2 - c. 1080–1215: culture and history

Summary

In a collection of Latin moralizing tales or exempla compiled at Clairvaux in the 1170s, the following story is found:

A certain monk of Clairvaux was obliged because of a legal case and with the permission of his superior to go to England, where he had a distinguished family. He was a nephew of Walter Espech, who was the founder of the monastery of Rievaulx. When the monk was on his journey, he left the road for a certain church so that he could celebrate mass, for he was a priest. When he had finished, a certain religious woman called on one of the companions of the monk. She had her own cell adjoining the church, so that through its window she could see whatever was happening at the altar. She asked who might be the monk who had celebrated mass and from where he came. When she was told, she said to her respondent: ‘From the time when I began to live here, no one has gone to this altar to celebrate the holy mysteries, whose movements amid the holy rites I have failed to see. Whatever was going on, I have been able to see clearly. But today this was not the case, for there was such a collection of heavenly dwellers around the priest while he offered the sacrifice that because of the multitude of holy angels I could not at all see what was taking place in the manner that I am used to seeing it all.’