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174
Rev. James Wilson
Grants for the procuration of the abbots attending the General
Chapter at Citeaux were by no means rare. Mr. Brown has met
with several of this sort at
Dijon made by English and Irish
magnates, to some of which the seals are still appendent. King
Richard of England, by charter dated 22nd September, 1189,
gave the church of Scarborough to God, and the church of the
'
Blessed Mary of Citeaux ad procurandos omnes abbates apud
Cistercium per tres dies capituli generalis,' and on a
repetition of
the grant, dated nth May, 1198, the is
object
stated to be *
de
qua elemosina uolumus abbates procurari apud Cistercium per
tres dies capituli generalis.' As the grant had afterwards passed
through all the processes of ecclesiastical confirmation, the appropriation
of this church to the House of Citeaux became
permanent. 1
Grants of alms in money were by their very nature more
precarious than grants of property, spiritual or temporal. The
obligation depended on the continued goodwill of the donor and
his descendants :
ability to pay was a requisite of the first
importance. The benefaction of the King of Scotland may be
illustrated by similar
grants of Irish rulers. In many respects
the Irish
grants resemble the mode adopted by Alexander II.
The King of Connaught employed the abbot of Mellisfont as his
agent for the payment of five marks, '
in subsidium et iuuamen
procuracionis quarte diei abbatum ad generale capitulum Cistercii
quolibet anno conueniencium,' which the abbot would receive
from him on 23rd June or ist May, that the money might be
transmitted or brought over and delivered yearly
to the House of
Citeaux in the time of the General Chapter. The king obliged
himself and his heirs, and those who should reign
after him in
Connaught, to continue the benefaction. The charter of Donagh
Cairbreach, King of Thomond, is drawn up in similar form,
granting two marks yearly for the same purpose, but nominating
the abbot of Monasternenagh (de Magio} in the county of
Limerick as his almoner, and appointing ist May as the day on
which the Irish abbot should receive the money. Both of the
Irish charters may be dated within a few years after that of Cupar.
Perhaps we have here an explanation of the omission of the
Scottish
king's name from the
Capitular commemoration. The
names of the Irish kings were also omitted, and the nature of
the grants was precisely similar. By King Richard's grant a
permanent endowment was made to the abbey, but the yearly
1
Cat. of Papal Letters, i. 120, ii. 476 ; 177, 190.