CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA · M
Meaux
Historical Article from The Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
Historical Context
This article preserves the historical wording and context of the printed encyclopedia. Dates, statistics, terminology, disciplinary descriptions, and civic or ecclesiastical circumstances may reflect the period in which the article was published.
Article Text
(Melsa).
A Cistercian abbey about four miles east of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was founded in the year 1150 by William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, and was dedicated to Our Lady. The history of the abbey is a sad one. On reading the chronicle compiled by Abbot Burton we see that the abbey was hardly ever free from litigation; three times the monks were forced to disperse through poverty; once, in the year 1349, four-fifths of the monks were carried off by the pestilence; and once by incurring the anger of a king they barely escaped dissolution. Richard Draper, the last abbot, signed the surrender of the abbey, and received a pension from Henry VIII.
Sources
Chronica monasterii de Melsa in Rolls Series, XLIII; DUGDALE, Monasticon, V (1846), 388; JANAUSCHEK, Orig. Cisterc., I (1877), 124-5.
Source Record
- Author
- Brookfield, Paul
- Publication
- The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 16 (Index). New York: The Encyclopedia Press. 1914.
- Nihil Obstat
- Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1914. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.
- Imprimatur
- Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.