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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
With the growth of houses in size and number, judicial activities and problems became more evident, and the general chapter consequently developed into a complex organ which was capable of dealing with the new demands. The records are not sufficient to show the smaller orders transacting judicial business and, indeed, their general chapters were probably less highly organised, but for the larger orders such as the Cistercians, and to a lesser extent the Premonstratensians, a jurisdiction can be seen at work. As records of the central government, the Cistercian Statuta are comparable with both the papal registers and with the papal law books or codes. They form the written law of the order, which was made in many instances like the Canon Law from questions and queries, and they record the operation of the judicial machinery, the activities of the judges and of the courts. Each Cistercian abbot had a copy of the year's Statuta. The records of the general chapter at Prémontré are apparently lost, but the letters of Gervase, abbot of Prémontré from 1209 to 1220, survive, and consequently they supply some information of an informal and unofficial kind about the conduct of lawsuits within that order. For the other orders, except the Dominicans whose acta survive from 1220 onwards, central records are either rare or non-existent.
page 168 note 1 See Hourlier, J., Le Chapitre Général jusqu'au moment du Grand Schisme, Paris 1936, 55Google Scholar.
page 168 note 2 Colvin, H. M., The White Canons in England, Oxford 1951, 194Google Scholar. The letters of Gervase are edited by C. L. Hugo in Sacrae Antiquitatis Monumenta, i, Etival 1725.
page 168 note 3 Galbraith, G. R., The Constitution of the Dominican Order 1216–1360, Manchester 1925, 2Google Scholar, and Acta Capitulorum Generalis Ordinis Praedicatorum, ed. Reichert, B. M., Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum Historica, iii, iv, v, Rome 1898–1900Google Scholar. The provincial records of the English Dominican province no longer exist (G. R. Galbraith, op. cit., 53).
page 168 note 4 Cartulaires de l'Abbaye de Molesme, ed. Laurent, J., i (Paris 1907), 267, 269, and ii (1911), Appendix 6Google Scholar.
page 168 note 5 Graham, R., English Ecclesiastical Studies, London 1929, 24Google Scholar, citing Bruel, A., ‘Les chapitres généraux de l'ordre de Cluny depuis le XIIIe jusqu'au XVIIe siècle’, Bibliothèque de léÉcole des Chartes, xxxiv (1873), 542–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 554, 555 n. 1, 563, 569.
page 169 note 1 There are only the brief considerations of the subject by Canivez, Dom J.-M. in ‘Citeaux’, Diclionnaire de Droit Canonique, iii, cols. 776–81Google Scholar, and by Mahn, J.-B. in L'Ordre dstercien et son Gouvemement des Origines au milieu du XIIIe sikle, Paris 1951, 211–16Google Scholar.
page 169 note 2 Statuta Capitulorum Generalium Ordinis Cisterciensis, ed. J.-M. Canivez, Bibliothèque de la Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, fasc. 9, 10 (1933–4), 1225, 34; (hereafter cited asStatuta).
page 169 note 3 Byland Cartulary, B.M. Egerton MS. 2823, fols. 78r, 78v; Fountains Cartulary, Bodleian MS. Rawlinson B. 449, fols. 147, 148.
page 169 note 4 Statuta 1241, 57 and The Chartulary of Dieulacres Abbey, ed. G. Wrottesley, William Salt Arch. Soc, Coll. Hist. Staffordshire, New series ix (1906), 356, no. 172 (hereafter referred to as Dieulacres Cart.); Statuta 1246, 47, 1248, 30, and Dieulacres Cart., 358, no. 175; Statuta 1249, 45, and Dieulacres Cart., 356–7, no. 173; Statuta 1249, 47, and The Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St. Mary of Sallay in Craven, ed. J. McNulty, Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. ser. xc (1934), no. 411 (Fountains Cartulary, B.M. Add. MS. 40009, fols. 195v, 196r, 196v); Statuta 1213, 64, 1214, 40, 1215, 41, 1216, 53, and Beaulieu Cartulary, B.M. Cott. MS. Nero A XII, fols. 40v, 41v.
