Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:37:18.090Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Legend and reality: the case of Waldef of Melrose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Derek Baker
Derek Baker*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Life of Saint Waldef by Jocelin of Furness is the only surviving account of a man who would seem to have played a prominent part in the political and ecclesiastical affairs of the north in the middle years of the twelfth century, and who acquired a reputation for conventional sanctity. Apart from Jocelin’s account, written almost fifty years after his subject’s death, there are only a handful of contemporary references to Waldef. If the historian was limited to these Waldef would be a shadowy figure indeed, and the annals of the twelfth-century church would lose a man who appears, both in Jocelin’s narrative and the pages of modern historians, almost as a second-rank Ailred.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 12: Church Society and Politics , 1975 , pp. 59 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Jocelin [of Furness, Vita Sancti Waldeni], in AS, August I, (Paris/Rome 1867) pp 242-78. The saint’s name should be rendered Waldevi. The best resumé of the evidence relating to Jocelin himself is given by McFadden (see n 3 below); Baker, [Derek], ‘San Bernardo [e l’elezione di York’], Studi su San Bernardo (Florence 1975) pp 85–146 Google Scholar; Baker, [Derek], ‘Patronage [in the early twelfth-century church: Walter-Espec, Kirkham and Rievaulx’] Festschrift Winfried Zeller (Marburg 1975)Google Scholar. Jocelin’s life is delineated by the works ascribed to him: the Lives of Kentigern, Patrick and Helena, besides that of Waldef. The Life of Kentigern was commissioned by bishop Joscelin of Glasgow (1174-99) and former abbot of Melrose (below n 49). In McFadden’s view the Life of Patrick comes next, preceding the Life of Helena, which is assigned to the period 1198-1207. The Life of Waldef comes last in the series. Jocelin had a literary reputation and an association with the community of Melrose, at least at one remove, through its ex-abbot Jocelin. Little else is certain. There is no confirmation of Colgan’s statement that Jocelin was Welsh, and a monk of Chester, though some support for his claim that he then became a monk at Down may be found in the composition of the Life of Patrick, whose remains were discovered at Down in 1186. Contacts, however, were close between Scotland and Ireland in general: Melrose itself sent its eighth abbot, Ralph to be bishop of Down in 1202, and in 1211 he was to be found back at Melrose consecrating the abbots of Fountains, Furness and Calder (Chronicle of Melrose). More particularly, the founder of Inis Courcy, near Down, as a daughter house of Furness, John de Courcy, was one of those to whom Jocelin dedicated his Life of Patrick. On only one occasion does Jocelin refer to himself as a monk of Furness - in the preface to his Life of Waldef - but the manuscripts of his works all agree in calling him a monk of Furness, and it is probably best, for the present, to settle simply on that. Whether further study of his works will allow greater precision it is difficult to say. Certainly, the order of composition of his Lives is important here and McFadden’s brief comments are not altogether convincing (pp 9-10), but I have not seen his unpublished thesis which might deal with this at greater length. As far as the Life of Waldef is concerned it is clear that Jocelin was a writer of established reputation within the cistercian houses of the north before he was invited to undertake a Life of the second abbot of Melrose. For an extreme view of the merits of the Life see McFadden: for him Jocelin is ‘a literary artist of almost the first rank’ (p 5 n 1), and his Life ‘one of the most perfect - even “classic” - specimens of hagiography’ (p 13). I find myself in greater agreement with the more superficial comment of Bulloch (p 127) - ‘it would seem that he used his sources honestly but uncritically, faithfully reproducing whatever he found there’.

2 A Vita Sancti Waltheni, now lost, is ascribed to Waldef’s fellow canon and monk Everard, later first abbot of Holmcultram. See AS August I p 246b, and below. John of Tynemouth’s De S. Walievo is an abbreviated version of Jocelin’s Life, see Horstmann, C., Nova Legenda Angliae (Oxford 1901)Google Scholar.

3 Contemporary references to Waldef occur in Lawrie, [A.C], [Early Scottish Charters prior to 1153] (Glasgow 1905)Google Scholar; Barrow, [G.W.S.], Regesta [Regum Scottorum] I (Edinburgh 1960, repr 1971)Google Scholar; [Chronica de] Mailros, ed J. Stevenson (Edinburgh 1835); Bernard’s Vita Sancti Malachiae (below n 46); in connection with the York election dispute (below n 53), and in the pseudo-Ingulph (below n 60). For more recent comment see [Daniel, Walter, Life of Ailred, ed Powieke, F.M.] (Edinburgh 1950)Google Scholar; Ritchie, [R.L.G.], [The Normans in Scotland] (Edinburgh 1954)Google Scholar; Dickinson, [J.C], [The Origins of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England] (London 1950)Google Scholar; Nicholl, [Donald], [Thurstan, Archbishop of York (1114-140)] (York 1964)Google Scholar; [Davis, R.H.C], [King Stephen] (London 1967)Google Scholar; [Ailred of Rievaulx, De Anima, ed C. H.] Talbot, MRS suppl 1 (London 1952); [Knowles, David, The] M[onastic] 0[rder in England] (2 ed Cambridge 1963)Google Scholar; Knowles, [David], [‘The Case of] Saint William [of York’], CHJ 5 no 2 (1936) pp 162-77, 212-14Google Scholar; Wilson, [J.], [‘The Passages of St Malachy through Scotland’], ScHR 18 (1921) pp 69–82 Google Scholar; Baker, [Derek], ‘Viri Religiosi [and the York Election Dispute’], SCH 7 (1971) pp 87–100 Google Scholar; Bulloch, [J.P.B.], [‘St Waltheof’], Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 11 (Glasgow 1955) pp 105-32Google Scholar; McFadden, [G.], [‘The Life of Waldef and its author Jocelin of Furness’], Innes Review (Glasgow 1955) pp 5–13 Google Scholar; Anderson, [A.O.], [Early Sources of Scottish History 500-1286], 2 (Edinburgh 1922) pp 32-3, 40, 145-50, 207, 240, 274-5Google Scholar.

