Houses of the Order in England - Former
and Present
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The
Order Comes to England
Only 22 years after the
foundation of the Order in 1121, the White Canons came to England to establish
the first Premonstratensian Abbey at Newhouse, in Lincolnshire. The founder
was Peter of Goxhill. Between 1143 and the Dissolution of the Monasteries under
Henry VIII, our Order in England firmly established itself as part of English
monastic and parochial life. Some 33 Abbeys and Priories are recorded during
this period and then, as now, the main occupation of the Norbertine Canons was
prayer and Apostolate in the parishes which depended on the Canons for their
pastors.
Many other functions
were fulfilled by our pre-Reformation Fathers. In 1200, the Abbot of Torre
(Devon) was appointed King John's representative at the Papal Curia. In 1207 the
Abbot of St. Radegmund (Kent) was sent as royal ambassador to Count William of
Holland. Henry IV used the services of the Abbot of Alnwick (Northumberland) to
negotiate with the Scottish Earl of March in 1400. The Abbot of Tichfield
(Hampshire) had responsibilities for the building of Porchester Castle.
England's Treasurer in 1264 was a Norbertine Prior, while a Brother Thomas was a
trusted advisor to Henry III.
Many of the early
Norbertines attained distinction in intellectual and ecclesiastical fields. Many
of the fifteenth and sixteenth century abbots held law degrees from either
Oxford or Cambridge. Abbot Makerell, took degrees at both Cambridge and Frieburg
and was appointed suffragan bishop in the dioceses of York and Lincoln. Fr.
Thomas Wygenhall, of the Abbey of West Dereham wrote treatises on law and moral
theology. "Richard the Premonstratensian" wrote a number of theological works;
while Adam the Scot, born some time in the 12th century and known to have been a
member of the community at Dryburgh was renowned both as a preacher and a
writer not only in England but also in France.
But by far the most important
work of the Order before the Reformation was to be found in the parishes. In the
fourteenth century the Norbertine Canons had some 150 parishes in England. The
Order's contribution to the life of the Church in England is witnessed to
by the number of priests who were sent to work in diocesan parishes without,
however, losing contact with the Abbey or Priory to which the belonged. These
close links with the parochial apostolate would be a characteristic of the Order
when it returned to England in 1872 after the centuries of Post-Reformation
exile.
One unusual feature of Norbertine
life in England prior to Henry VIII was the Norbertine convent, and community of
nuns attached to the canons, under the common authority of the abbot. Nunneries
were founded particularly at Irford, Brodholme and Guysane. The royal foundation
at Stixwould in 1537 was not destined to last long!
“Events of
the past cannot be changed. They can at best be forgiven.”
-
C. Kirkfleet O.Praem
‘The White Canons of St. Norbert’
In England our houses were in
the following locations:
Alnwick,
Barlings,
Bayham,
Beauchief,
Beeleigh,
Blackwose,
Blanchland,
Broadholme,
Cammeringham,
Cockersand,
Combswell,
Coverham,
Croxton,
Dale,
Durford,
Easby,
Eggleston,
Guizance,
Hagnaby,
Halesowen,
Hornby,
Irford,
Kayland,
Langdon,
Langley,
Lavendon,
Leyston,
Newbo,
Newhouse,
St.
Radegund,
Shap,
Snellshall,
Stixwold,
Sulby,
Tichfield,
Torre,
Tupholme,
Warburton,
Welbeck,
Wendling,
West
Dereham,
West
Ravendale.
In
Wales there was one house;
Tal-Y-Llychau
The
Scotch houses were six in number: Dryburgh,
Fearn,
Holywood,
Soulseat,
Tongland,
Whithorn.
The Order returns to
England
The
return of the White Canons to England is the responsibility of two of the great
abbeys of our Order; the abbey of
Tongerlo in Belgium
and the abbey of
Frigolet in France.
At the request
of local Catholics the abbot of Tongerlo dispatched Fr. Martin Geudens to
Crowle in Lincolnshire in 1872. This mission soon
grew and attracted the first English vocations to the Norbertine Order since the
Reformation. The Tongerlo canons established parishes at
Spalding (1875),
Stainforth (1931),
Moorends (1937) and
Holbeach (1956). During the Chapter of Reform
more emphasis was put on community rather than parochial life and so these
parishes are today administered by the secular clergy.
In 1889 Norbertines first came to Manchester where they lived
and worked at Corpus Christi in Miles Platting. It was there that our present
canonry became an independent priory in 2004.
Corpus Christi Basilica was closed in 2007
and the Canons moved to St. Chad’s Church in the Cheetham area of Manchester.
The community transferred to Chelmsford in 2008.
The Canons of Frigolet
had first arrived on the shores of England on February 1st 1882 and
were given a home in
Storrington, Sussex through the benefaction of the
Duke of Norfolk. In 1952 the priory of Storrington was transferred to the
control of the Abbey of Tongerlo and became an independent priory of the Order
in 1962. These same exiled canons of Frigolet established houses and parishes at
Farnborough (now a Benedictine abbey) in
1887, Weston 1888-92, Ambleside (now the diocesan church
Mater Amabilis) in 1890 and Bedworth in
1892. Storrington happily remains an active Norbertine house to this
day.