tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78818119879870457112024-03-18T11:02:37.528+00:00Once I Was A Clever BoyOnce I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.comBlogger4321125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-81846187961370259812024-03-18T11:02:00.000+00:002024-03-18T11:02:05.446+00:00A Greek visitor to Eboracum<div><br></div><div>The <u>York Press</u> 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.</div><div><br></div><div>The article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/24191106.the-western-edge-world-ancient-greek-voyaged-york/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'The western edge of the world': the ancient Greek who voyaged to far-flung York</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>I must admit that from my visits to the venerable and splendid Yorkshire Museum I was unaware of these plaques and their possible background. </div><div><br></div><div>There is a bit more about Demetrius in a blog on <u>The Edithorial</u> from 2014 which can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://edithorial.blogspot.com/2014/04/from-tarsus-to-wales-earliest-greek-in.html?m=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">From Tarsus to Wales: the earliest Greek in Britain?</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>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’ <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdf/10.3366/gas.1969.1.1.2" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">here</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>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.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-4022707578565081992024-03-17T09:59:00.000+00:002024-03-17T09:59:16.230+00:00The restored murals at the Oxford Oratory <div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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 <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://oxfordoratory.org.uk/restoration-murals.php" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Uncovering the Sanctuary Murals</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div> </div><div><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img align="center" alt="" src="https://mcusercontent.com/0dbfb6f27b5cac9547620f8e7/images/dd11c6a8-f22a-a096-f80e-eee3923c1836.jpg" width="564" class="mcnImage" style="height: auto; outline: none; vertical-align: bottom; width: 354px; max-width: 1440px; padding-bottom: 0px; display: inline !important;"></span></font><br></div><div><br></div><div>Image: Oxford Oratory</div><div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="mcnImageBlock" style="min-width: 100%;"><tbody class="mcnImageBlockOuter"><tr><td valign="top" class="mcnImageBlockInner" style="padding: 9px;"><table align="left" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="mcnImageContentContainer" style="min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td class="mcnImageContent" valign="top" style="padding-right: 9px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: start;"><br></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed !important;"><tbody class="mcnDividerBlockOuter" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3);"><tr></tr></tbody></table></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-12991448088918172952024-03-16T10:54:00.001+00:002024-03-16T10:54:20.882+00:00More about this year’s Constable’s Dues<div><br></div><div>The internet presented me with a report from the <u>Plymouth Herald</u> 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.</div><div><br></div><div>The illustrated article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/royal-navy-marines-race-along-9168280?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Royal Navy Marines deliver barrel of port marking Corp's 360th anniversary</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-35465277495779332622024-03-13T20:23:00.000+00:002024-03-13T20:23:27.392+00:00The Constable’s Dues<div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div><u>ianVisits</u> reports on the story of this week’s ceremony at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/a-helicopter-and-boats-to-perform-a-rare-ceremony-at-the-tower-of-london-70761/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A helicopter and boats to perform a rare ceremony at the Tower of London</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><u>Wikipedia</u> has an article about the office of Constable and sets out the variety of the traditional dues that were payable at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constable_of_the_Tower?wprov=sfti1#" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Constable of the Tower</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div><u>ianVisits</u> has a description of the 2012 ceremony at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/attending-the-ceremony-of-the-constables-dues-5990/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Attending the Ceremony of the Constable’s Dues</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><u>Historic Royal Palaces, </u>who manage the opening of The Tower to the public, describe the ceremony in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/the-constables-dues/#gs.61yeii" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Constable's Dues</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><u>Hidden-London</u> writes about the event at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://hidden-london.com/the-guide/constables-dues/amp/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Constable's Dues</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The <u>Forces.net</u> website reports on the 2019 ceremony at<font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"> </font><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.forces.net/news/royal-naval-tradition-paying-constables-dues" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Royal Naval Tradition Of Paying The Constables Dues</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div><u>The Crown Chronicles</u> has an account at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://thecrownchronicles.co.uk/royal-news/tell-me-about-the-constables-dues-at-the-tower-of-london/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tell me about... the Constable's Dues at the Tower of London</a></font></div>
<div><br></div><div><u>The Londonist</u> has an article from 2017 at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://londonist.com/london/history/what-is-the-ceremony-of-the-constable-s-dues" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What Is The Ceremony Of The Constable's Dues?</a> </font></div>
