Evesham Abbey - Early Foundation

Early Foundation

The year of the foundation of Evesham Abbey (that is, when a monastic community was first established) is problematic. William Tindal (1794) comments that "I have a MS. but without name or reference, which says that he began his Abbey in the year 682. This is before he was made bishop, and seems improbable. Tanner says in 701. The date of Constantine’s charter may decide the point as to the consecration of his Abbey, but there is reason to suppose that Egwin began to build as early as the year 702". George May gives 701 as the year that Ethelred conferred on Ecgwine the whole peninsula with the erection of the monastery commencing in the same year.

On the other hand, the year of the consecration derives from the grant of the first privilege to the Abbey from Pope Constantine "written in the seven hundred and ninth year of our Lord’s incarnation." Ecgwine returned from Rome bearing this charter, which was apparently read out by Archbishop Berhtwald at a council of “the whole of England” held at Alcester, although that meeting was probably fictitious. Thomas of Marlborough records that, in accordance with the apostolic command, a community of monks was then established (meaning the foundation can also be dated to 709):

"When the blessed Ecgwine saw that longed-for day when the place which he had built would be consecrated, and a monastic order established to serve God in that place, he then abandoned all concerns for worldly matters, and devoted himself to a contemplative way of life. Following the example of the Lord by humbling himself, he resigned his bishop’s see, and became abbot of the monastery."

The charter of Ecgwine (written 714) records that on the feast of All Saints “Bishop Wilfrid and I consecrated the church which I had built to God, the Blessed Mary, and to all Christ’s elect”. The feast of All Saints became established in the West after 609 or 610 under Pope Boniface IV; its observance on 1 November dates from the time of Pope Gregory III (died 741). Bishop Wilfrid was Egwin’s successor to the see of Worcester (though he is sometimes confused with Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, who died c. 709).

Although the exact year of the foundation remains unclear, it can be reasonably assumed that the date of the abbey's consecration was the feast of All Saints in 709. That the consecration occurred on this feast day provides a neat connection with All Saints Church. That Abbot Clement Lichfield lies buried beneath the Chantry Chapel, now known as the Lichfield Chapel in consequence, provides the link to the closing days of the life of the abbey.