4 Died at La Charité-sur-Loire in c 1111. See Anderson, p 146.

5 Jocelin II. 11 (AS p 2522): Comes Simon, praenominatus pater puerorum, primogenitum, tamquam Isaac Esau suum, arctius amabat; mater vero, mulier bona, Walthenum, velut Rebecca suum Iacobum, affectu propensiori diligebat. Cum fratres illi in puerili aetate constituti essent, sapiebant, agebant, ludebant ut parvuli: prior natu Simon collectis arbusculis seu ramusculis, secundum modulum suum, castellum construere consueverat; et ascendens canabum, velut sonipedem suum, et virgulam quasi lanceam accipiens et vibrans, cum coaetaneis suis circa fictitii et imaginarii castelli custodiam et defensionem solicitus, militiam simulabat. Walthenus vero puerulus ex virgulis vel lapillis quasi ecclesias, seque presbyterum tamquam Missam celebrantem expansis manibus praesentabat: et quia verba proferre non noverat, sonos cantum similantes edere solebat. A similar story, however, is told by Gerald of Wales of himself. See Ritchie p 247 n 4.

6 Jocelin I: 14 (AS p 252b): In curia regis [sic] nutriebatur, educabatur, crescebat et confortabatur, et gratia Dei in eo evidentibus indiciis monstrabatur. In palatium namque claustrum, et in turba monachum, inter aulicos seipsum exhibuit solitarium. Both McFadden and Bulloch retail the story recorded in the De Comitissa that Maud’s children by her first marriage were sent to Normandy - ‘So David had possession of the countess and the earldom, and custody of the children. … The children who had been born to Simon and Matilda, and who were in David’s custody, were taken to Normandy and committed to the keeping of Stephen, the count of Aumale, their mother’s uncle. And they were so much educated under his tutelage that Simon, the eldest, received insignia of knighthood with count William, count Stephen’s son. For this reason Henry, the king of the English, was indignant.’ Anderson p 145, quoting from the Life of Earl Waldef(De Comitissa section) ed Francisque Michel, Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, 3 vols (Rouen 1836) 2, pp 126-31. Bulloch concludes (p 108) that ‘it can only have applied to the daughters’, but there is no reason why it should not be accepted. Waldef could have returned to David’s household at a later date - perhaps after he became king, as Jocelin implies (I: 14). Though no certainty is possible here there can be no doubt as to the importance of the documents associated with the cult of earl Waldef to this discussion. Denholm-Young saw the De Comitissa, together with the Vita et passio venerabilis viri Gualdevi, as being the essential core of the documents printed by Michel, deriving from ‘a common nucleus and narrative of the life and death of Siward, Waltheof and the countess Judith’, while Anderson saw the De Comitissa as underlying the account of the pseudo-Ingulph. See Anderson p 33; n 46; and below pp 73-4, nn 60-4.

7 Ibid I: 15 - II: 19.

8 Comitis fratris sui. Simon II of Senlis seems to have received the earldom of Northampton sometime after 1136, see Davis pp 134-5, and below pp 73-4, nn 60-4. The chronology of Waldef’s early life is uncertain, and is discussed further below.

9 The Chronicle of Melrose records abbot William’s death on 8 June 1206. Jocelin, however, is quite explicit about the date he gives - Anno ab Incarnatione Domini millesimo ducentesimo septimo, qui est annus quadragesimus octavus a decessu sancti Waltheni - and it is difficult to see how he could have been mistaken about an event so close to the date at which he must have been writing, though it should be noted that he dates Waltheof’s death to 1160 not 1159 (VI: 91). Since abbot Patrick, who commissioned the Life, ruled only from 1206-7, according to the Chronicle of Melrose, 1206 may be preferred as the date of exhumation.

10 There is, for example, no mention of the next abbot of Melrose, Adam, who had been the prior of the house. Some reference to him might be expected if the completion of the Life was delayed much beyond Patrick’s death.

11 Jocelin, Prologue (AS p 2502): nullaque in eis veritati opposita, sed quod a viris veridicis senioribus domus Melrosensis, omni exceptione maioribus accepi, me scripsisse fideliter agnoscant. In dictando ita stylum temperavi meum, ut nec humi repat, nec tumeat in altum, modum eligendo propter simplices planum et perlucidum et circumspectum, et vitando iuxta Tullium pompaticum, suffultum, et involutum. On Jocelin’s reliability see the comments of Knowles, ‘Saint William’, p 165 n 10, and MO p 240.