<div> </div><div>The <u>London Historians Blog</u> wrote about the ceremony in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/the-ceremony-of-the-constables-dues/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Ceremony of the Constable’s Dues</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>The <u>Daily Express</u> reported on the presence of the Princess Royal and the Secretary for Defence at the 2021 ceremony in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1490773/princess-anne-Tower-of-London-Ceremony-of-the-Constable-s-Dues-HMS-Albion-ont" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Princess Anne attends historic ceremony from middle ages - 'Never become just a symbol'</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>The <u>Spitalfields News</u> has a piece from 2011 about the Dues at <font face="sans-serif" size="3"></font><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/03/07/constables-dues-at-the-tower-of-london/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Constable’s Dues at the Tower of London</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and the </span><u style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">East London Advertiser</u><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> has one from 2019 at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/20957779.commander-hms-enterprise-rolls-rum-pay-dues-tower-london/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Commander of HMS Enterprise rolls out the rum to pay his ‘dues’ at the Tower of London</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-88319599612721913582024-03-12T21:55:00.000+00:002024-03-12T21:55:09.920+00:00Reassessing Silchester<div><br></div><div><u>PhysOrg</u> 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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>The article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-03-houses-perspective-britain-roman-period.amp" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'Missing' houses offer a new perspective on Britain's Roman period</a> </font></div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-11-roman-temple-silchester-emperor-vanity.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Third Roman temple in Silchester may have been part of emperor's vanity project</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>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.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-46890298259173150102024-03-09T19:24:00.000+00:002024-03-09T19:24:01.555+00:00Kit bags across the centuries<div><br></div><div>The <u>Daily Telegraph</u> 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.</div><div><br></div><div>The illustrated article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/weapons-kit-military-history-ukraine-vietnam-ww2/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Inside soldiers' kit bags - from the Battle of Hastings to the Ukraine War</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>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.</div><div> </div><div> 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. </div><div> </div><div>Secondly it has been calculated that the modern soldier carries as much, if not more, weight into battle as a medieval man fully armoured.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=5hlIUrd7d1Q&feature=share">Le combat en armure au XVe siècle</a> </font></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: 12pt; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">looks at the flexibility that is possible and </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=q-bnM5SuQkI&feature=share" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Can You Move in Armour?</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">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.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><br></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Thirdly there is also, to show the comparison with modern equipment, the superb, and almost hypnotic, </span><a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=pAzI1UvlQqw&feature=share" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: sans-serif;">Obstacle Run in Armour - a short film by Daniel Jaquet</a></p><p class="p1"><br></p></div><div>It is worth adding that Dr Jaquet is something like ten years older than the two men he is competing against.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-2696861830796579832024-03-08T21:11:00.000+00:002024-03-08T21:11:31.924+00:00The relics of St Thomas Aquinas<div><br></div><div>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, <i>Les Jacobins. </i>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Today I came across a link to an article on the website of the <u>Catholic News Agency</u><i> </i> 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 <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253480/skull-of-st-thomas-aquinas-unveiled-at-700th-anniversary-of-his-canonization" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas unveiled for 700th anniversary of his canonization</a> (sic)</font></div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-62375703690840111322024-03-07T23:53:00.001+00:002024-03-07T23:53:52.889+00:00St Thomas Aquinas 750<br><div>Today is the 750th anniversary of the death at the abbey of Fossanova of St Thomas Aquinas in 1274.</div><div><br></div><div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; max-width: 680px; align-self: center;"><div style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; overflow: hidden; border: 0px; margin: auto;"><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img src="https://www.mediastorehouse.co.uk/p/690/st-thomas-aquinas-1225-1274-23349682.jpg" fetchpriority="high" width="442" height="600" alt="St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)" title="St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; height: auto; box-shadow: rgb(204, 204, 204) 0px 0px 15px; max-height: 500px; width: auto;"></span></font></div></div></div><div><br></div><div>St Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274</div><div>Painting by Fra Bartolommeo 1472-1517</div><div>Museo di San Marco Florence</div><div>Image: Media storehouse</div><div> </div><div><u>Wikipedia</u> has a lengthy introduction to his life, works of theology and philosophy and his reception and legacy at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas?wprov=sfti1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thomas Aquinas</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>It also has an article about his canonisation in 1323 and the fate of his relics at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonization_of_Thomas_Aquinas?wprov=sfti1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Canonization of Thomas Aquinas</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>There is an entry for the Cistercian house where he died at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossanova_Abbey?wprov=sfti1#" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fossanova Abbey</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>As the <u>Wikipedia</u> 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.