LIFE OF AN ABBOTT. ELEVENTH CENTURY
Now I, Ingulf, the humble servant of St. Guthlac and his monastery of Croyland, a native of England and the son of parents who were of the most beauteous city of London, being in my tender years destined for the pursuits of literature, was sent to study first at Westminster and afterwards at Oxford. After I had made progress beyond most of my fellows in mastering Aristotle, I clothed myself down to the heels with the first and second Rhetoric of Tully. On growing to be a young man, I loathed the narrow means of my parents and daily longed ... to leave my parental home, sighing for the palaces of kings or princes.... Just at this time, William, ... who was then as yet duke of Normandy only came over with a great retinue of followers to London.... Enrolling myself in the number of these, I exerted myself in the performance of all kinds of weighty business ... and becoming a very great favourite with him, returned with him to Normandy (p. 147).
Being there appointed his secretary, at my own will I ruled the whole of the duke’s court, incurring thereby the envy of some.... Just then it was noised about ... that many archbishops of the Empire, together with some other of the princes of the land, were desirous ... to proceed on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Upon this several of the household of the duke, both knights as well as clerks, among whom I was the first and foremost, with the ... goodwill of our master, the duke ... taking the road for Germany, being more than thirty horsemen in number ... joined his lordship of Mentz[23].... In company with their lordships, the bishops, there were reckoned seven thousand persons, who prosperously traversed various regions, and at last arrived at Constantinople. Here, addressing our prayers to its emperor, Alexius[24], we saw the Saint Sophia, and kissed its sanctuaries, so infinite in number.
Departing thence and taking our way through Lycia, we fell into the hands of Arabian robbers, and being plundered of an immense amount of money, and many of us being put to death, only escaped with the greatest difficulty and at the extreme peril of our lives, and at length joyously made our entrance into the much longed for city of Jerusalem.
We were received by Sophronius, the then Patriarch, a man venerable for his grey hairs, and most holy and most upright, with a great crash of cymbals and an immense blaze of torches at the most divine church of the most Holy Sepulchre, a solemn procession being formed of Latins as well as Syrians. What prayers we here uttered, what tears we shed, what sighs we heaved, the inhabitant thereof, our Lord Jesus Christ alone knoweth ... (p. 148).
But some robbers of Arabs, who kept a watch upon all the road, would not allow us ... to wander any distance from the city. Accordingly, on the arrival of spring, a fleet of Genoese ships arrived in the port of Joppa. On board of these we all embarked, after the Christian merchants had exchanged their wares throughout the maritime cities ... and so committed ourselves to the sea. After being tossed by waves and storms innumerable we arrived at last at Brundusium, and then making a prosperous journey through Apulia, repaired to Rome.... Then the archbishops and other princes of the Empire returned to Germany, taking the way to the right, while we turned to the left on our way to France, taking leave of each other, with kind words and kisses of inexpressible fervency on both sides. And thus at last, instead of our number of thirty horsemen, who took our departure from Normandy in excellent condition, hardly twenty returned, poor pilgrims and all on foot, attenuated and famished in the extreme.... In order that I might not in future be involved in the vanities of this world ... I took refuge in the holy convent of Fontenelle.... At length, after not a few years ... the lord abbot, Gerbert ... appointed me prior of his monastery, bound as I was, by the ties of duty, to obey (p. 149).
At this time, my lord William ... was long waiting at the port of St. Valery for a favourable wind, it being his intention to cross over, in order to assert his rights. Thither I then repaired with the subsidy offered by my lord the abbot, and ... presented twelve chosen youths, on horses and supplied with arms, together with a hundred marks for their expenses, as his contribution, on behalf of my father the abbot. Being most abundantly thanked for so welcome a present, and having obtained (the duke’s) charter of donation for ever to our house of ... vineyards, ... overjoyed and exulting, I returned to our monastery....
In the course of some years ... king William, sending a messenger ... to Gerbert ... to enquire for my humble self ... placed me, with mingled feelings, of extreme sorrow at assuming such a heavy burden of responsibility, and of extreme delight at seeing myself transferred to my native soil ... in the church of Croyland.... I was installed there in the year of our Lord, 1076 (p. 150).
I found in this monastery [of Croyland] of which, by the will of God I am a servant, sixty-two monks, of whom four were lay brethren, besides monks of other monasteries, who were making profession of the monastic life there, together with those of our chapter. All these when they came, had stalls in our choir, seats in our refectory, and beds in our dormitory. These, too, exceeded one hundred in number, and just when they pleased, some after the expiration of half a year, and some after a whole year, they returned to their own monasteries; and this, more especially in time of war ... so did they flock from every quarter to Croyland (p. 152).