12 Powicke pp lxxi-iv, and at pp xiii, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxvi n 3, xxxix, xli, xlii n 1, xliv, xci, xcii, 3 n*, 10 n 3, 56 n 1. McFadden is primarily concerned with Jocelin and his Life of Waldef. His summary account of Waldef (pp 5-7) is almost entirely based upon Powieke, and while Bulloch deals at great length with Waldef his account is a recapitulation of Jocelin’s Life with large excursions into related events and develop ments.

13 In spite of the fact that he accepts a date of c 1139 for it. This agreement needs further consideration. It need only be said here that there seems to be no necessity to associate it with the career of Waldef at all. See Powicke p lxxiii; Chartulary of Rievaulx, ed J. C. Atkinson, SS 83, for 1887 (1889) pp xviii-xxxvi, 108-9; Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains, ed. J. R. Walbran, 2, 1, SS 67, for 1876 (1878) pp 177-93; below n 18; Baker, ‘Patronage’.

14 See Powicke p lxxiv for the references.

15 The addition is made in a Bury St Edmund’s manuscript, now Oxford Bodleian MS Bodley 240 (SC 2469), written in 1377 and the years following. The manuscript contains a number of saints’ lives, including one of Ailred. This is essentially a summary of the Life by Walter Daniel. The manuscript also seems to contain some of the materials collected by John of Tynemouth at St Albans in the second quarter of the fourteenth century for his collection known as the Sanctilogium Angliae (now BM Cottonian MS Tiberius E.1.). The addition reads ‘in curia David regis Scocie, cum Henrico filio regis et Walthevo postmodum abbate de Melros, nutritus et educatus.’ Powicke notes that the addition may be derived from Jocelin, who refers (III. 32) to Ailred as ‘coalumnum et amicissimum suum, a iuventute in curia regis David cum Henrico filio regis et eodem Waltheno nutritus et educatus’. See Powicke pp xxviii-xxxii, xxxiii, xxxix, xli, 3 n*, and AS August I, p 258e (not p 257 d.e. as given by Powieke p xxxiii n i).

16 Ritchie pp 247-53, and at pp 139, 171 n 4, 348 n 1, 355, 357, 410, 417.

17 His references to Ailred, for example, need to be treated with considerable caution.

18 Dickinson pp 123 n 4, pp 171-2, 177, 201, 213, 252, 253. It may be noted that he dates the agreement between Rievaulx and Kirkham (above n 13) ‘before March 1154’ (p 123 n 4), and makes the interesting suggestion that the canons of Kirkham may have withdrawn their objection to Waldef’s departure to the cistercians (p 213). At p 171 he gives dates of c 1140-47 for Waldef’s priorate. The latter date is certainly wrong, and perhaps arises from the attempt to reconcile Jocelin’s reference to Ailredum abbatum (III: 32) with the crisis in Waldef’s life. Though there is a reference to a Life of Waldef by Ailred at p 201 this is in fact Jocelin’s Life, and Waldef was not abbot of Mclrose at the time of his nomination to the see of York, but prior of Kirkham (p. 252).

19 Nicholl pp 137, 235, 241. It was Simon II of Senlis who was the benefactor of Nostell, not his father, see Ritchie p 171 n 4. The date of c 1128 given for Waldef’s entry into Nostell is presumably derived from Lawrie. The date given by Nicholl for Malachy’s visit to York (November 1139) is not undisputed, but seems preferable to 1140, see Nicholl p 235. Wilson (p 73) argues unconvincingly for 1140 as the date of Malachy’s visit, relating it to the death of Thurstan (5 February 1140).

20 Davis p 99.

21 Talbot pp 3, 4.

22 Ailred’s reference is to David’s son Henry only, not to Henry and Waldef as Talbot asserts, though he quotes the relevant passage, p 4 n 4.

23 MO pp 240-3, and at 219, 220, 245, 254, 635. At p 645 is a brief assessment of Jocelin’s Life.

24 Ailred ‘must have been stirred by the action of his friend Waldef, the king’s stepson and brother of Simon, earl of Northumberland [sic], who about 1130 became an Augustinian canon at Nostell, then under the rule of Aldulf. Within a few years the distinguished young canon became prior of Kirkham … and there Ailred was soon to find his friend again …’, MO p 242.

Waldef’s brother, Simon II of Senlis, became earl of Northampton possibly c 1136. His step-brother Henry became earl of Northumberland in 1139, see Davis pp 134-7, and above n 8.

25 Knowles, ‘Saint William’ pp 164, 165.

26 ‘his high connections and his own ability made him … a candidate for the vacant archbishopric, but, though widely known and trusted, he was still a young man and, as events were to show, had not yet found his true vocation’, p 164.

27 Barrow, , Regesta I. p 7 Google Scholar, and at pp 11, 20, 21.

28 Malcolmus rex, nepos Abbatis sancti in pueritia et iuventute ante regnum et in regno constitutus, monitis ipsius obsecundans et imperio, vitam suam ad eius arbitrium ac mores composuit, domum et regnum disposuit (Jocelin IV: 50). ‘More influential, doubtless, was the king’s uncle and sometime tutor, Waltheof, abbot of Melrose since 1148, who refused the king’s offer of the St Andrew’s see in 1159 because he believed he had not long to live, and who, in fact, died on 3 August in that year. One would hardly expect a Cistercian abbot, especially one of Waltheof’s humility and devotion, to be much at court; and, indeed, he is named as a witness very seldom’ (Barrow, Regesta I p 7). See, too, the following paragraph.