</div><div><br></div><div><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="js-qv-product-cover" src="https://www.basilicacateriniana.it/shop/img/p/9/0/1/901-large_default.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="image" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: none; vertical-align: middle; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 2px 2px 8px 0px; width: 360px;"></span></font><br></div><div><br></div><div>St Thomas Aquinas</div><div>Painting by Fr Angelico <i>circa</i> 1395-1455</div><div>Image: basilicacateriniana.it</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That said it is important <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">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.</span></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>I was fortunate enough today to be able to attend online a Mass for the feast in the <i>usus antiquior</i> 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.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/File:Andrea_di_Bonaiuto._Santa_Maria_Novella_1366-7_fresco_0001.jpg" class="mw-file-description pcs-widen-image-ancestor" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; height: auto !important; float: none !important; background-position: 0px 0px;"><div class="pcs-widen-image-wrapper" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px; max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-position: 0px 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><img class="mw-file-element pcs-widen-image-override pcs-lazy-load-image-loaded" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Andrea_di_Bonaiuto._Santa_Maria_Novella_1366-7_fresco_0001.jpg/640px-Andrea_di_Bonaiuto._Santa_Maria_Novella_1366-7_fresco_0001.jpg" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Andrea_di_Bonaiuto._Santa_Maria_Novella_1366-7_fresco_0001.jpg/960px-Andrea_di_Bonaiuto._Santa_Maria_Novella_1366-7_fresco_0001.jpg 1.5x" width="640" height="672" data-file-width="1192" data-file-height="1251" style="margin: 0.6em auto; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-touch-callout: none; animation: 0.3s ease-in 0s 1 normal none running pcs-lazy-load-image-fade-in; display: block; width: 358px; max-width: 100%; height: auto !important; background-position: 0px 0px;"></font></div></a><figcaption style="text-align: start; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px !important;"><br></figcaption></div><div><i>Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Anglicus</i></div><div>Andrea di Bonaiuto, 1366</div><div>Fresco in the Basilica of Santa<span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> Maria Novella in Florence</span></div><div>Image: Wikipedia </div><div><br></div><div>St Thomas Aquinas, pray for us</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-53362624412447607452024-03-05T23:34:00.001+00:002024-03-05T23:34:26.869+00:00The late arrival of a Faroese jumper<div><br></div><div>The <u>BBC News</u> website has an interesting story about the opening of a package sent from the Faröe Islands to Copenhagen in 1807 which was intercepted by the Royal Navy off the Norwegian coast in the naval engagements around the second Battle of Copenhagen. Preserved as a war prize the parcel has now been opened. </div><div><br></div><div>The most striking item inside is a Faroese jumper intended for the fiancé of the intended recipient. </div><div><br></div><div>What makes it so special is its colour. It </div><div>comes from remote island communities, not a court or commercial centre, yet is vibrant in its dye colour - a further example to rebut the contemporary idea we so often encounter in film and television that almost everything was drab in the past.</div><div><br></div><div>Similarly a pair of stockings are shown which are of fine quality - something you might otherwise imagine being sent <i>from</i> Copenhagen rather than <i>to </i>the capital. They were clearly the product of a sizeable domestic industry using island resources from the total numbers recorded on the vessel.</div><div><br></div><div>There are two illustrated articles about the discovery which can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68452333" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">National Archives: Faroe Islands jumper uncovered 200 years on</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68452674" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Centuries-old Faroese jumper unwrapped at National Archives</a></font></div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-44172109978778277932024-03-04T08:08:00.002+00:002024-03-04T08:08:31.750+00:00Policing morals at Cambridge University - and at Oxford <div><br></div><div>The tradition of the Proctors policing the streets of Cambridge and in particular their concern to keep loose women off those streets and to protect male undergraduates from being led into temptation is discussed in an article on the <u>BBC News</u> website which can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-68435834.amp" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'When to be poor, pretty and petulant was a crime'</a></font></div>
