Abstract
for “The Abbey in the Winding Meadow
Waverley 1128-1536" by Rt Rev
Christopher Herbert ”
These days, people tend to see Waverley
Abbey, the picturesque ruins of which
still grace the winding meadow of the
River Wey, as an adjunct to Farnham. Yet
during its four centuries of existence,
Waverley Abbey, the first Cistercian
establishment in England, rivalled
Farnham in size and significance, as its
abbots rivalled the bishops themselves
in importance. The Cistercian movement
proved one of the seminal forces in the
rise of the West, each abbey spawning
daughter abbeys which spread both
Christianity and a kind of
proto-capitalism which proved critical
in Europe’s expansion.
One imagines abbeys as peaceful affairs,
as indeed they often were. But they were
also at the heart of conflicts,
political and religious, and subject to
the same passions of ambition and
avarice which touch all man’s affairs.
Dr. Herbert, with his experience as a
bishop and his profound understanding of
history, is perfectly placed to capture
not only the detail of Waverley in act
and thought, but place it in the context
of the wider national Cistercian
movement, to which Waverley contributed
as the mother abbey.
There have been excellent books about
Waverley before, but none that places
Waverley in its proper context, without
which it remains but a story. In truth,
it was much more than that. The mother
abbey was on our doorstop and now,
someone has done justice to its
importance as well as providing a
gripping narrative.