Waldef witnesses once in fact, see Barrow Regesta I no 128, pp 190-1. His absence as a witness to the great charter of confirmation to Kelso, given at Roxburgh in the second quarter of 1159 should be noted. See Barrow, Regesta I no 131, pp 192-5.

29 Mailros p 73 (1148): Ricardus primus abbas de Melros discessit, et Walthevus frater Henrici comitis Northimbrorum, et Simonis comitis Norhamtune, factus est abbas de Malros (the first seven words are a later interlinear addition). Ibid p 76 (1159): Obiit pie memorie Waldevus abbas ii de Malros iii nonarum Augusti [3 August] qui fuit awnculus regis M[alcolm IV].

30 Ibid p 106.

31 Ibid p 151 (1240): Eodem anno levata sunt ossa abbatum de Meiros que iacebant in introitu capitoli, et in orientali parte eiusdem capituli decencius sunt tumulata; praeter ossa venerabilis patris nostri Wallevi, cuius sepulcrum apertum fuit et corpus eius incineratum inventum, ex quo qui assuerunt ex minutis ossibus secum asportaverunt, et reliqua in pace dimiserunt. Aderat ibi praesens miles bone oppinionis, dictus Gilellmus filius comitis, nepos domini regis; hic dentem precibus obtinuit, per quem, ut ipse postea retulit, infirmi multa secuti sunt beneficia.

32 Ibid p 84 (1171): Sepulcrum pii patris nostri dompni Wallevi abbatis secundi de Meiros, a bone memorie Ingeramo Glasguensi episcopo et iiiior abbatibus ad hoc vocatis’ reseratum est, et corpus eius integrum inventum et vestimenta intacta, anno xii° obitus sui, xi kalendas Iunii [June 22]. Et post sacra missarum solempnia idem antistes et abbates, quos praenumeravimus, cum ipsius monasterii universo conventu, super ipsam sanctissimi corporis glebam posuerunt lapidem novum, id est, marmor politum; et facta est leticia magna, conclamantibus qui aderant et dicentibus, vere hic homo Dei est. Compare the much longer account given by Jocelin, (IX: 121-3, AS p 275b), and in particular his substitution of ‘incorrupt and entire’ for the ‘entire’ of the Chronicle of Mehose.

33 Facile admittimus, hunc Walthenum ab immemorabili tempore in Scotia et Anglia solitos Sanctorum honores obtinuisse; sed non asseremus, illum ab Apostolica sede solenniter inter Sanctos relatum fuisse, donee fide digniora huius rei testimonia asserantur. (AS p 243b).

34 Abbas vero Jocelinus per aliquanti temporis spatium episcopus de Glasgu effectus est, vir in multis laudandus; sed in hoc, quod sanctum Walthenum, qui specialiter ilium dilexit, erexit, provexit, canonizare non sategit, ut pluribus videtur, vituperandus. (IX: 23, AS p 275b). The debate about Waldef’s resting place, which immediately precedes the remarks about abbot Jocelin, postpones a decision ‘donec auctoritate summi Pontificis, vel consensu et concessu, capituli Cisterciensis aliud sanciretur’. There is no reference to this in the surviving statutes of the general chapter. See too the words put into the pope’s mouth in the account of the vision of Nicholas, chancellor of Malcolm IV, at Rome (VII: 95).

35 See his prologue, addressed to William the Lion and the future Alexander II: Ipse est decus et decor prosapiae vestrae, regni tutor, tutela patriae, titulus pudicitiae, gemma vitae canonicae, speculum monasticae disciplinae. Hie, inquam, degens in mundo fuit cleri solatium, pauperum aerarium, egenorum sustentaculum, infirmorum remedium, virtutum praeclarum domicilium. Huius corpus sanctissimum, totius adhuc corruptionis expers, futurae resurrectionis praeclarum praefert indicium, et fidei ac spei nostrae probabile ac palpabile praebet experimentum. Huius itaque diletti Deo et hominibus, cuius memoria in benedictione est, utpote quem Dominus similem illi fecit in gloria Sanctorum, vitam virtutibus vernantem, miraculis gloriosam, theoriis praedaris sublimatam, petente ac praecipiente domino Patricio, abbate de Meiros, sed heu! morte praematura praerepto, tandem suscepi (AS p 250a). Slightly further on in his prologue he exhorts his readers ‘diligite, visitate, veneramini locum requietionis eius’.

36 For example his reference to the deposition of the third abbot of Melrose, William (22 April 1170) against a background of opposition to friends and protegés of Waldef - like the future abbot Joscelin - and active discouragement of Waldef’s cult. It may well be that this reflects a conflict in the house between those who supported Waldef’s claim to sanctity and those who opposed it. See IX: 120-1, and compare in Powicke the criticisms levelled at Ailred after his death. See too the reference ‘In superiori libello de beato Waltheno’ at VII: 92, which introduces the posthumous account of Waldef and reads better as a composition of c 1170 than of 1207: ‘In superiori libello de beato Waltheno, quae memorato digna sensebantur, diligenter ab his, qui noverunt investigavimus, investigata qualicumque stylo digesta notitiae praesentium ac posteriorum tradimus; omisimus tamen auribus accepta plura, quia, ut nobis visum est, probabilis testimonii defeat sufficientia (AS p 2702).