page 169 note 5 J. Hourlier, op. cit, 178. At Cluny eight days was the maximum duration for a general chapter.
page 169 note 6 Statuta 1216, 56; 1209, 38: ‘Querela abbatis Sancti-Sulpitii (St. Sulpice-en-Bugey, dioc. Belley, France), contra abbatem de Casania (La Chassagne-en-Bresse, dioc. Lyon, France), filium suum committitur abbati Pontiniaci. auctoritate Capituli terminanda’.
page 170 note 1 See Statuta 1205, 68, where an important case about an abbey was committed to the abbot of Citeaux and the first four abbots.
page 170 note 2 Statuta 1230, 23—a cause which was committed to two judges, ‘diffinitoribus definitivam sententiam reservantes’. The Cluniacs, Carthusians and monks of the order of Molesme had ‘diffirutores’ (see Cartulaires de l'Abbaye de Molesme, i. 269; Thompson, E. M., The Carthusian Order in England, London 1930, 95Google Scholar), and the Benedictines in the chapter at Abingdon in 1290, first appear to have elected ‘diffinitores seu provisores’, whose ordinances or provisions the abbots and proctors pledged themselves to observe (see Pantin, W. A., ‘The General and Provincial Chapters of the English Black Monks, 1215–1540’, T.R.H.S 4th series, x (1927), 234Google Scholar).
page 170 note 3 Statuta 1226, 14; 1232, 20.
page 170 note 4 P.L. clxxix, col. 70 C–D.
page 170 note 5 P.L. clxxix, col. 112 A–B (4 Nov. 1131), and (12 Feb. 1132)—papal confirmation.
page 170 note 6 Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, ed. P. Jaffé, revised by S. Loewenfeld, 2nd ed., i, Leipzig 1885, no. 7511; Liber Landavensis, reproduced by J. Rhys and J. G. Evans, Oxford 1893, 65, and see also 30–67, 87–94, cited by Cheney, M. in E.H.R lvi (1941), 178CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Historia Novella, ed. Potter, K. R., London 1955, 11Google Scholar.
page 170 note 7 Knowles, D. and Hadcock, R. Neville, Medieval Religious Houses, London 1953, 116–17Google Scholar.
page 170 note 8 See the first part of this article, above 18–22.
page 171 note 1 D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, Cambridge 1950, 263, dates this as 1151, but SirPowicke, Maurice in The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx by Walter Daniel, London 1950Google Scholar, lxiii and xcii, gives the date above. The case recorded in the Kirkstead Cartulary, B.M. Cott. MS. Vesp. E XVIII, on fol. 105v (and fol. 214v) may be earlier, but it is impossible to date it exactly. It cannot be much earlier than 1150 (the date of the foundation of Sibton), because Hugh, the first abbot of Sibton (Suffolk), was amongst those who were appointed arbiters.
page 171 note 2 Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. Caley, Ellis and Bandinel, v. 352–3; ‘Documents relating to Furness Abbey’, ed. Delisle, L., The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vi (1851), 423–4Google Scholar.
page 171 note 3 The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx by Walter Daniel, 23.
page 171 note 4 Ibid., lxiii and xciv; Cartularium Abbathiae de Rievalle, ed. Atkinson, J. C., Surtees Society, lxxxiii (1889), 181–3Google Scholar, and see below 181.
page 171 note 5 See Lefèvre, J.-A., ‘Pour une datation nouvelle des Instituta Generalis Capituli’, Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensium Reformatorum, Annus XVI (1954), 253–4Google Scholar.
page 171 note 6 Statuta 1190, 19, 29, 41, 43, 58, 65, 69, 71.
page 171 note 7 The italics are mine: a case in which only one of the parties was Cistercian, see below, 182.
page 172 note 1 J.-B. Mahn, op. cit., 211–12. I have investigated the question of delegation in greater detail in ‘English Cistercian Cases and their Delegation in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century’, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis, Annus XX, fasc. 1 (1964)Google Scholar.
