Abbot Alexander was no mere dreamer.

With

a view to securing peace and quietness for his monks, he promptly levelled the church with the ground, amid the loud remonstrances of clergy and people. Even in the twelfth century such a high-handed proceeding could not pass unchallenged. One of the secular clergy, who was rector and parson (rector et persona ecclesia), cited the Abbot and monks before. the Metropolitan; but, eventually, the case went up to the supreme court-the "sedes apostolica". where the parson and parishioners of a Yorkshire parish had but little chance against the great Cistercian order. The monks, in short, prevailed, and their opponents were not only defeated but put to silence.

"For it seemed holy and laudable that a church should fall, if so an Abbey might be built; that of two goods the less should give place to the greater, and that the party which was most rich in fruits of devotion should prevail. And so, peace being restored, and the controversy set at rest, the brethren proceeded to promote by gentler measures the objects of their foundation."

For five or six years the Monastery of St. Mary's continued its troubled and unprofitable existence; but at last the Abbot, travelling on the business of the house, found, as it were by chance, the solution of his difficulties. In the deep shadow of a wooded

vale, he came upon certain men in a quasi-religious habit, and he soon found that they were living as devout men might have lived before the days of St. Benedict a fraternity of hermits, if the expression may be tolerated, without organisation and without rule. The beauty of the place charmed the Abbot, and he turned aside to converse with the recluses. The story told by their spokesman, Seleth, was as follows:

He had come from the south of England, alone, and guided only by a heavenly voice. "Arise, Seleth," it had seemed to say, "and go into the province of York, and seek diligently in the valley which is called Airedale for a place known as Kirkstall, for there shalt thou prepare for a brotherhood a home where they may serve my Son."

"And who," he asked, "is thy Son whom we must serve?"

"I am Mary," was the answer; "and my Son is called Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of the world."

So Seleth woke, and having pondered the vision, set his hope on the Lord, and without delay left his hearth and home. The place was easily found, and when he had lived there alone for some days, eating only roots and herbs, he was joined by others, and they adopted the way of life of the brethren of Serath,

having all things in common and supporting themselves by their toil.

As the Abbot listened, he considered the attractions and advantages of the valley-its flowing river and abundant timber for workshops. It seemed to him an altogether desirable place, and he accordingly began to gently admonish the brethren. Had they no fears for the safety and sanctification of their souls, poor masterless disciples and priestless laymen as they were? He set before them a more perfect way and a higher type of the religious life, and so departed to his patron.

De Lacy approved the plan, and persuaded William de Poictou to grant the lands in Airedale to the monks in perpetuity at the rent of five marks annually. Then the Abbot, having made sure of a more suitable place for his monastery, built a church in honour of the ever Virgin Mother of God, and such humble offices as were needful, and adopted for his monastery the name of Kirkstall from that day forward. For thirty-five years did the abbacy of this most practical ascetic last, and in that time he began and finished the church and monastic buildings. "Kirkstall Abbey," says Whitaker, "is a monument of the skill, the taste, and the perseverance 1 19th May 1152.

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of a single man." Mr. Walbran discovered, from an instrument of Archbishop Murdac in the treasury of the Dean and Chapter of York, that, at the request of Abbot Alexander and the monks of Kirkstall, the two chapels of Bracewell and Marton were raised by the Archbishop to their present dignity of mother churches, each with its own parish. This instrument is unfortunately not dated, but we may hope it is the record of a really generous and disinterested reparation, made when the good will of their old neighbours was no longer necessary to the peace and comfort of the monks.

Alexander was succeeded by Ralph Hageth, of Fountains, a good monk but bad manager, in whose time the valuable Grange of Micklethwaite was lost to Kirkstall. The monastery seems to have sought to enforce its appeal to King Henry by actually, for a time, breaking up and dispersing; and the Abbot hoped to soften the royal heart by gifts of a golden chalice and a copy of the Gospels. But all was in vain; and there was nothing for it but to return to Kirkstall and practise economy. Alexander, "true abbot in deed as well as in name" though he was, will hardly compare in saintliness either with the un

1 "Statuimus quod duæ capella de Braycewell et Marton sint de cetero matres ecclesiæ, quælibet cum suâ parochiâ.”