CHAPTER IX.

PONTIGNY.-DEC. 1164-EASTER, 1166.

SIXTY-SIX years before the time when Becket found a refuge at Pontigny, the order of Cîteaux had been founded by Robert of Molesme, on the principle of a strict and literal conformity to the monastic rule of St. Benedict. Its monasteries were to be planted in lonely places; the monks were to eschew all pomp, pride, and superfluity; their services-unlike those of the elder society of Cluny, whose ritual was distinguished by splendour-were to be simple and plain. Some of the ecclesiastical vestments were discarded, and those which were retained were to be of fustian or linen, without any golden ornaments. No painting or sculpture was to be admitted into their churches; the windows were to be of plain glass, and no high towers were to be erected. They were to have only one iron chandelier; their censers were to be of brass or iron; no precious metal was allowed, except one chalice and a tube for the eucharistic wine, which were, if possible, to be of silvergilt, but might not be of gold. The dress of the monks was white, agreeably to a pattern which the Blessed Virgin showed in a vision to the second abbot, Alberic; their fare was rigorously simple, and from the ides of September to Easter they were allowed to eat but one meal

M

daily. For some years the severity of the rule prevented any great accession of numbers; and the third abbot, an Englishman, named Stephen Harding, had begun to despair of the continuance of the order, when, in 1113, St. Bernard joined it accompanied by more than thirty of his relations and others, whom his exhortations had persuaded to embrace the monastic life. Immediately a new impulse was given to the order. The same year saw the foundation of La Ferté, the "eldest daughter" of Cîteaux ;a Pontigny, founded by Hugh of Mâcon, afterwards Bishop of Auxerre, followed in 1114; and in 1115 the number of the four "chief daughters," to whom a large influence was assigned in the general affairs of the order, was completed by the foundation of Clairvaux and Morimond. After having thrown out these swarms, the Cistercian society increased with great rapidity, being mainly forwarded by the saintly repute of Bernard, who, for a quarter of a century before his death in 1153, exercised a virtual dictatorship over the whole of Western Christendom. In 1151 the number of its monasteries exceeded five hundred, and at this time the young order surpassed all other monastic communities in reputation and popularity.

Pontigny, the second daughter of Cîteaux, was one of the monasteries which had been desired by the Pope to put up special prayers for the Archbishop of Canterbury at the beginning of his struggle with the King,b and the abbot, Guichard, had been especially engaged

a Chaillou des Barres, L'Abbaye de Pontigny. Paris, 1844, p. 14. b See p. 150.

ABBEY CHURCH OF PONTIGNY, WITH BECKET'S CHAPEL IN RUINS.

From the Work of Chaillou des Barres.

in his interest by his friend John, Bishop of Poitiers.a The great church of the abbey, a severe and majestic structure of a style intermediate between the Romanesque and the Gothic, founded in 1150, and probably completed about the time of Becket's retreat," still remains entire amid the shattered conventual buildings, to connect our age with his, although the chapel in which he is said to have performed his devotions has been destroyed, and the only memorial of him is a wretched picture of his murder. Since his time Pon tigny has served as a home to two other banished pri mates of England: Stephen Langton, in the reign of John; and Edmund Rich, who died an exile in 1242, and whose relics are enshrined behind the high altar.

It was on St. Andrew's Day that Becket arrived at Pontigny, and he remained there nearly two years, being supported and clothed, with his attendants, at the expense of the community. Shortly after his arrival, he requested that he might be furnished with a monastic habit, hallowed by the papal benediction; for, it is said, he wished to mark his renewed appointment to his office by becoming a monk, like the archbishops before him. The Pope complied with his request, and the biographers, in reporting some pleasantries which passed on the occasion of first trying on the dress, take occasion to inform us that the Archbishop's spare figure was so

a Foliot, Epp. 243-4.

b See Chaillou des Barres, 31; Fergusson, Handbook of Architecture, 689. "Cette admirable Eglise, due à la munificence du

Comte [Thibault] de Champagne, semble être d'un seul jet." Ch. des Barres, 35.

See Chaillou des Barres, 105-8. d Roger, i. 154.