37 Above n 11.

38 Apparently relating events at Kirkham.

39 See the further references to Walter at VII: 96-8, which conclude ‘Haec frater Waltherus multoties etiam cum lachrymis pluribus retulit, ex quorum relatu didici, quae scripsi.’

40 Hoc miraculum fere cunctis in Melros degentibus innotuit.

41 Erat isdem Everardus a pueritia divinis obsequiis mancipatus in Canonicato, virum Dei prae ceteris Canonicis arctius amans in Christo ad monachatum secutus, in Melrosensi coenobio eiusdem capellanus, conscius secretorum Sancti est effectus. Hic multis annorum curriculis vivens domum, cui praefuit interius ad magnae religionis culmen erexit, et exterius praediis et possessionibus ditatum in altum pervexit: sicque plenus dierum et virtutum in senectute bona ibidem in Domino requiescit. (IV: 49, AS 2622).

He seems to have been close to Waldef while still at Kirkham, see Jocelin’s account of the eucharistie miracle at II: 22-3.

42 Haec a viro venerabili Everardo, primo abbate de Helculii, narrante didici, et ex ore confessoris eius accepi. (AS p 2562). See Bulloch p 115 for reference to the occurrence of an identical miracle at Whithorn in the first half of the ninth century.

43 Retulit etiam Domnus Everardus, primus abbas de Holcultran, quod quadam vice dum itineraret cum praefato Viro Dei. … (AS p 259b).

44 Jocelin’s words here indicate the extent to which he was indebted to Everard: Haec et alia in hanc formam abbas de Helcon plura replicando subiunxit (AS p 275b).

45 Knowles, ‘Saint William’ p 165 n 10. See Jocelin II: 29-30, AS p 257a.

46 Compare Jocelin II: 27-8, AS pp 256b-7a and [Vita Sancti] Malachiae, ed J. Leclerq and H. M. Rochais, Sancti Bernardi Opera, III, Tractatus et Opuscula (Rome 1963) pp 295-378, at pp 341-2 (XV: 35-6). The composition of the Life of Malachy can be dated between 1150 and March 1152, see Malachiae p 297. There are no differences of substance between the two, though Jocelin extends the account by remarking that the Irish ascribed the transformation of the horse given by Waldef to Malachy to the merits of Malachy, while the canons of Kirkham ascribed it to the merits of Waldef. McFadden (p 11) referred to Jocelin’s hostile account of the Conqueror’s dealings with Waldef of Northumbria, and it is possible that for this part of his Life (I: 6-9, AS p 251) Jocelin made use of some of the writings associated with the cult of Waldef which were in circulation in the twelfth century: he remarks at one point (I: 9): ‘Extat libellus in eodem coenobio conscriptus de miraculis eius, ex quibus probatur, quod merito nomen martyris ei adscribitur, attribuiter et decus.’ See the comments of Denholm-Young, N., Bodleian Quarterly Record 6, 69 (Oxford 1931) pp 225-30Google Scholar, the references there given; and n 6 above.

47 See above nn 34, 36.

48 Above n 36.

49 Almost the only exception is the fourth abbot Joscelin, the prior of Melrose before he succeeded the deposed abbot William in 1170. He is said to have succeeded ipso die of William’s deposition - 22 April 1170 - and the Chronicle of Melrose dates the investigation of Waldef’s remains to 22 June, exactly two months later. It is possible to see this as a decisive rejection of abbot William’s opposition; it is also possible that the new abbot had little option but to go along with the supporters of Waldef’s cause at this early stage of his abbatiate. Joscelin’s appointment to the see of Glasgow in 1174 makes it difficult to establish his attitude. He was certainly a good friend and benefactor to Melrose (Mailros p 100, s.a. 1198). He was well regarded there, died at the abbey on 17 March 1199, and was buried in the monks choir (ibid p 103 and n hh), but though he is described as a disciple and friend of Waldef he occurs in none of the stories about him (see Jocelin IX: 121, AS p 275b). For monks who witness to Waldef’s sanctity see Jocelin III: 41; VI: 76; VIII: 117. For conversi V: 71; VI: 74; VI: 85; VII: 96; VII: 99; VII: 100; VIII: 109 (probably); VIII: 112. Thomas Good, the cellarer, occurs in IV: 52, in connection with miracles associated with the relief of famine. In similar fashion Walter, conversus hospitarius, occurs in IV: 57 in connection with miraculous guests. Some insight into Waldef’s relations with his conversi is given at V: 73 - sedebat Sanctus iste inter laïcos fratres dispertiens eis spirituales escas. … In contrast to these miracles those added by Jocelin for the period after 1170 are much more varied. Besides two monks of Melrose (DC: 128, 129) and two conversi (IX: 130, 131), the witnesses include a citizen of Roxburgh (IX: 124), two Englishmen (IX: 125), a breviregulus (IX: 127) and a clerk of Westmoreland (IX: 132). Compare R. B. Brooke’s account of the canonisation of Francis, in Latin Biography, ed Dorey, T.A. (London 1967) pp 177-96Google Scholar, and see McFadden, p 7, ‘the collective imagination of the monks (and especially of the conversi) together with the hagiographical lore and writer’s vision of Jocelin have given flesh and blood to these noble precepts’.