<div><br></div><div>Given the fallen state of human nature such efforts, however superficially successful, were no doubt unavailing. </div><div><br></div><div>I noticed that this was under an Elizabethan statute. The sixteenth century appears to have been part an age of a ‘moral panic’ which possibly began in the last years of the fifteenth century, and which took in all forms of digression from what was considered the social norm. Sexual morality was but one aspect of deviance that attracted the attention of the relevant authorities across Europe. The concern with heresy and witchcraft, of political dissent, as well as reinforcing perceived hierarchies in families and communities was shared across Catholic and Reformed traditions. The conventions inherited from previous centuries were now enforced in a way that went from the occasional to the routine.</div><div><br></div><div>I am not sufficiently informed as to the history of Cambridge as to the minutiae of such policies there. <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Medieval Oxford was known to have areas noted for prostitution outside the city walls and had one very explicitly named street in the very centre - now re-named. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the St Thomas’ area was notorious for its houses of easy virtue and the great Tractarian Canon Chamberlain from the parish church was a vigorous opponent of them. Regular parish visiting to the houses of ill-repute helped to close them down and he faced down physical threats from the girls’ ‘protectors’.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">If the University students were traditionally catered for in these matters - and certain streets and street corners were well known to be meeting places up to the 1960s - then the advent of military bases in the twentieth century opened up new possibilities. I recall being regaled by a retired Oxford policewoman I worked alongside with stories of staking out a brothel in the St Ebbe’s area which provided ‘services’ for the USAF in the 1950s…</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-29777166095949685932024-03-02T23:03:00.000+00:002024-03-02T23:03:59.621+00:00Hoping to save a twelfth century ivory for the nation<div><br></div><div>The <u>Financial Times</u> has a report about the attempt to raise £2million to keep an ivory carving of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross in the country. The carving was originally part of a larger scene, and arguably part of a triptych or five fold reredos, and is ascribed to a York workshop of the 1190s. As such it is a precious survival of a school or tradition of which we now have so little.</div><div><br></div><div><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="alignleft wp-image-69190 size-medium" title="Deposition from the Cross (around 1190-1200). Photo © Department for Culture, Media and Sport." src="http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-176x300.jpg" alt="" width="176" height="300" srcset="https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-176x300.jpg 176w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-430x731.jpg 430w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-88x150.jpg 88w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-768x1305.jpg 768w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-904x1536.jpg 904w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-1205x2048.jpg 1205w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deposition-scaled.jpg 1506w" sizes="(max-width: 176px) 100vw, 176px" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; border-style: none; float: left; margin-right: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"></a></font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">The article then goes on to look at British regulations regarding art exports, and compares them with those in France, Germany, and Italy about safeguarding heritage objects and preventing their loss overseas.</span></div><div><br></div><div>The <u>Financial Times</u> article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/dd2316bd-1a07-4aba-a6d1-400cf67d680b" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Battle to keep sculpture in Britain highlights European museums’ struggles</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The Government website covers the legal case at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/walrus-ivory-carving-of-deposition-from-the-cross-at-risk-of-leaving-the-uk" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Walrus ivory carving of Deposition from the Cross at risk of leaving the UK</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>The <u>Museums+Heritage Advisor</u> website describes the story at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/news/va-looks-to-acquire-12th-century-ivory-carving-for-2m/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">V&A looks to acquire 12th-century ivory carving for £2m</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">as does </span><u style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">ArtNet</u><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.moneycontroller.co.uk/finance-news/artnet-ag/the-u-k-is-barring-the-export-of-a-rare-medieval-statue-acquired-by-the-met-will-the-v-a-snap-it-up-1785617" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The U.K. Is Barring the Export of a Rare Medieval Statue Acquired by the Met. Will the V&A Snap It Up</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>The <u>History Blog</u> also reported on the carving in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69189#comments" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Met acquires rare Romanesque Walrus ivory carving; UK bars export</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>However when I was looking further into the story to write this article I was absolutely fascinated to find that the carving has a very close link to my home area. That was certainly not well known when I lived in the area, and indeed unknown to me. </div><div><br></div><div><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-69191 size-medium" title="Judas at the Last Supper, ca.1190-1200. Photo courtesy the V&A." src="http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-200x267.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="267" srcset="https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-200x267.jpg 200w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-430x573.jpg 430w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-113x150.jpg 113w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2009CB7525.jpg 1875w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; border-style: none; float: right; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"></a></font></div><div>The other surviving fragment, of Judas eating the morsel at the Last Supper, from the reredos was found in Wakefield in 1769 and is now in the V&A. It can be seen to have survived through deliberate moves to secret religious art in the town in the mid-sixteenth century. Where the reredos was before that terrible time of tragedy is unclear - possibilities include the parish church - since 1888 the Anglican cathedral - or the castle at Sandal just south of the town, the Hospitaller Preceptory at Newland to the east, or even one of the four chantry chapels that were on the main roads into the town. Another possibility, if less likely, might be that it came from a church </div><div>further afield.