page 172 note 2 Statuta 1195, 43.
page 172 note 3 J.-B. Mahn, op. cit., 212. Three was the usual number of papal judges-delegate for a commission.
page 172 note 4 Statuta 1241.
page 172 note 5 Statuta 1245, 44.
page 172 note 6 The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx by Walter Daniel, ed. F. M. Powicke, lxii, quoting from Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I (R.S.), ed. Howlett, R., iii, London 1886, 184Google Scholar.
page 172 note 7 See ‘L'Obituaire de l'Abbaye de Prémontré’, ed. van Waefelghem, R., Analectes de l'Ordre de Prémontré, v (1909), 12Google Scholar.
page 172 note 8 Welbeck Cart., B.M. Harl. MS. 3640, fol. 130r.
page 172 note 9 Welbeck Cart., B.M. Harl. MS. 3640, fol. 129r.
page 172 note 10 There were, however, probably no general mandates.
page 172 note 11 St. Radegund's Cart., Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. B 336, fol: 42.
page 172 note 12 ‘L'Obituaire de l'Abbaye de Prémontré’, op. cit., 11. H. M. Colvin (op. cit., 86) says that this case was before the general chapter in 1203–4.
page 173 note 1 Documents … of the English Black Monks, ed. W. A. Pantin, Camden 3rd series, xlv (1931), 86, and see also 64, 85, and W. A. Pantin, op. cit., T.R.H.S. 4th series, x (1927), 230.
page 173 note 2 Corpus jur. can., C2. q5, c. 17, and see The Letters of John of Salisbury, ed. W. J. Miller and H. E. Butler, revised by C. N. L. Brooke, London 1955, nos. 14, 15.
page 173 note 3 ‘Documents relating to Furness Abbey’, op. cit., 423–4.
page 173 note 4 Cf. Corpus jur. can. 62. q5, c. 17, and I tit. xxix, cc. 3, 6; cf. also e.g. Magdalen College, Oxford, Selborne Charter 252: ‘Quod si non omnes hiis exequendis potueritis interesse duo vestrum ea nichilominus exequantur’.
page 173 note 5 Statuta 1207, 8; cf. Eye Transcript, B.M. Add. MS. 8177, fol. 149r, and see J.-B. Mahn, op. cit., Pièces Justicatives nos. 16, 17.
page 173 note 6 Statuta 1216, 1: 'statutum est a Capitulo generali ut causae deinceps ad Capitulum generale delatae, tribus committantur abbatibus; et si omnes nequiverint interesse, duo nihilominus exequantur’.
page 173 note 7 Statuta 1228, 21.
page 174 note 1 P.R.O. E 326/727.
page 174 note 2 Combe Cartulary, B.M. Cott. MS. Vit. A I, fols. 60r, 60v, 61r.
page 174 note 3 Ibid., fols. 60r, 60v.
page 174 note 4 The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, 2 pt. ii, ed. J. Brownbill, Chetham Society New Series, lxxvi (1916), 353: (the text of the charter is from P.R.O. Duchy of Lanes. Ancient Deeds 25/479). The parties bound themselves to abide by the settlement under penalty of 100 marks.
page 174 note 5 Pipewell Cart., B.M. Cott. MS. Caligula A XIII, fols. 157v, 158r. Woburn was the mother house of Medmenham.
page 174 note 6 B.M. Harleian Charters 44 A 14, 43 B 46, 43 B 47, 75 A 6, 75 D 11.
page 174 note 7 B.M. Harl. Ch. 44 A 14; Statuta 1216, 63; and cf. ‘Tancredi Bononiensis Ordo Iudiciarius’, Pillii, Tancredi, Gratiae Libri de Iudiciorum Ordine, ed. Bergmann, F., Gottingen 1842, 271Google Scholar.
page 174 note 8 Pipewell Cartulary, B.M. Calig. A XIII, fols. 158r, 158v, 159r, 159v.
