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.
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