Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 18 March 2024

A Greek visitor to Eboracum


The York Press has an article about the latest research into two linked items in the Yorkshire Museum in the city. They are a pair of votive tablets, unique in Britain, offered by a Greek called Demetrius. Discovered when the 1840 railway station was being built it has remained a matter of discussion as to whether they were offered by Demetrius of Tarsus, who had been sent by the Emperor Domitian to visit the new colony of Britannia to report on Druidism, and presumably how the Roman occupation was developing. Eboracum itself had been founded in the year 71.


I must admit that from my visits to the venerable and splendid Yorkshire Museum I was unaware of these plaques and their possible background. 

There is a bit more about Demetrius in a blog on The Edithorial from 2014 which can be seen at From Tarsus to Wales: the earliest Greek in Britain?

A quick search on the Internet yields links to several academic articles - including the one cited in the newspaper story - and accessible via JSTOR. One however which fleshes out the story very well can be seen directly and places Demetrius in the British Isles in 83-84 as part of Agricola’s campaign to push the frontier northwards. It can be seen at ‘Holy Men on Islands in Pre-Christian Britain’ here

Demetrius was apparently a teacher of literature and a man of enquiring mind. Inevitably one wonders, the more so as we do not know his age, if he had ever encountered a Jewish chap called Saul from their home city.


Sunday 17 March 2024

The restored murals at the Oxford Oratory


The restoration of the murals on either side of the Sanctuary at the Oxford Oratory, about which I wrote recently, has now been completed. Painted for the Jesuits who then cared for the parish by the Catholic artist Gabriel Pippet ( 1880-1962 ) in the years 1905-7 they were fated to be painted over in the 1950s by the Jesuits in their last years at the church.  

There is more about Pippet and these murals, which were his earliest commission, his later work at Oxford and, most notably, at the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart and St Catherine of Alexandria in Droitwich, on the Oxford Oratory website at Uncovering the Sanctuary Murals

The paintings depict St Aloysius’ First Communion at the hands of St Charles Borromeo, St Aloysius leaving home to join the Jesuits, his profession, and his death.

It is splendid to see these paintings revealed and restored. They look very fine and notably better than when they were partially, and very briefly, uncovered over a decade ago during the previous phase of work on the Sanctuary. 

 


Image: Oxford Oratory

Saturday 16 March 2024

More about this year’s Constable’s Dues


The internet presented me with a report from the Plymouth Herald about the presentation of the Constable’s Dues this week at The Tower of London. The barrel of port on this occasion was presented by H M Royal Marines as part of their 360th anniversary celebrations - a doubly appropriate presentation as the Constable is a Marine himself.



Wednesday 13 March 2024

The Constable’s Dues


Tomorrow, March 14th, the Tower of London will once again see the custom of the Constable’s Dues enacted. This apparently originated, or was codified, in the reign of King Richard II. Originally these rights were extensive and included live animals that fell into the Thames as well as the Constable of The Tower being entitled to a share of cargoes on all vessels entering the Pool of London in recognition of his position as the man responsible for the defence of both the Tower and the City. His customary right was limited to a handful of the cargo or what a hand could carry. These rights have in recent centuries ceased except for the tradition of visits once or twice a year as operational commitments permit by the vessels of the Royal Navy, and, on occasion, by ships of allied navies. On these occasions the ship presents a small barrel of wine or spirits after marching it ceremonially into The Tower and delivering it to the Constable in a ceremony on Tower Green. 

ianVisits reports on the story of this week’s ceremony at A helicopter and boats to perform a rare ceremony at the Tower of London

Wikipedia has an article about the office of Constable and sets out the variety of the traditional dues that were payable at Constable of the Tower

The Internet has a number of illustrated online articles about the ceremony of the Constable’s Dues, each of which seems to add extra facts or detail.

ianVisits has a description of the 2012 ceremony at Attending the Ceremony of the Constable’s Dues

Historic Royal Palaces, who manage the opening of The Tower to the public, describe the ceremony in The Constable's Dues

Hidden-London writes about the event at Constable's Dues

The Forces.net website reports on the 2019 ceremony at The Royal Naval Tradition Of Paying The Constables Dues

The Crown Chronicles has an account at Tell me about... the Constable's Dues at the Tower of London

The Londonist has an article from 2017 at What Is The Ceremony Of The Constable's Dues? 
 
The London Historians Blog wrote about the ceremony in The Ceremony of the Constable’s Dues

The Daily Express reported on the presence of the Princess Royal and the Secretary for Defence at the 2021 ceremony in Princess Anne attends historic ceremony from middle ages - 'Never become just a symbol'

The Spitalfields News has a piece from 2011 about the Dues at Constable’s Dues at the Tower of London and the East London Advertiser has one from 2019 at Commander of HMS Enterprise rolls out the rum to pay his ‘dues’ at the Tower of London


Tuesday 12 March 2024

Reassessing Silchester


PhysOrg has an interesting article about a new interpretation of the Roman city at Silchester in Berkshire. Then known as Calleva Atrebatum it is one of the few Roman cities in Britannia to have been completely abandoned and is not, as a result, overlaid by medieval and later development. 

This recent project has established that it had more houses than were discovered in the nineteenth century excavations and has used the latest multiplier to calculate what the Roman population might well have been.


It also has a link to a 2017 article which describes a temple complex apparently commissioned by the Emperor Nero and which indicates his interest in developing Calleva Atrebatum. It can be seen at Third Roman temple in Silchester may have been part of emperor's vanity project

Many of the finds from Silchester together with such things as a model reconstruction of the church found there - virtually the only one identified from the late Imperial period in the country - can be seen in the excellent museum in the centre of Reading.


