It seems worthy of remark,that all the priors who were hostile to this establishment,died by divine visitation.William,{61}who first despoiled the place of its herds and storehouses,being deposed by the fraternity,forfeited his right of sepulture amongst the priors.Clement seemed to like this place of study and prayer,yet,after the example of Heli the priest,as he neither reproved nor restrained his brethren from plunder and other offences,he died by a paralytic stroke.And Roger,who was more an enemy to this place than either of his predecessors,and openly carried away every thing which they had left behind,wholly robbing the church of its books,ornaments,and privileges,was also struck with a paralytic affection long before his death,resigned his honours,and lingered out the remainder of his days in sickness.
In the reign of king Henry I.when the mother church was as celebrated for her affluence as for her sanctity (two qualities which are seldom found thus united),the daughter not yet being in existence (and I sincerely wish she never had been produced),the fame of so much religion attracted hither Roger,bishop of Salisbury,who was at that time prime minister;for it is virtue to love virtue,even in another man,and a great proof of innate goodness to show a detestation of those vices which hitherto have not been avoided.When he had reflected with admiration on the nature of the place,the solitary life of the fraternity,living in canonical obedience,and serving God without a murmur or complaint,he returned to the king,and related to him what he thought most worthy of remark;and after spending the greater part of the day in the praises of this place,he finished his panegyric with these words:"Why should I say more?the whole treasure of the king and his kingdom would not be sufficient to build such a cloister."Having held the minds of the king and the court for a long time in suspense by this assertion,he at length explained the enigma,by saying that he alluded to the cloister of mountains,by which this church is on every side surrounded.But William,a knight,who first discovered this place,and his companion Ervistus,a priest,having heard,perhaps,as it is written in the Fathers,according to the opinion of Jerome,"that the church of Christ decreased in virtues as it increased in riches,"were accustomed often devoutly to solicit the Lord that this place might never attain great possessions.They were exceedingly concerned when this religious foundation began to be enriched by its first lord and patron,Hugh de Lacy,{62}and by the lands and ecclesiastical benefices conferred upon it by the bounty of others of the faithful:from their predilection to poverty,they rejected many offers of manors and churches;and being situated in a wild spot,they would not suffer the thick and wooded parts of the valley to be cultivated and levelled,lest they should be tempted to recede from their heremitical mode of life.
But whilst the establishment of the mother church increased daily in riches and endowments,availing herself of the hostile state of the country,a rival daughter sprang up at Gloucester,under the protection of Milo,earl of Hereford;as if by divine providence,and through the merits of the saints and prayers of those holy men (of whom two lie buried before the high altar),it were destined that the daughter church should be founded in superfluities,whilst the mother continued in that laudable state of mediocrity which she had always affected and coveted.Let the active therefore reside there,the contemplative here;there the pursuit of terrestrial riches,here the love of celestial delights;there let them enjoy the concourse of men,here the presence of angels;there let the powerful of this world be entertained,here let the poor of Christ be relieved;there,I say,let human actions and declamations be heard,but here let reading and prayers be heard only in whispers;there let opulence,the parent and nurse of vice,increase with cares,here let the virtuous and golden mean be all-sufficient.In both places the canonical discipline instituted by Augustine,which is now distinguished above all other orders,is observed;for the Benedictines,when their wealth was increased by the fervour of charity,and multiplied by the bounty of the faithful,under the pretext of a bad dispensation,corrupted by gluttony and indulgence an order which in its original state of poverty was held in high estimation.The Cistercian order,derived from the former,at first deserved praise and commendation from its adhering voluntarily to the original vows of poverty and sanctity:until ambition,the blind mother of mischief,unable to fix bounds to prosperity,was introduced;for as Seneca says,"Too great happiness makes men greedy,nor are their desires ever so temperate,as to terminate in what is acquired:"a step is made from great things to greater,and men having attained what they did not expect,form the most unbounded hopes;to which the poet Ovid thus alludes.
"Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis,Nec facile est aequa commoda mente pati;And again:
"Creverunt opes et opum furiosa cupido,Et eum possideant plurima,plura petunt."And also the poet Horace:
"-scilicet improbae Crescunt divitiae,tamen Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.
Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam Majorumque fames."To which purpose the poet Lucan says:
"-O vitae tuta facultas Pauperis,angustique lares,o munera nondum Intellecta Deum!"And Petronius:
Non bibit inter aquas nec poma fugacia carpit Tantalus infelix,quem sua vota premunt.