page 174 note 9 Statuta 1203, 23; cf. Corpus jur. can. I tit. xxix, c. 5, and II tit. i, c. 1.
page 175 note 1 Welbeck Cart., B.M. Harl. MS. 3640, fob. 129–30, and see H. M. Colvin, op. cit., 345–8.
page 175 note 2 ‘Documents relating to Furness Abbey’, op. cit., 423–4.
page 175 note 3 Statuta 1208, 36, 37; 1209, 31; B.M. Harl. Ch. 44 A 14; cf. P.R.O. E 135/21/33, E 135/4/17, and B.M. MS. Julius D II, fol. 75r.
page 175 note 4 B.M. Harl. Ch. 75 D 11; Pipewell Cart., B.M. Calig. MS. A XIII, fols. 158r, 158v, 159r. 59V and Byland Cart., B.M. Egerton MS. 2823, fol. 78r; cf. P.R.O. E 135/4/17.
page 175 note 6 Pipewell Cart., B.M. Stowe MS. 937, fols. 93v, 94r.
page 175 note 7 B.M. Harl. Ch. 43 B 47.
page 175 note 7 Statuta 1225, 1, and see also 1225, 12; 1231 25, 26.
page 175 note 8 Statuta 1231, 25.
page 175 note 9 Only a very few mandates were enregistered in the papal registers. On the incompleteness of the early Statula, however, see above 171 n. 5.
page 175 note 10 Statuta 1199, 22.
page 176 note 1 Statuta 1230, 29: ‘Controversia quae est inter abbatem de Alcobatia (Alcobaça, dioc. Leira, Portugal) et abbatem de Carraceto (dioc. Astorga, Spain), committitur abbatibus de Spina (Espina, dioc. Palencia, Spain), de Nucharia (dioc. Messina, Sicily), et de Ursaria (Osera, dioc. Orense, Spain), fine debito terminanda. Abbas de Spina qui presens est hoc eis denuntiet’. See also e.g. 1241, 57, and 1252, 35: ‘Abbas de Furnesio (Furness, Lanes.) hoc collegis suis denuntiet’.
page 176 note 2 Statuta 1238, 72.
page 176 note 3 Cheney, C. R., ‘Gervase Abbot of Prémontré: a Medieval Letter-Writer’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, xxxiii (1950), 39–40Google Scholar.
page 176 note 4 There is a cartulary copy of a Premonstratensian mandate printed in H.M. Colvin, op. cit., 345.
page 176 note 5 P.R.O. E 327/18.
page 176 note 6 E.g. Statuta 1200, 52; 1208, 29, 30; 1221, 29; cf. Corpus jur. can. I, tit.xxix, c. 4 (Alex: III.) and Les Registres de Grégoire IX, ed. L. Auvray, Bibliothèque des Écoles Franchises d'Athènes et de Rome 2e série, ii, Paris 1907, nos. 2731, 3261.
page 176 note 7 E.g. Statuta 1201, 20, 23; 1206, 13; 1207, 55; 1218, 64.
page 177 note 1 Statute 1200, 44, and see also 1202, 32; 1218, 54; 1235, 35; 1236, 25.
page 177 note 2 Statuta 1199, 22. This would seem to be Kemmer (Abbey-Cwmhir, Radnor, or Cymmer, Merioneth) and not Cumber (Ireland). Canivez has given Kemmer in the first instance but not in the second.
page 177 note 3 Statuta 1204, 25; cf. 1209, 58.
page 177 note 4 Statuta 1207, 5. This is a contrast with the papal stipulations.
page 177 note 5 Statuta 1213, 70, and see 1196, 21—Sawley (Yorks.) v. Furness (Lanes.)
page 177 note 6 Statuta 1208, 9: ‘Quando aliqua commissio fit abbatibus, donee finiantur querelae non expiret eorum iurisdictio quibus commissum est negotium, sed semper de ipsa querela ad ipsos recurratur’. Cf. Regesta Honorii Papae III, ed. P. Pressutti, i, Rome 1888, no. 1422, where the judges were ordered to proceed actively or to remit to Rome.