Saturday 9 March 2024

Kit bags across the centuries


The Daily Telegraph recently had an illustrated article about a photographer’s creation of a series of photographic images to illustrate the contents of kit bags ( or their equivalent ) over the centuries. Most are perforce modern or relatively so, but one is reconstructed from the seventeenth century civil war, and one reimagined from the battle of Hastings.


Looking at the amount each kit bag holds and thinking of its weight inevitably brings one as a medievalist to a persistent popular misconception. This is, of course, that medieval men in full armour must have been weighed down and almost immovable in their steel suits.
 
 First of all if that was the case, one might ask why did they bother wearing armour that made them both unmanoeuvrable and also vulnerable to their opponents and the terrain. The answer is, of course, that they could move and fight very well. 
 
Secondly it has been calculated that the modern soldier carries as much, if not more, weight into battle as a medieval man fully armoured.

There are a number of videos online that illustrate the mobility of men in armour. Here are three created by a Swiss academic, Daniel Jaquet, who appears in all of them.

Le combat en armure au XVe siècle looks at the flexibility that is possible and Can You Move in Armour? reconstructs the fitness routine - or showing off - of Jean Le Maingre, Maréchal Boucicaut, who was taken prisoner at Agincourt, and died a few years later as a captive in England.


Thirdly there is also, to show the comparison with modern equipment, the superb, and almost hypnotic, Obstacle Run in Armour - a short film by Daniel Jaquet


It is worth adding that Dr Jaquet is something like ten years older than the two men he is competing against.

My father’s World War II RAF kit bag is long gone - I think I just remember it - but I was too young to really think about it. I think that in the post-war world he used for a while as a golf club bag. As he died just before my sixth birthday I never was able to ask him about his wartime experience and only know what my mother recalled. I suspect that like many men caught up in those events he largely preferred to move on, although one, penultimate, family holiday did take us back to revisit St Aldhelm’s Head in Dorset where he had worked on radar.


Friday 8 March 2024

The relics of St Thomas Aquinas


In my post yesterday I mentioned that St Thomas’s relics were transferred to the Dominican church in Toulouse in 1369. From 1789 until 1974 they reposed in the basilica of St Sernin in the city and were then returned to the Dominican church, Les Jacobins. Although it is no longer a functioning church and cared for as an historic monument the relics were enshrined beneath an altar, and the building is still the resort of pilgrims.

Today I came across a link to an article on the website of the Catholic News Agency  about the new reliquary which was provided for the skull of the saint at the beginning of 2023 and the year of celebrations leading up to the anniversary of his death. It can be seen at Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas unveiled for 700th anniversary of his canonization (sic)

When I was posting yesterday and looking for images of St Thomas the fact that there is no single received image of what he looked like. Different artists have been largely free to depict him as they wished. The articles I saw that referred to his relics suggested that there has been confusion as to which indeed was his skull. Assuming that the one now with his other bones in Toulouse is his then it should be possible for one of the modern experts in these matters to reconstruct his appearance from the original or indeed even from photographs.


Thursday 7 March 2024

St Thomas Aquinas 750


Today is the 750th anniversary of the death at the abbey of Fossanova of St Thomas Aquinas in 1274.

St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

St Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274
Painting by Fra Bartolommeo 1472-1517
Museo di San Marco Florence
Image: Media storehouse
 
Wikipedia has a lengthy introduction to his life, works of theology and philosophy and his reception and legacy at Thomas Aquinas

It also has an article about his canonisation in 1323 and the fate of his relics at Canonization of Thomas Aquinas

There is an entry for the Cistercian house where he died at Fossanova Abbey

I can make no claim to detailed knowledge of Thomism but to look at his writings is to look at a calm, ordered, disciplined system of thought that has endured, and whose range and harmony has helped ensure its centrality to Catholic thought.

As the Wikipedia article indicates one of the most striking things is the sheer volume - or, if you will, the sheer volumes, of St Thomas’s writings. It is claimed that he was capable of dictating two or more different works simultaneously to his scribes. He wrote both his encyclopaedic works and ones of matters of the moment, and also composed liturgical works such as the propers for Corpus Christi.



St Thomas Aquinas
Painting by Fr Angelico circa 1395-1455
Image: basilicacateriniana.it

This took place not in remote monastic seclusion but in a lifetime of less than fifty years which involved relocations from Naples to Cologne, to Paris, to Rome and Orvieto, back to Naples and his final journey towards Lyons. Much of that time he was teaching his fellow Dominicans on a regular basis.

It was also a life lived out against a background of intellectual ferment and political turmoil. The clash of Papal and Imperial claims occurred in a Europe threatened by the Mongol invasion, and in the case of central Europe it’s consequent devastation. Elsewhere there were localised conflicts on the margins between Christian and Muslim in Iberia, and with pagans in the Baltic, the uncertain future of the Christian presence in the Holy Land, the crusades of St Louis and vigorous internal political unheavels, not least in England in the reign of King Henry III. St Thomas’s native Sicilian kingdom was at the very centre of this. His family were by no means unaffected as the reign of the Emperor Frederick II took its course to 1250, the subsequent fighting for possession of the kingdom and the establishment of the Angevin dynasty from 1266-68 onwards. This was a turbulent, violent and bloody time, far removed from theological and philosophical contemplation.

That said it is important to understand that these were not distinct and different works, but one in which the Doctor Anglelichs lived and prayed and thought and wrote and had his being.

I was fortunate enough today to be able to attend online a Mass for the feast in the usus antiquior celebrated by a Dominican tertiary on the traditional day, rather than the modern one, assigned in 1970 which is the anniversary of St Thomas’s relics translation to the Dominican house in Toulouse on January 28th 1369.


Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Anglicus
Andrea di Bonaiuto, 1366
Fresco in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence
Image: Wikipedia 

St Thomas Aquinas, pray for us