Durham E-Theses Perfectissimus: The Carthusians in England, c.1178-c.1220 GREEN, ROSALIND,CECILIA,GOLDIE How to cite: GREEN, ROSALIND,CECILIA,GOLDIE (2017) Perfectissimus: The Carthusians in England, c.1178-c.1220 , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12118/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract Perfectissimus: the Carthusians in England, c.1178-c.1220 Rosalind Cecilia Goldie Green This thesis aims to demonstrate the significance of the charterhouse of Witham within the collective history of the Carthusian order in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The importance of this house has been underestimated in modern scholarship and what follows addresses this imbalance. Although removed from the Carthusian heartland of the French Alps, the charterhouse of Witham was not a backwater or irrelevent house. A diverse range of sources concern this charterhouse and the Carthusians in England which form a significant proportion of the avaliable evidence for the entire order in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Utilising such sources, this thesis places Witham and the Carthusians in England at the heart of any examination of the Carthusian order in this period. The rich evidential vein offered by them allows an integrated exploration of what it meant to be a Carthusian in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Moreover, this thesis considers reception and interpretation of the order by contemporaries, both those internal and external to the order. In so doing, it argues that there was a greater diversity of opinion towards the order in this period than often assumed in modern scholarship and demonstrates that Witham had an impact upon contemporaries that was disproportionate to the small size of the community. To achieve this, this thesis considers historical narratives surrounding the foundation of Witham (Chapter One), the representation of Carthusians by outsider observers (Chapter Two), Carthusian hagiography through the Magna Vita of Saint Hugh of Lincoln (Chapter Three), and Carthusian theology with the De quadripertito exercitio cellae of Adam of Dryburgh (Chapter Four). 1 Perfectissimus: The Carthusian Order in England, c. 1178-c.1220 Rosalind Cecilia Goldie Green Submitted in requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Durham University 2016 2 Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Title Page………………………………………………………………………………………2 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………........................5 Introduction: The Carthusians in England, c.1178-c.1220…………………….........................6 Chapter One: The foundation of Witham: tradition and evidence…….….……………….....33 Chapter Two: Satire, Polemic, and Apology: Responses to the Carthusians at Large and in England………………………………………………...………..............................................81 Chapter Three: Adam of Eynsham and Carthusian hagiography......……….........................132 Chapter Four: Adam of Dryburgh and the Carthusian experience......………………..…….193 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..…259 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….......270 3 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author’s prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 4 Acknowledgements First, I want to thank my PhD supervisor, Dr Giles Gasper, who has provided me with indispensable guidance and encouragement throughout the completion of my thesis. I also want to express my gratitude to everyone at Durham University’s History Department and the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies for their help during my entire time at Durham. I also need to thank my friends and family, who have been with me every step of the way, and Neil Allard for his constant patience and unconditional support. 5 The Carthusians in England, c.1178-c.1220 The charterhouse of Witham stood as the sole representative of Carthusian monasticism in England for almost fifty years. It was established by Henry II in either 1178 or 1179 at a vill of the same name near Frome in Somerset as a daughter-house of the Grande Chartreuse, the mother-house of the Carthusian Order that stands to this day in the Alps near Grenoble.1 This foundation was not replicated until the establishment of the charterhouse of Hinton, also in Somerset, by Henry’s bastard son William Longespee in 1222.2 Although Witham was removed from the Carthusian heartland in the south-east of modern-day France, geographical location was no barrier to its importance for the collective history of the Carthusians.3 That this importance has been underestimated in modern scholarship is demonstrable. The primary purpose and argument of what follows is to redress that imbalance and to place Witham, and the Carthusians in England, their life, works, and how others perceived them, at the heart of any examination of the Carthusian order of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. This study does not, however, present an argument for English exceptionalism or offer an insular consideration of any particular ‘English’ Carthusian identity. Instead, a consideration of the Carthusian order in England opens up fresh insights into the order as a whole in this period. 1 Little is known about the vill of Witham prior to the foundation of the charterhouse. Thompson identified it as having been granted by William I to two men: Roger de Corcelle and Turstin Fitzrolf. E. M. Thompson, A History of The Somerset Carthusians (London, 1895), p. 6. Bishop Thomas Tanner suggested that there had been a nunnery at Witham as well but the history of Witham only comes to light during the reign of Henry II. Thomas Tanner, Notitia Monastica (London, 1694), p. 470. 2 Although not the focus of the present study, there are a number of studies concerning the charterhouse of Hinton. For an overview, see G. Coppack and M. Aston, Christ’s Poor Men (Stroud, 2002), pp. 30-32. Also see P. C. Fletcher, ‘Recent excavations at Hinton Priory’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, 96 (1951), pp. 160-165; P. C. Fletcher, ‘Further excavations at Hinton Priory’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, 103 (1958-1959), pp. 76-80; and J. Hogg’s monograph-length study, The Architecture of Hinton Charterhouse, Analecta Cartusiana, 25 (Salzburg, 1975), 3 The majority of Carthusian houses were founded in what is now south-eastern France. See Coppack and Aston, Christ’s Poor Men, pp. 17-20 for an overview of early Carthusian expansion and distribution. 6 A diverse range of sources, primarily textual, surround the house which, by their survival, form a significant proportion of the available evidence for the entire order in this period. Approximately one third of Carthusian sources of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries are ‘English’, defined within the present study as being produced in England, written by English authors, or taking England as their subject. The only charterhouse that can rival this textual corpus from this era is the Grande Chartreuse itself. The textual sources that come from this house are more substantial in the first three-quarters of the twelfth century and are virtually non-existent after the writing career of Guigo II (d. 1188) until the middle of the thirteenth century. For the period between c.1180 and c.1250, English works dominate and are an unmatched and indispensable body of evidence without which any understanding of the Carthusian order of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries is greatly diminished. An overview of textual evidence for the Carthusians shows how English sources supplement and expand the range of material available. The body of non-English material concerning the Carthusians comprises a limited but rich range of sources of which three broad genres can be identified: historical and biographical, legislative and institutional, and literary. The evidence for the early history of the order is particularly sparse and is non-contemporary.4 The Grande Chartreuse was founded in the French Alps by Bruno of Cologne (c.1030-1101), a former canon of Rheims, in 1084.5 Bruno himself did not leave any writings from his time as prior and played no substantial part in the early constitution of the construction of the order. He departed from the community soon 4 As André Wilmart stated, ‘L’histoire des Chartreux est pauvre en récits originaux dont l’authenticité soit certaine, notamment pour la premierè période’, A. Wilmart, ‘La chronique des premiers chartreux’, Revue Mabillon, 61 (1926), p. 77. 5 For a fuller biography of Bruno of Cologne, see J. Hogg, ‘The Carthusians: history and heritage’, in K. Pansters ed., The Carthusians in the Low Countries: studies in monastic history