</div><div><br></div><div>The historical background is set out in excellent detail by <u>Apollo</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.apollo-magazine.com/medieval-walrus-ivory-export-ban-victoria-albert-metropolitan-museum/?amp=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The V&A is by far the best home for this medieval sculpture</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and by the </span><u style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Independent</u><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/v-a-art-ivory-last-supper-b2503282.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The story of the walrus and the English artwork at risk of being sent to the US</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>There is another article with valuable insights from the magazine <u>Artdependence</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.artdependence.com/articles/va-launches-fundraising-campaign-to-acquire-rare-12th-century-medieval-walrus-ivory-carving/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">V&A launches Fundraising Campaign to acquire Rare 12th-century Medieval Walrus Ivory Carving</a></font></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Given that connection to where I was born and raised, and formed as both a historian and as a man of Catholic belief I </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">obviously hope very much that the money can be found to keep this exquisite carving here, with the other fragment - one would not wish it to suffer the exile in the Met that has been the fate of the Bury St Edmunds Cross.</span></div><div><br></div><div>Images: The History Blog</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-88898958758485064312024-03-01T19:38:00.000+00:002024-03-01T19:38:40.838+00:00Gearing up for the next election<div><br></div><div>No, despite the events in Rochdale yesterday and the current surfeit of speculation and polling both in the UK and abroad, I am not going to write about secular politics in this country or anywhere else ( well, not in this post anyway ) but rather to link to a story on <u>LifeSite News</u></div><div><u><br></u></div><div>Their article is about an opinion piece looking to the next Papal election. That election will undoubtedly be of crucial importance to the Church. Written by a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals it is about what the author believes is necessary to be addressed for the next Pontificate. The author, wisely no doubt, conceals his identity behind the pseudonym of <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Demos II. Demos I, who wrote a not dissimilar article about the current Pontificate a couple of years back, was subsequently revealed to be the late Cardinal George Pell.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Demos II’s arguments are summarised and presented in </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/anonymous-cardinal-publishes-rebuke-of-pope-francis-lays-out-what-next-pope-should-focus-on/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Anonymous cardinal publishes rebuke of Pope Francis, lays out what next pope should focus on</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">The unredacted text can be read on the <u>Daily Compass</u> website at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://newdailycompass.com/en/a-profile-of-the-next-pope-writes-cardinal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A profile of the next Pope, writes Cardinal</a></font></div><div> </div>
<div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-52642337559797311562024-02-29T23:29:00.000+00:002024-02-29T23:29:08.847+00:00Mantegna’s ‘Triumph of Caesar’<div><br></div><div>The website of <u>Antiques and The Arts Weekly </u>has an article about one of the many glories of the Royal Collection, Andrea Mantegna’s <i>Triumphs of Caesar. </i>Six of the nine paintings are currently on display in the National Gallery<i> </i>until next year whilst their usual home at Hampton Court is renovated.</div><div><br></div><div>The article can be viewed at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/rise-fall-andrea-mantegnas-the-triumphs-of-caesar-at-londons-national-gallery/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rise & Fall: Andrea Mantegna’s The Triumphs of Caesar At London’s National Gallery</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The author does not point out as clearly as he might have the fact that the Rubens <i>Roman Triumph </i>from the National Gallery collection very clearly derives from Mantegna’s great cycle. Presumably Rubens saw the paintings in England when they were bought by King Charles I in 1629.</div><div><br></div><div>I believe I am correct in saying that the nine paintings were not amongst those sold in 1649 but were retained and decorated the court of the Cromwellian Protectorate. Their size may have militated against a quick sale. As it was they remained here and were saved for King Charles II and his successors.</div><div><br></div><div>The loss of the Ovetari <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Chapel is indeed grievous, and, let’s be honest, inexcusable. As I understand it the fragments of the frescos were gathered up and restorers are still trying to piece them together with a view to a restoration. <u>Wikipedia</u> has an account of the chapel and what survives at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovetari_Chapel?wprov=sfti1#" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ovetari Chapel</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>Mantegna is noteable for his research into classical architecture and settings for his commissions as the author mentions. He participated in the burgeoning antiquarian spirit of a number of scholars in mid-fifteenth century Italy, such as Cyriacus of Ancona, and anticipated research into discoveries in sixteenth century Rome. Such a tradition was by no means new and can be seen in various parts of Italy in the thirteenth century under the Emperor Frederick II, the Pisan sculptural tradition and in the Rome of the 1280s in respect of painting. </div><div><br></div><div><u>Wikipedia</u> discusses the sculptural background of this painting in a substantial article about the artist at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Mantegna?wprov=sfti1#Youth_and_education" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Andrea Mantegna</a>.