'It has also a
special interest for English folk. It long held lands in the isle
of Sheppey, as well as the advowson of the church of Eastchurch,
in the same island. These were bestowed on it by Richard the
Lion-Hearted. The legend says that these gifts were made to reward
its sixth abbot, Elias, for the help he gave in releasing Richard
from captivity. Anyhow, Royal charters, and dues from the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and a Bull of Pope Celestine III., confirmed the
Abbey in its English possessions and privileges. The Abbey seems
to have derived little benefit from these, and finally, by decision
of a general congregation of the Cistercian Order, handed them over
to the Abbot and Chapter of Bexley, to recoup the latter for the
cost of entertaining monks of the Order going abroad, or returning
from the Continent, on business of the Order.'[*]
[Footnote *: Robinson, _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, p. 176.]
[Illustration: COXYDE. A Shrimper.]
The English invasion of the fifteenth century destroyed the work
of the monks in their fields and gardens, but the Abbey itself
was spared; and the great disaster did not come until a century
later, when the image-breakers, who had begun their work amongst the
Gothic arches of Antwerp, spread over West Flanders, and descended
upon Coxyde.
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