Thomas of Marlborough: History of the Abbey of Evesham (review)

In the half-century between 1858 and 1896 the Rolls Series published well over one hundred volumes of "Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages." This undertaking, directed by the Master of the Rolls as the Keeper of English government records, broke new ground in making available to English and American medievalists an impressive quantity of primary source materials in print. However, no finite beings, not even historians, will ever produce the definitive word on any given subject. It is not surprising, therefore, that in more recent years the editors of Oxford Medieval Texts (successors to Nelson's Medieval Texts after 1966) have commissioned new editions of some of these earlier volumes, with the express aim of bringing our knowledge of important records of the past up to date by making use of the latest scholarly research available. This has led to a notable increase in our understanding of the context in which these works were originally written and to fresh insights into the minds and motives of their medieval authors.

The Chronicle of Evesham is one of the volumes selected as deserving of a new edition to replace the edition of 1863 by William Dunn Macray, at that time a special assistant in the Bodleian Library Oxford, chaplain, and later a Fellow of Magdalen College. One of the chief advantages of the Oxford Medieval Texts format is the Latin / English parallel text providing an accurate translation for many of today's students and scholars, who have regrettably little or no knowledge of Latin. The single manuscript source, used by both Macray and the present editors, is Bodleian Library, Ms Rawlinson A 287, folios 118-187, which contain what Macray entitled a 'Chronicle'; but it has now been renamed, more accurately, a 'History' because, as Professor Sayers and Dr. Watkiss explain, it does not so much follow a chronological sequence as present a thematic approach to events. The purpose underlying Thomas of Marlborough's writing of the History was the promotion of the dignity and status of the abbey, of which he was a prominent member, by tracing its history from the first foundation in the early eighth century to Thomas's own day. He begins by incorporating and rearranging some earlier accounts of the lives and miracles of local saints such as Odulf, Wigstan, and above all Ecgwine, the third bishop of Worcester and Evesham's first abbot. In Book III he brings his history up to his own time and then proceeds to record contemporary events in which he, as dean of the Vale of Evesham and later sacrist and then prior, played a major role. The importance of Thomas's contribution to the genre of medieval local history lies in the unique, vividly narrated account of the abbey's final and successful struggle to obtain the privilege of exemption from the diocesan jurisdiction of the bishops of Worcester. Here we are entertained with a spirited tale of the journey, in 1204, of Thomas and of his duplicitous and tyrannical abbot, Roger Norreis, to the Roman curia, of the abbot's early departure, and of Thomas's prolonged stay throughout the legal proceedings. His early training in canon law stood him in good stead so that he was himself able, with the assistance of his advocates, to present the abbey's case for exemption in the presence of Innocent III. Emotion overcame him, however, when the pope delivered his favourable judgment and Thomas fainted and fell unconscious at Innocent's feet. The successful outcome of this costly lawsuit enhanced the prestige of Evesham by placing it on a par with the only other six English Benedictine establishments which had previously achieved the status of monasteries answerable to the pope alone, nullo mediante.

A lengthy introduction by Professor Sayers discusses the historical background to the lawsuit, provides biographical details of Thomas, who spent his [End Page...