</font></div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-42601430164362357612024-02-28T11:30:00.000+00:002024-02-28T11:30:43.285+00:00Recreating the face of Dante<div><br></div><div>The <u>Mail Online</u> website has an article about a new reconstruction that has been made of the face of Dante. It is based on details of his skull as recorded in 1921 during an examination of his remains as well as a more recent study in 2007.</div><div><br></div><div>The illustrated article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://mol.im/a/13130347" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meet the architect of hell: True face of Dante revealed</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The article is of course wrong to state that Dante was the first to write about the state of being and topography of the afterlife. That theme was a not infrequent subject for medieval writers, but Dante’s skill led him to create what has become the definitive literary account, as well as codifying literary Italian in the process.</div><div><br></div><div>Whilst reading it do look at the linked article reconstructing the horrendous accident which befell Phineas Gage in Vermont in 1848. I came across his story some years ago and it stayed in my memory. That someone could survive that at all is quite amazing. That subsection can also be seen directly at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://mol.im/a/12858531" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meet the man who was shot in the head with an iron rod - and SURVIVED</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-91227954034446441752024-02-28T11:03:00.002+00:002024-02-28T11:03:49.673+00:00Pesellino reassessed<div><br></div><div>As the exhibition celebrating his surviving work at the National Gallery approaches its end next month Pesellino receives another profile in the arts press, this time from <u>Apollo</u>.</div><div><br></div><div>The intention of the exhibition was to create a greater awareness of Pesellino as an artist and restore him to his proper place in the history of Florentine art. The article gives a good summary of his life and works, and seeks to makes its positive assessment of his contribution. It can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.apollo-magazine.com/pesellino-florence-medici-national-gallery-review/?amp=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pesellino is restored to his rightful place in art history</a> </font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-20309435892544383222024-02-26T11:51:00.000+00:002024-02-26T11:51:57.799+00:00Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine<div><br></div><div>I have a few years ago linked to a website which has offered facial reconstructions of the Roman Emperors from Augustus through to Constantine the Great. This has now been reissued or revised.</div><div><br></div><div>The portraits are based on surviving busts of the Enperors. For the few for whom there are no known surviving sculptures the site includes excellent coinage portraits.</div><div><br></div><div>The complete website can be viewed at <font face="sans-serif" size="3"></font><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=RAuYw1jpL_U&si=U2yPV1aZ3HrbWdQo" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Faces of Roman Emperors-Augustus to Constantine</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>As the comments on it point out some of the more degenerate, depraved or bizarre manage to look amongst the more normal or indeed attractive of this decidedly mixed bunch. As a group they could be candidates for any forthcoming election, or colleagues, or neighbours. With just one portrait it does not allow for aging, although Augustus was never shown to have aged in his images over a very long reign. Some of the others were, by contrast, hardly in power long enough to be commemorated in sculpture.</div><div><br></div><div>That said for several of the more well known Augusti the view of later centuries does often reflect the prejudices of those who successfully recorded their lives and reigns, and who thereby determined the judgment of future ages. These are matters which today are legitimate points of discussion amongst historians. That is also true of political leases of later centuries. It is also true that judging leaders on the basis of notions such as “handsome is as handsome does” and “judging a book by its cover” or, indeed, of their inverse, is not usually the best way of assessing character or achievement.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-15160001741239126042024-02-26T11:17:00.000+00:002024-02-26T11:17:08.431+00:00Preserving the patois of Sark<div><br></div><div>The <u>Daily Telegraph</u> reports on a successful initiative by a Czech academic to record, and thereby preserve, the distinctive Norman French dialect of the island of Sark. This originated with the speech of those who were brought in to the island by the first Seigneur in 1565 and up to at least the eighteenth century English was not spoken. Today however there are only three surviving speakers of the dialect, all of whom are elderly. The hope is that by recording it the tradition can be not only recorded but handed on and maintained by succeeding generations. </div><div><br></div><div>I have read that in Jersey the local language has been in decline since the nineteenth century, and survives in formal rather than ordinary use.</div><div><br></div><div>The article can be read on the <u>Telegraph</u> website at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/23/linguist-preserves-ancient-british-dialect-sarkese/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Linguist preserves ancient British dialect with help of last three native speakers</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>I will add in passing that terming it ‘British’ seems rather odd - it is a French based language, the Channel Isles are not part of the British Isles, are not constitutionally part of Great Britain, and nor is ‘British’ a recognised contemporary language, unlike English. However sub-editors are increasingly a law unto themselves these days.</div><div><br></div><div>I could not help but think that the <u>Telegraph</u> reports this but that the paper never, to my knowledge, reported on the wicked campaign to undermine the traditional constitution of Sark by the Barclay brothers when they also owned the <u>Daily Telegraph</u>. Funny that. Unless of course, if you will pardon the pun, you think I am being sarky….