON - THURSTAN, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK THE FOUNDING OF FOUNTAINS ABBEY
& EARLY MENTIONS OF THE VILLAGE
At St Mary's Abbey, York in around 1130 Richard, the Prior was having problems keeping some of his monks under control. He felt that the monks were not fulfilling the vows of their profession and were living a dissolute life.
However, his Abbot Geoffrey,disagreed with him and was satisfied with the way things were being run but Richard became increasingly concerned about the way the monks under his charge were behaving. He was fearful that the brothers, who were guilty of great disobedience to their vows, would reek vengeance on him and he needed assistance, but the Abbot wouldn’t help. So along with 13 of the brothers he appealed to Archbishop Thurstan of York for help.
The Archbishop agreed to come but on arriving at the Abbey Thurstan and his men were denied entry. “The whole chapter house rang with such tumult and confusion that it seemed more like the uproar of drunken revellers.” With difficulty, Thurstan, the Prior and the 13 monks fled to the nearby St Olave's church and barred the door. Later, Thurstan returned home taking the Prior and the 13 monks to lodge in his palace at York. Meanwhile, the monks in the Abbey were still giving way to their rages and hatred. *
From York, Thurstan and the monks travelled to “Munchetone close to Ripun.” where they lodged at his manor. The manor of Monkton (Munchetone) was a parcel of ancient possessions of the Archbishops of York. Records show Thurstan in Bishop Monkton at Christmas 1132
Thurstan formed a plan “Foundation of Fountains” dictated by the emergency of the moment to make a new Abbey for these displaced monks. It was to be funded by his lands and rents from several estates including York and Bishop Monkton with the help of the Cistercian order in Clairvaux France. This they did and by 1135 Fountains Abbey was no longer Benedictine but followed the humbler, Cistercian lifestyle. Archbishop Thurstan remained a friend and patron to the monks.
This was a time of great upheveal in the church which eventually led to a separation of the secular & the divine. The Benedictines could be seen as the old way of religion combining both the spiritual & the temporal. The Cistercians on the other hand were the "shock troops" of the Roman church with their vows of chastity and removal from the temporal world.
Note: some of the above information and more recent work is contained in a short video made by our Chairman in October 2020. It can be viewed by clicking here and then on the 'Bishops Palace Bishop Monkton' YouTube icon (it's best to maximise the viewing)
Archbishop Thurstan's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury
www.dhi.ac.uk/cistercians/fountains/history/app4.php
We are grateful to Howard Moreland for this extra infromation:
The first mention of "Monkton" comes in the time of Archbishop Romanus (1286-96) and then Archbishop Corbridge (1299-1303) and their concerns about the seven canons of the cathedral who were non-resident - some Italian - and neglectful of their duties in relation to their prebends or endowments, one of which was Monkton. As a consequence, it became a custom for each of the canons to maintain a vicar. Mention is made of the canons ' houses in their prebends falling into ruin or never having been built upon the land assigned to them. Archbishop Corbridge ordered that this must be addressed but had no positive response so in 1303 placed the position of vicars on a recognised footing, including funding. However, they resided at Ripon not in their parishes with one exception.
Church affairs were rather messy and, in some cases, appallingly unspiritual
Here are some of the Bishop Monkton Records in the York Archbishops Registers - there are 211 altogether, typically documented at Bishop Monkton referencing various administrative tasks going on from here between 1311 & 1388. The rest cna be seen on the following website pages of the Archbishops Registers: https://archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk & search for Bishop Monkton