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1921 17 Maurice of Rievaulx ON the death of William, first abbot of Rievaulx (2 August 1 145), a certain Maurice was chosen to succeed him. Maurice, says John of Hexham, had been since his boyhood in the monastery of Durham, but had been attracted by the more stringent discipline of the Cistercian rule — ' a puero educatus in claustro Dunelmensi monachus et ad disciplinam rigoris Cisterciensis voto perfectionis se transferens '. In a short time, however, the same desire for perfection led him to resign the office of abbot, and he was suc- ceeded by the famous Ailred. 1 Maurice probably joined the society at Rievaulx after 1138, for in that year a monk of his name was sub -prior of the monastery of St. Cuthbert at Durham. He was concerned in the arrangements which led to the sur- render by Ailred's father, Eilav, of his rights in Hexham in favour of the priory recently founded in that place. Eilav entered the monastery of Durham and must have strengthened the interest which Maurice took in the new Cistercian enterprise in the north, for Ailred was already a monk of Rievaulx. 2 The resignation of the office of abbot took place before the end of 1147, for Ailred was certainly abbot in December of that year, 3 and about the same time Maurice was summoned to a still more important task. These were very exciting and responsible days in the history of the Cistercians. A Cistercian pope, Eugenius III, was working hand in hand with St. Bernard. Under their guidance there was constant intercourse between the chief Cistercian houses of the Continent and the new estab- lishments in Yorkshire. Indeed, in these early days, the order was under a despotism. Henry Murdac, the first abbot of Vauclair, had recently been transferred to Fountains, 4 and now — in the face of King Stephen and the deposed Archbishop William 1 John of Hexham, ' Contin. of Symeon of Durham ', in The Priory of Hexham (ed. Raine), i. 149, 150 (Surtees Soc, 1864). Compare Chron. de Mailros, ed. Stevenson (Bannatyne Club, 1835), p. 72. 2 Richard of Hexham, lib. ii, c. 9, in the same volume, pp. 55-6. 3 See note at the end of this paper. 4 Janauschek, Originum Cisterciensium i. 32 (1887). St. Bernard, in a letter urging Henry to accept office at Fountains, states that the monks there had elected him ' cum consilio venerabilis Abbatis Rievallis ', i. e. William (S. Bernardi Opera, ed. Mabillon, i. col. 300 a, Paris, 1719). VOL. XXXVI. — SO. CXLI. C