50 AS pp 246b-247.

51 See above n 44.

52 Holmcultram was founded in 1150. Everard died in 1192. On the basis of these dates it would have been possible for Jocelin to have met Everard as he appears to claim that he did (see above nn 42, 43) - though at least fifteen years before he was asked to write the Life of Waldef. I am inclined to think, however, that these two references to Everard occurred in the postulated dossier of 1170, and do not, therefore, relate to Jocelin. It is quite likely, however, that the brief account of Everard given after the notice of the foundation of Holmcultram (see above n 41), which records Everard’s death, was added by Jocelin. Holmcultram was not far from Calder or its mother-house Furness, and Everard seems to have been active in the diocese of Carlisle during his long abbatiate. In this connection the presence of Hardred, abbot of Calder, at the exhumation of 1170 is interesting (see HRH p 129, where this reference is not noted). Everard must surely have been one of the other unnamed abbots present.

Some account of Holmcultram is given in Gilbanks, G.E., Some Records of a Cistercian Abbey (London n.d.)Google Scholar. For the records of the house see MA V pp 593-619 and Davis, [G.R.C.], Medieval Cartularies [of Great Britain] (London 1958) pp 55-6Google Scholar, with references there given.

53 John of Hexham s.a. 1142 and 1144. See the references in Knowles, ‘Saint William’, and in Talbot, C.H., ‘New Documents in the Case of Saint William of York’, CHJ 11, 1 (1950) pp 1–15 Google Scholar.

54 Lawrie p 69, no LXXXIII: in favour of the church of St John in the castle of Roxburgh. Lawrie gives a date of c 1128, but the outside limits seem to be early 1126-1131. Ascelin the archdeacon, who witnesses the charter, is known to have been archdeacon before 31 December 1126 (Lawrie pp 54-5, no LXV) and bishop John of Glasgow was in Rome in the winter of 1125/6. The movements of David I are not certainly known for this period, though he seems to have been in the south between September 1126 and March 1127 (Barrow, Regesta I p 113). Queen Maud died in 1131.

55 Barrow, Regesta I, pp 190-1, no 128, dated 1157-9: in favour of the cistercian abbey of Warden.

56 Malachiae p 342: vir nobilis secundum saeculum, Wallenus nomine, tune Prior in Kyrkeham regularium fratrum nunc vero monachus et monachorum pater in Mailros, monasterio Ordinis nostri.

57 See above nn 29, 31, 32.

58 Even Jocelin can only date Waldef’s election as abbot of Melrose circa idem tempus (III: 36, AS p 258b).

59 7 March 1143, see Talbot p 6; Baker, ‘San Bernardo’.

60 Adhuc impuberes et infantiles. [Tlie Church Historians of England, ed J.] Stevenson, II. 2 (London 1854) pp 565-725, at p 670. See nn 6, 64.

61 See the references in HRH p 42.

62 Stevenson p xxi, see nn 6, 64.

63 See Freeman, E.A., History of the Norman Conquest, IV (2 ed, rev, Oxford 1876) pp 393 n 2, 601-3Google Scholar; H[andbook of] B[ritish] C[hronology], ed F. M. Powicke and E. B. Fryde (2 ed London 1961) p 432 n 2, referring to RRAN I, no 315.

64 She died in 1131 at about the age of fifty-six, and must have been about forty when the only child of her second marriage to earl David was born (see Ritchie p 252 and n). Ritchie (p 247 n 3) says of Waldef’s elder brother Simon, that he ‘must have been seven or eight years older than Ailred’. No evidence is given, and I have been unable to find any, either for this statement or that in HBC that he was ‘born probably after 1103,’ see pp 432, 440. See Ritchie pp 408-10, 435, for further discussion, partly hypothetical, of the chronology of Maud’s life and the evidence for it. Both McFadden and Bulloch refer to the four children of the marriage of Maud and Simon I of Senlis. No authority is given, but the source is presumably Jocelin I:9 - ‘Matildis vero … cum pervenisset ad mundum, opportuno tempore illustrissimo comite de Huntedunia, scilicet seniori Simoni de Samhet nupsit; de quo votivo germine duos filios et filias edidit. The existence of a second daughter is not otherwise known, and may be discounted. The De Comitissa simply remarks ‘And in process of time earl Simon begot children by countess Matilda: - Simon, Waltheof, Matilda. Waltheof was afterwards the abbot of Melrose’, quoted Anderson p 145.

McFadden (p 5) is of the opinon that Waldef was born ‘shortly after the year 1100’, while Bulloch, relying on Jocelin’s statement that Waldef was still ‘in puerili toga constituto’ (I: 14) when his father died abroad and his mother married again, asserts that Waldef was still under sixteen c 1110-13.

65 See Ailred, Genealogia Regum Anglorum, in Twysden, R., Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decem (London 1652) cols 347-70Google Scholar. To David he declares ‘ab ineunte aetate mea impendisti’ (col 350), and of Henry-Cum quo ab ipsis cunabulis vixi et puer cum puero crevi, cuius etiam adolescentiam adolescens agnovi, quem iuventutis flores pulsantem sicut patrem suum quem prae cunctis mortalibus dilexi, iam senile flore fulgentem ut Christo servirem corpore quidem set nunquam mente vel aflectu reliqui (col 368). For Ailred’s date of birth see Powieke, p xxxiv. It is not, perhaps, without significance that Jocelin’s reference to Ailred’s time at David’s court reads simply ‘a iuventute in curia regis David cum Henrico filio et eodem Waltheno nutritus et educatus’. (III: 32, AS p 258a).

