Easby Abbey

Friends and I recently called at Easby Abbey in North Yorkshire. Technically, it is not a ruined monastery as the inhabitants were canons rather than monks, but they lived similar lives of obedience and service. If we traditional Protestants have a generally negative view of monks, with their flabby waists, easy lives and questionable morals, the Premonstratensian Canons of places like Easby ought to have been better. Rather than hiding away from the world, their mission was to teach, preach and offer pastoral care in the surrounding communities, often assisting the parish priests. Their Rule was that of Augustine rather than Benedict, whom the Reformers generally admired. At the time of Reformation, however, their houses and lands were nationalised along with all the rest.

Much as I admire the White Canons more than the other species of monkery, their establishments were not immune from scandal and criminality. Richard Redman, Abbot of Shap, made formal inquiries into the state of the community of Easby Abbey, and in 1482 found that one John Nym was a fugitive, accused of having improper relations with a widow. By 1494, Nym had become the prior, so the accusation was baseless -or hushed up. Worse, modern Ireland’s most prolific clerical paedophile was a White Canon- Brendan Smyth- who ruined at least 143 young lives in Belfast and Dublin over a forty-year spree of iniquity. His Order all but condoned his actions by covering them up and moving him on.

How many other wicked men found shelter and cover for their sins in places like Easby Abbey over a four-hundred-year period, one cannot say. No matter how beautiful the architecture, how delightful the setting, how sweet the singing: wherever humans gather, there sin festers and multiplies. Religious institutions are not free of human corruption, and often provide appropriate camouflage for the most dangerous. Set not your hope in priests, bishops, canons, pastors or Sunday School teachers: trust in Jesus Christ, who never harmed anyone, and loves and saves all who will come to Him.

"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:30