page 177 note 7 Statuta 1208, 4: ‘Abbates delegati a Capitulo qui super delegatione sua negligentes fuerunt, illi etiam qui eis obedire contempserunt, sex diebus sint in levi culpa, duobus eorum in pane et aqua’.
page 177 note 8 Statuta 1210, 8.
page 177 note 9 Statuta 1208, 31.
page 177 note 10 Statuta 1216, 11.
page 178 note 1 Statuta 1206, 41, and see 1211, 39.
page 178 note 2 Thirty-five second commissions are recorded in the Statuta for these years.
page 178 note 3 D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 262.
page 178 note 4 Statuta 1209, 49.
page 178 note 5 Statuta 1247, 25.
page 178 note 6 Statuta 1252, 31; 1254, 21.
page 178 note 7 Statuta 1247, 23; 1246, 43.
page 178 note 8 Statuta 1134, no. LXX, pp. 29–30. For the date of the Instituta, see the first part of this article, above, 19–22.
page 178 note 9 Statuta 1190, 71.
page 178 note 10 Statuta 1197, 47. Permission was sometimes granted after a request had been made, however, to take business to Rome, see Statuta 1197, 44; 1225, 14; 1239, 49.
page 178 note 11 Statuta 1200, 47; 1205, 37.
page 179 note 1 Statuta 1201, 2.
page 179 note 2 Statuta 1216, 31, and see 1215, 28.
page 179 note 3 Statuta 1223, 6.
page 179 note 4 Statuta 1223, 1.
page 179 note 5 The Coucher Book of Fumess, 1 pt. iii, ed. Atkinson, J. C., Chetham Society New Series, xiv (1888), 552–3Google Scholar.
page 179 note 6 That is to say there is, so far as I know, no evidence of cases between English Cistercians before 1254 coming before the papacy or its courts.
page 179 note 7 P.L. ccxiv, cols. 297D–302C (27 July 1198).
page 179 note 8 Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia, ed. Gasquet, F. A., i, Camden 3rd series, vi (1904), 16–17Google Scholar.
page 179 note 9 E. M. Thompson, op. cit., 89–90.
page 180 note 1 Ibid., 91.
page 180 note 2 Ibid., 97.
page 180 note 3 Kirkstead Cart., B.M. Vesp. MS. E XVIII, fols. 106r, 106v. See also Statuta i. 35–7, where it is printed with slight variations; Watkin Williams, S. Bernard of Clairvaux, Manchester 1935, 233–4, and H. M. Colvin, op. cit., 29. The original MS. of this settlement exists among the archives of the Haute-Marne at Chaumont.
page 180 note 4 Statuta 1194, 12: ‘Querela Praemonstrati contra quosdam abbates Ordinis nostril committitur terminanda domino Claraevallis’, and Statuta 1207, 54.
page 180 note 5 Statuta 1249, 49; 1230, 33.
page 180 note 6 Kirkstead Cart., B.M. Vesp. E XVIII, fols. 203v, 204r; and see Easby Cartulary, B.M. Egerton MS. 2827, fols. 301r, 301v, a suit between Easby and Byland, delegated by Honorius III on 25 May 1221.
page 181 note 1 Kirkstead Cart., B.M. Vesp. E XVIII, fol. 106v. This appears to be the copy of a form of arbitration.
page 181 note 2 Easby Cart., B.M. Egerton MS. 2827, fols. 180r, 180v, 181r. Among the witnesses were Stephen abbot of Sawley (Cist., Yorks.), Reginald abbot of Roche (Cist., Yorks.) and Adam monk of Byland (Cist., Yorks.).