66 See Lawrie p 28 no XXXV, p 55 no LXV, p 59 no LXXII, pp 68-9 nos LXXXII-LXXXIII. It is in the last of these that Waldef makes his sole appearance in the reign of David I. See above nn 6, 27-8.

67 See Jocelin I: 13-17, AS p 252.

68 It is not easy to disentangle the chronology of the episcopate for these years, but David I may have had the opportunity to nominate to the sees of Aberdeen, Dunkeld, Moray and Ross. Certainly neither St Andrews nor Glasgow were open to him, see HBC pp 281-301. For recent studies of aspects of the policy of David I with regard to the Scottish church see Barrow, [G.W.S.], The Kingdom [of the Scots] (London 1973) pp 165–211 Google Scholar.

69 See below.

70 See Powicke pp xi-xii, 10, 13-14. There are other candidates: See Nicholl’s comments about Aethelwold (Aldulf) of Nostell, in York for his consecration as bishop of Carlisle on 6 August 1133 (pp 147-51), and Ritchie pp 230-3 for David’s appeal to the northern English barons in 1134, and Espec’s leading part in their response. Either of these could have occasioned Ailred’s trip in partes Eboraci civitatis. There are, in any case, difficulties in Walter Daniel’s account of this embassy. David had been an early benefactor of Rievaulx, as a letter of Bernard requesting assistance for the struggling community at Fountains records, and was to establish a daughter house at Melrose in 1136. It is difficult to believe that Ailred knew nothing of Rievaulx before he went to Thurstan, or that he needed permission from Thurstan to visit it when, as Daniel later indicates, his business with the archbishop must have been concluded. If, as is likely, Ailred had business with both Thurstan and Espec in 1134, then it would have been surprising if he had not visited Rievaulx en route. See Powicke pp 10-16, and compare Jocelin III: 34-5 (below n 78) for Waldef’s apparent reaction to the cistercian life when he entered the order.

71 For references to Waldef’s visits to Rievaulx see Jocelin V: 67-70, AS p 265b.

72 See Jocelin’s reference to his reorganisation of life at Kirkham-(II: 21, AS p 255b) Omnes bonas consuetudines et sacra instituta, quae in diversis ecclesiis Canonicorum tener cognovit, velut in fasciculam collecta, in domo, cui praefuit, observan diligenter instituit - and Dickinson pp 171-2. This activity may be connected with the foundation, by William of Aumale, of the priory of Thornton from Kirkham at this time.

73 See Nicholl passim.

74 For some comment on this see Baker, ‘Viri Religiosi’.

75 The most significant figure, perhaps, is Aethelwold, prior of Nostell and, from 1133, bishop of Carlisle in plurality. His support of Henry Murdac’s candidacy in the election of 1147 may be contrasted with his failure to support, or to suggest, Waldef. See Baker, ‘San Bernardo’; Nicholl pp 244-5, and, for the close relationship of the major augustinian houses to the York chapter, ibid pp 128-30.

76 Jocelin gives no indication of date, and there are none in other sources.

77 Jocelin V: 67-70, AS pp 265b-6a … Nonne me agnoscis specialem amicum tuum Wilhelmum, huius loci abbatem primum. … ante sepulcrum amantissimi sui Wilhelmi abbatis. Waldef had been closely associated with William in the early stages of the York election dispute, travelling with him to Rome in 1143.

78 Jocelin III: 34-5, AS pp 258b-9a: cum venerabilis Walthenus in probatorio peregisset aliquanti temporis spatium, antiquo serpente sibilante, Ordinis arrepti observantia vertebatur illi in fastidium: videbatur ei cibus et potus insipidus, asper et vilis vestitus, labor manualis durus, vigiliarum et psalmodiae gravis, ac totius Ordinis tenor nimis austeras. Recogitans pristinos annos in Canonicato vel Priorato suo, persuasum in mente habuit, institutiones illorum, licet leviores, discretioni tamen viciniores ac per hoc salvandis animabus aptiores … ita ut Ordinem Cisterciensem deserere ac ad Canonicatum reverti deliberasset.

79 See nn 53-6 above. John of Hexham, for example, paid considerable attention to Scottish affairs, and to developments in the scottish church, but has nothing to say of Waldef - see his account of the designation of Malcolm the Maiden as heir to the Scottish throne, and to his subsequent accession (s.a. 1153, 1154), and compare Jocelin’s claim on Waldef’s behalf.

80 … deliberat attentius super qualitate religionis et loco. Timebat enim, ne forte, si infra regnum regis Scotiae vel infra terram comitis fratris sui in aliqua domo Religionis susciperetur, diutius ibi demorari non permitteretur, aut inde violenter extractus ad aliquod culmen honoris ecclesiastici etiam invitus promoveretur.

Haec ille mente pertractans, inspirante Spiritu sancto, salubre consilium invenit, exiensque de terra illa et cognatione sua, veniensque ad locum Nostiel vocabulo extra ditionem regis et comitis, in ecclesia S. Oswaldi regis et martyris, habitum Canonici suscepit (II: 18-19, AS p 255b).

