Editing Ramsey Abbey (section)

==The Abbey==
Ramsey Abbey was founded in 969 by [[Oswald of Worcester|Oswald]], [[Bishop of Worcester]] on land donated by [[Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia]] (Earl Ailwyn), where he had already built a wooden chapel for three monks. The foundation was part of the mid-10th century [[English Benedictine reform]],<ref> {{cite ODNB |author=Brooks, N. P. |author-link=Nicholas Brooks (historian) |title=Oswald [St Oswald] |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/20917}}</ref> in which [[Ely Cathedral|Ely]] and [[Peterborough Cathedral|Peterborough]] were also refounded. Æthelwine gave the new foundation properties including an estate at nearby Bodsey and [[Houghton Mill]].<ref name=vch>{{cite book |editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=WH |editor2-last=Proby |editor2-first=Granville |last3=Norris |first3=HE |year=1926 |title=A History of the County of Huntingdon |volume=1 |series=[[Victoria County History]] |place=London |publisher=St Catherine Press |pages=377–385 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol1/pp377-385 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=WH |editor2-last=Proby |editor2-first=Granville |year=1932 |title=A History of the County of Huntingdon |volume=1 |series=[[Victoria County History]] |place=London |publisher=St Catherine Press |pages=178–81 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol2/pp178-181 }}</ref>

The Frankish scholar [[Abbo of Fleury]] came to Ramsey at Oswald's invitation during the period 985–7, when his fortunes at [[Fleury Abbey]] were at a low ebb. He wrote two surviving works for his students while he was there; the ''Passio S. Eadmundi'' and the ''questiones grammaticales''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Greenfield, Stanley B.|title=A new critical history of Old English literature|date=1986|publisher=New York University Press|others=Calder, Daniel Gillmore., Lapidge, Michael.|isbn=978-0-8147-3855-9|location=New York|oclc=805494651}}</ref>

[[File:Psalter of Oswald - Harley 2904 f3v Crucifixion.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Tinted drawing of the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Crucifixion]] from the [[Ramsey Psalter]]]] 
The important [[Ramsey Psalter]] or Psalter of Oswald ([[British Library]], [[Harleian Collection|Harley]] MS 2904) is an [[Anglo-Saxon art|Anglo-Saxon]] [[illuminated manuscript|illuminated]] [[psalter]] of the last quarter of the tenth century.<ref>Brown, 119</ref> Certain liturgical features have suggested that it was intended for use at Ramsey Abbey, or for the personal use of Ramsey's founder Oswald of Worcester. This is not to be confused with another Ramsey Psalter in the [[Pierpont Morgan Library]], New York (MS M. 302), made between 1286 and 1316.

Æthelwine at the suggestion of [[Oswald of Worcester]] founded a small hermitage for three hermits with a wooden chapel at a location indicated by the actions of a bull, on the island of Ramsey with impassible [[The Fens|fen]] on three sides. Impressed by the story Oswald sent a prior, [[Germanus of Winchester|Germanus]] and twelve monks from [[Westbury-on-Trym]] to form the Abbey.  Starting in 969, a large stone-built church was built over the next five years. Two towers stood up at the topmost points of the roofs, the smaller one at the front of the church towards the west, 'offered a beautiful sight from afar' to people coming to the island.  The larger one, in the middle of a four-armed structure rested on four columns stabilised by connecting arches.  This abbey building remained until a Norman abbot had a grander church built in the 12th century.

In 1143 [[Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex|Geoffrey de Mandeville]] expelled the monks, used the abbey as a fortress and considerably damaged the buildings. The abbey suffered for three centuries from disputes with the [[Bishop of Ely|bishops of Ely ]] over the manors of [[Chatteris]] and [[Somersham]].<ref>"Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of Ramsey." ''A History of the County of Huntingdon'': Volume 1. Eds. William Page, Granville Proby, and H E Norris. London: Victoria County History, 1926. 377-385. British History Online. Retrieved 14 May 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol1/pp377-385.</ref>  It paid 4,000 eels yearly to [[Peterborough Abbey]] for access to its quarries of limestone at [[Barnack]].

In the order of precedence for abbots in Parliament, Ramsey was third after [[Glastonbury Abbey|Glastonbury]] and [[St Alban's Abbey|St Alban's]].<ref name=CE>{{cite Catholic Encyclopedia |wstitle=Ramsey Abbey |volume=12}}</ref>

The abbey was an international centre of Hebrew scholarship in the late Middle Ages. It prospered until the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] in 1537. At the time of the Dissolution there were 34 monks.

In 1787 Mark Noble noted:{{sfn|Noble|1787|pp=18, 19}}
{{quote|
The abbey of Ramsey, i.e. the Ram's isle, was one of the richest foundations in the kingdom: the abbot was mitred, and sat in the house of lords as baron of Broughton; the abbey had 387 [[Hide (unit)|hide]]s of land, 200 of which were in Huntingdonshire: the monks were not famed for their liberality, if we believe the following ancient lines:
:Crowland as courteous, as courteous as may bee,
:Thorney the bane of many a good Tree,
:Ramsey the rich, and Peterborough the proud,
:Sawtry by the way that poor abbay, 
:Gave more almes than all they.}}