page 181 note 3 Chartvlarium Abbathiae de Novo Monasterio, ed. J. T. Fowler, Surtees Soc, lxvi (1878), 205–6. There appears to be no evidence elsewhere of a Premonstratensian house at Warkworth: see J. C. Hodgson, A History of Northumberland, v, London 1899, 195. Both Alnwick and Newminster possessed salt pans at Warkworth, and the reference is perhaps to a grange of Alnwick.
page 181 note 4 R. Graham, S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines, London 1901, 128–9; Cartularium Abbathiae de Rievalle, op. cit., 181–3.
page 181 note 5 R. Graham, op. cit., 129; parallel with the Premonstratensian arrangements.
page 181 note 6 R. Graham, ibid., 130, citing Pipewell Cart., B.M. Stowe MS. 937, fol. 145v.
page 182 note 1 R. Graham, S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines, 129–30; Bodleian MS. Laud 642, fol. 130v. As with Cistercian-Premonstratensian cases, some seem to have come before papal tribunals, e.g. P.R.O. E 135/6/13: there is no indication that the suit had been heard previously by the three abbots and three priors of each order.
page 182 note 2 E. Margaret Thompson, op. cit., 86; Annales Ordinis Cartusiensis, ed. Le Couteulx, C., iii, Monstrolii 1888, 141Google Scholar.
page 182 note 3 Statuta 1253, 20. There are also instances of cases between the Templars and Cistercians, and between the Cluniacs and Cistercians, coming before the general chapter: Statuta 1251, 48; 1249, 39.
page 182 note 3 Statuta 1216, 61.
page 183 note 1 Statuta 1203, 49.
page 183 note 2 Statuta 1207, 62, and cf. 1210, 42.
page 183 note 3 Beresford, M., The Lost Villages of England, London 1954, 152–3Google Scholar; Statuta 1190, 1; and see the stories of Gerald of Wales in ‘speculum Ecclesie’, ed. J. Brewer, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera iv. 225–9, quoted by Graves, C. V. in ‘The Economic Activities of the Cistercians in Medieval England (1128–1307)’, A.S.O.C, Annus XIII (1957), 47–8Google Scholar.
page 183 note 4 E.g. Statuta 1235, 33, 52—pastures: 1233, 41—granges: 1230, 25; 1250, 18—animals.
page 183 note 5 B.M. Harl. Ch. 44 A 14.
page 183 note 6 Combe Cart., B.M. Vit. A I, fols. 60r, 60v.
page 183 note 7 Dieulacres Cart., 356, no. 172.
page 183 note 8 Ibid., 356–7, no. 173.
page 183 note 9 Pipewell Cart., B.M. Stowe MS. 937, fols. 93v, 94r.
page 183 note 10 Ibid., fols. 157v, 158r.
page 183 note 11 Ibid., fols. 156v, 157r.
page 183 note 12 Statuta 1216, 53.
page 184 note 1 Statuta 1209, 1; and see 1216, 16; 1229, 20.
page 184 note 2 Statuta 1251, 73.
page 184 note 3 J.-B. Mahn, op. cit., 215; Statuta 1209, 8; 1210, 7; 1211, 7; 1212, 16; 1213, 5.
page 184 note 4 Pipewell Cart., B.M. Stowe MS. 937, fols. 93v, 94r—(an out-of-court arrangement).
page 184 note 5 Statuta 1216, 46, 53.
page 184 note 6 Byland Cart., B.M. Egerton MS. 2823, fol. 78v; Beaulieu Cart., B.M. Cott. MS. Nero A XII, fol. 40v.
page 184 note 7 Statuta 1254, 24.
page 187 note 8 Beaulieu Cart., B.M. Cott. MS. Nero A XII, fol. 41v; Combe Cart., B.M. Vit. A I, fol. 68r; Pipewell Cart., B.M. Calig. A XIII, fols. 158r, 158v, 159r, 159v.
page 187 note 9 Statuta 1235, 31.
page 184 note 1 Fountains Cart., B.M. Add. MS. 40009, fols. 196v, 197r, 197v, 198r; The Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St. Maty of Sallay, op. cit., no. 412.