81 See Nicholl pp 128-50; Barrow, The Kingdom pp 170-87.

82 See Barrow, The Kingdom pp 170-3.

83 Ibid pp 181-4; Dickinson pp 250-1; Nicholl pp 146-7.

84 See Nicholl pp 111-50.

85 Ibid pp 144-6.

86 For example, Powicke pp xlv-xlvii; Nicholl pp 137-40; Ritchie pp 142-270.

87 As, for example, with the battle of the Standard, where the compromise proposed before the battle by Balliol and Bruce was adopted after it, see Nicholl pp 224-31.

88 See above p 75.

89 York Minster Fasti II, ed Sir Charles Clay, YAS, RecS 124 for 1958 (1959) pp 70-1.

90 See above n 56.

91 The Chronicle of Melrose says simply ‘Ricardus primus abbas de Melros discessit’, and later records ‘obiit Ricardus quondam abbas de Malros apud Clara Vallem in conventu’ (pp 73, 1148; 74, 1149). Jocelin (III: 36) is more circumstantial - Circa idem tempus Richardus primus abbas de Melros, quamquam in pluribus laudabilis, cum se ob impetum irae indomabilem, conventui exhiberet intolerabilem, iuste exabbas effectus, officio ac loco cessit (AS p 2592). It was suggested by Morton that Richard was removed by abbot William of Rievaulx (died 1145). If the abbot of Rievaulx did play a direct part in Richard’s resignation or deposition in 1148 the abbot in question must been have Ailred. There is, however, no clear evidence that the abbot of Rievaulx was so directly involved. See Morton, J., The Monastic Annals of Teviotdale (Edinburgh 1832) p 202 Google Scholar; Mailros p 74 n h. It is not clear what part king David played in these events. Jocelin refers briefly to the anger of the king at the deposition of abbot Richard, but Jocelin’s purpose is to emphasise the immediate reconciliation consequent upon the succession of Waldef - ‘prae ceteris ilium [rex] dilexit, protexit, nihilque mali de viro suspicari voluit’. It is difficult to believe that the community acted, or were able to act, without consulting the king, or that Ailred, if he was involved, did not proceed with David’s approval. Certainly, Jocelin’s own account makes it clear that there were charges to rebut - ‘haec breviter tetigi, ne quis sanctum Conventum de Melros super depositionc illius abbatis vel aliorum tale quid promerentium accusare audeat’.

92 See Jocelin VI: 79, AS p 267a.

93 MO p 242.

94 For the most recent account, with full references, see B. Meehan, ‘The siege of Durham, the battle of Carham and the cession of Lothian’, Scottish Historical Review (forthcoming).

95 See Ritchie pp 137-9.

96 See Baker, Derek, ‘Heresy and learning in early cistercianism’, SCH 9 (1972) pp 103-5Google Scholar, and the references there given.

97 See Nicholl pp 237-8; Morris, Colin, ‘A critique of popular religion: Guibert of Nogent on The Relics of the Saints’, SCH 8 (1972) pp 55–60 Google Scholar.

98 For the first abbot, Richard, see n 91 above. For the third abbot, William, see pp 67-8, 70 above: the Chronicle of Melrose says that humiliter dimisit, and that he was succeeded by the prior of Melrose, Joscelin, ipso die (22 April 1170). Joscelin himself became bishop of Glasgow in 1174, a charge he kept until his death on 17 March 1199: he died, and was buried, at Melrose. The seventh abbot, Reiner, former abbot of Kinlos, and ‘our monk’, resigned after five years as abbot (23 March 1189 - 17 September 1194). His successor, Radulphus, also an ex-abbot of Kinlos, also left the house, for the bishopric of Down, having ruled for eight years (18 September 1194-1202). The sixth abbot, Arnold, became abbot of the mother house of Rievaulx having ruled Melrose for ten years (6 January 1179 - 2 March 1189). Laurence, the fifth abbot, a former abbot in Orkney, and ‘our monk’, was, in the opinion of the Chronicle of Melrose ‘vir mire humilitatis et mansuetudinis et in divinis litteris plurimum eruditus’. He ruled for only three years (21 May 1175-1178). William, the ninth abbot, was a former abbot of Cupar, and master of the conversi at Melrose: he ruled the house for four years (1202 - 8 June 1206). His successor, Patrick, the sub-prior of Melrose, who commissioned Jocelin’s Life, survived only one year as abbot (1206-7). The next four abbots rule for only six, one, one and three years respectively. Not until the fifteenth abbot Adam, who ruled for twenty-six years (6 August 1219-1245) is there any continuity of rule.

99 See MA 5, p 250, De successione abbatum: Est hic sciendum quod contra usum aliorum monasteriorum huiusmodi ordinis, observatur consuetudo in monasterio Furnesii solum illos nominare et pronunciare abbatcs in mortuario suo qui per decennium integrum rexerunt ante decessum eorum, et postmodum obierunt abbates, et sic ibidem non nominantur abbates qui etiam post decennium abbaciatus sui cesserunt vel depositi fuerunt, seu qui ante completum decennium sui regiminis obierunt. (fol 1r). See Davis, Medieval Cartularies pp 48-9 for references to the records of the house.