</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-82994749599090583412024-02-24T23:23:00.000+00:002024-02-24T23:23:41.102+00:00The Cappella Palatina in Palermo <div><br></div><div>The <u>Liturgical Arts Journal</u> this week had a splendid article about the twelfth century Capella Palatina in the Royal Palace of Palermo.</div><div><br></div><div>The wonderful photographs show much more than the standard images that are reproduced in general books that refer to the chapel and are a visual delight. It is a very un-Lenten feast for the eyes. </div><div><br></div><div>The article can be seen at <font face="sans-serif" size="3"></font><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2024/02/the-italo-byzantine-cappella-palatina.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Italo-Byzantine Cappella Palatina of the Royal Chapel of Palermo, Sicily</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>Commissioned in 1132 by King Roger II the chapel was a lavish celebration of the Christian faith and of the place within it of the Sicilian monarchy. Like the slightly later cathedral at Monreale this was elite work for an elite patron. Some of the photographs are reminiscent of Cosmati work in Papal Rome in the same era and the great <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Westminster Abbey pavement of the next century, created for King Henry III’s inspired vision for the shrine church of St Edward.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div>The chapel displays not only the vitality of twelfth century art and design but also of intellectual pursuits. This was of great significance in the Sicilian court and kingdom, but was by no means confined to the cultural crossroads with was Sicily.</div><div><br></div><div>As I have done before when writing about Sicily I would commend <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">John Julius Norwich’s books </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">The Normans in the South</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">The Kingdom in the Sun </i><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">as a means of understanding and appreciating the extraordinary achievements of the Hauteville dynasty and their rule in their southern kingdom.</span></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-56759990158930112952024-02-21T21:27:00.000+00:002024-02-21T21:27:28.996+00:00The Catholic Church in Germany<div><br></div><div>Two online items came my way today about the mood in the Church in Germany, where the Synodical Way has dominated discussion for a long while. I read that under pressure from the Vatican the German Church has put off creating a new body to oversee its life, but, it should be noted, has not so far rejected the idea. The story is reported on today by <u>Zenit</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://zenit.org/2024/02/20/pope-averts-schism-in-germany-full-text-of-vatican-letter/?eti=13544" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pope Averts Schism in Germany: Full Text of Vatican Letter</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The two items which I saw today refer not to governance but to the liturgy and do indicate the extent of the divide in German Catholicism in respect of the liturgy to say the very least.</div><div><br></div><div>The first is a video, which speaks - or should I say swarks - for itself, from a Mass in the diocese of Passau and which is linked to by <u>Rorate Cæli</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-vatican-ii-moment-chicken-dance-mass.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Vatican II Moment: The Chicken Dance Mass</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The second is from <u>Life Site News</u> and is a concise and forceful article by Fr Joachim Heimerl, which focuses on the place of the liturgy in the life and mission of the Church, both past and present. His conclusion may well confirm one’s worst fears. It can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-priest-pope-francis-fight-against-the-latin-mass-is-a-fight-against-the-church/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">German priest: Pope Francis' fight against the Latin Mass is ‘a fight against the Church’</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-51458977608151646962024-02-19T11:23:00.001+00:002024-02-19T11:23:38.308+00:00Extreme weather<div><br></div><div>I recently wrote about the Thames Frost Fairs in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-thames-frost-fair-1683-84-one-of.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Thames Frost Fair 1683-84 - one of a kind</a></font></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">In that piece I drew attention to both previous eras of bad winters and frozen rivers, and of our somewhat varying knowledge and memory of them.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div>Subsequently I came upon an article published in 2015 in <u>History Extra</u> which looks at recorded historic instances of extreme weather conditions. Some of them make even extremes which have occurred relatively recently such as the winters of 1947,1963, and 1979 or the hot summers of 1975 and, even more, of 1976, and the record high temperatures of 2022 which have entered our immediate folk memory, look decidedly tame. In part that is because modern technology gives us the means to circumvent or mitigate situations which in previous centuries would have been far more difficult to deal with. Even more so than when the article was published are we aware of changes in our climate and equally to look at historical parallels. It may be that we shall become accustomed to the greater ranges in the weather that our ancestors experienced, and had to live with and adapt to.</div><div><br></div><div>The article can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/catastrophic-extreme-weather-events-british-history/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">6 of the most catastrophic weather events in British history</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>Such events were not isolated but had a real impact on contemporary events. Christopher Duffy’s splendid history of the 1745-6 Jacobite rising <i>Fight for a Throne: The Jacobite’45 Reconsiddred</i> cites early meteorological records and points out that the Jacobites marching south through Cumberland to Lancashire and ultimately Derbyshire and their opponents the Hanoverian troops in Yorkshire did not engage with each other because snow in the Pennines literally prevented them reaching each other. The detachment of Hanoverian troops who did manage to cross the Pennines via Blackstone Edge were seen as epic voyagers.