From very early Christian times a religious house, no doubt very small
in its beginnings, was situated near the top of the pass through which
runs the ancient road over the Pyrenees leading from Pamplona in
Navarre, through the mountains by St. Jean Pied-de-Port, to Bayonne and
Bordeaux. The religious community at this place received its most
important support from Charlemagne himself, when he established a
religious house intended to be a memorial of Roland and his comrades in
arms. The original Convent of Charlemagne’s foundation was situated
close to the village of Ibañeta, near the summit of the Pass and the
site of the great battle. Of this house only insignificant and deserted
ruins remain. After a destructive raid by the Moors under Abderramen,
Caliph of Cordova, in 921, the community removed to the present site of
the Monastery in the village of Roncesvalles, two or three kilometres
farther south. The removal of the Convent to this site is said to have
been determined by various miraculous signs, among others by the
discovery of an image of the Holy Virgin, and it was clearly to the
advantage of the community that its permanent settlement should be in
the comparatively sheltered southern approaches of the Pass rather than
on the exposed summit.
The Order of Roncesvalles thus became established on a firmer basis, and
at first had distinct military as well as religious purposes. The
members of the community consisted of knights and companions, as well as
the brothers and sisters, who all bore the badge of the Order. The
duties which they had to fulfil were military, for the Knights of
Roncesvalles were in frequent conflict with the Moors, and religious,
for not only did the brethren serve their Church, but one of the
earliest and most important duties of the community was to establish a
hospital in the Pass for wayfarers in this wild region.
In the course of time the members of this military-religious community
received the Augustinian Rule, but they retained much of their
independence, the memories of their original order, and especially held
to the traditions of hospitality and charitable succour to pilgrims and
to those in distress. The Convent and its Hospital gradually acquired
wide renown on account of the good works carried on by the Canons. Their
house was on the main road between France and Spain. The military
expeditions so frequently traversing the frontiers marched along the
highway passing its doors, pilgrims visiting the shrine of St. James at
Compostella must have halted there on their way to and from the south,
and the road through the Pass was the chief highway for peaceful
travellers of every kind. The community, therefore, increased in
importance and in wealth by gifts from princes, nobles, knights, and the
common folk, and came to possess property not only in Spain, but also in
Portugal, Italy and in France, and, as the records show, in England and
Wales, in Ireland, and in Scotland. It is stated that at the height of
its prosperity the Convent distributed annually from 25,000 to 30,000
rations, each consisting of a loaf of 16 oz., half a pint of wine, with
sufficient soup and meat, or fish on days of fast. Those who were infirm
had chicken broth and mutton. The Hospital had a staff consisting of the
physicians, with whom were associated surgeons and an apothecary, and
one of the distinguishing features of the Order at a very early period
was that it included sisters. In the case of patients dying while in
hospital, free interment was given after the celebration of masses in
due form. It is expressly stated that the daughter house in England,
with its possessions in that country, in Ireland, and in Scotland,
remitted annually the sum of 4,000 ducats for the support of the Mother
House at Roncesvalles.[3]
Footnote 3:
Cf. Reseña histórica de la Real Casa de nuestra Señora de
Roncesvalles; por D. Hilario Sarasa, Pamplona, 1878; a review was
published by Wentworth Webster in the “Academy,” 1879, xvi, p. 135-6.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the community of
Roncesvalles fell on evil days. The march of events deprived them of
their property abroad, while laxity in the observance of their Rule and
the continually disturbed state of the Franco-Spanish frontier brought
about the loss of the greater part of their accumulated possessions and
wealth. Unfortunately the ancient records of the Monastery have nearly
all been destroyed; but there remains in the library an unpublished
manuscript giving the history of the Order and the Convent, written by
Don Juan Huarte, about the middle of the seventeenth century, which
incorporates information received from a certain Don Francisco
Olastro[4] (who is stated to have been an ambassador from England in
Madrid) respecting the history of their daughter house in London. But
even at the time when this document was written, many statements it
contains appear to have acquired the characteristics of tradition and
can be accepted only after careful collation and criticism. We have,
therefore, to depend almost entirely on the English records for the
history of the House of Roncesvalles in London.
Footnote 4:
? Francis Oliver.