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-21249994995225196922024-02-17T12:28:00.001+00:002024-02-17T12:28:20.261+00:00Supporting St Christopher at Salisbury<div><br></div><div>Amongst the treasures of the Museum in Salisbury are the guild parade figures of St - or Sir - Christopher and his horse Hob Nob. Survivors from late medieval guild processions in the city <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">they are similar to Snap the dragon at Norwich - who has, however, lost his companion St George along the historical way. I </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">posted about Snap and his recent revival in </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2014/08/english-iconoclasm-ii-fate-of-cult-of.html" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">English Iconoclasm II - the fate of the cult of St George</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>They are a reminder of what was doubtless much more common in later medieval England and survives abroad in Mardi Gras figures and the saints day festivals of Italy.</div><div><br></div><div>The <u>BBC News</u> website reports on an appeal for volunteers to act as bearers of the replica figure of the Salisbury St Christopher or Giant which is now used for processions in the city. This is in an article which can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-68242023.amp" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Volunteers needed to carry giant medieval statue</a></font></div>
<div><br></div><div>I do rather like the idea that the statue would have been clothed with the products of local looms as a means of advertising fabrics to those watching the procession, piety on the medieval catwalk.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-61767257559422589572024-02-14T19:48:00.001+00:002024-02-14T19:48:43.919+00:00Ash Wednesday and Lent - liturgy and vestments<div><br></div><div>Ash Wednesday sees each year a striking change in the outward expression of the Church’s devotion. Lent is visually as well as liturgically different, even after the anticipating weeks of Septuagesima. In the <i>Novus Ordo</i> the change is all the more dramatic to the eye as green yields overnight to violet in vestments and hangings within churches.</div><div><br></div><div>The austere beauty of the Lenten liturgy is expressed in the outward sign of the imposition of ashes and the inward call to repentance. The history of ashing is set out in my post from 2011 at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2011/03/ashes-and-ash-wednesday.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ashes and Ash Wednesday</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The excellent Catholic website <u>The Pillar</u> has a discussion of the varieties of imposing ashes which I have linked to in the past, and can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/sprinkling-and-tracing-an-ash-wednesday" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Ash Wednesday, some ‘trace’ and some ‘sprinkle’ — But why?</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>Once we get into Lent the liturgy changes. One of the most notable changes in the traditional forms, and a delight to scholars and students of such matters, is the appearance of the folded chasuble and broad stole at Mass. There is a very good account of these features from <u>Canticum Salomonis</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://sicutincensum.wordpress.com/2018/03/23/folded-chasubles-a-history/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The History of the Folded Chasuble (Part 1)</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://sicutincensum.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/the-history-of-the-folded-chasuble-part-2-2/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The History of the Folded Chasuble (Part 2)</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>There is also an illustrated 2009 account of the folded chasuble from the <u>St Lawrence Press</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://ordorecitandi.blogspot.com/2009/12/folded-chasubles-planetis-plicatis.html?m=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Folded chasubles</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>It has been very good indeed in recent years to watch Masses online during this season where these ancient forms of vesture have reappeared in celebrations of the pre-1955 Triduum liturgy.</div><div><br></div><div>For most of us in the Roman tradition violet is the liturgical colour of Lent, but that is not uniformly so. Amongst the surviving historic Rites, as sanctioned by the Council of Trent and St Pius V, Braga uses violet, but the Ambrosian Rite in Milan and the Lyonese Rite are quite distinct.</div><div><br></div><div>For the church of Milan Lent does not start today but on the Monday after next Sunday with ashing on those two days after the Mass of the Sunday forty days before Easter. For low Masses penitential black is worn and on Sundays the blueish violet known as morello, until red appears for Holy Week. This is set out on the <u>New Litugical Movement</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2021/02/liturgical-colours-of-lent-in-ambrosian.html?m=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Liturgical Colours of Lent in the Ambrosian Rite</a>,</font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> by the <u>Liturgical Arts Journal</u> at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2021/12/the-ambrosian-rites-unique-liturgical.html?m=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Ambrosian Rite's Unique Liturgical Colour: Morello</a> , </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and by the website of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Duomo</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> itself at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.duomomilano.it/en/liturgical/sunday-at-the-beginning-of-lent/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sunday at the beginning of Lent</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The practice in Lyons was to wear ash-coloured vestments as can be seen from the <u>New Liturgical Movement</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2019/03/the-ash-grey-lenten-vestments-of-rite.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Ash Grey Lenten Vestments of the Rite of Lyon</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The <u>Rad Trad</u> in a 2014 post on the Lyonese Missal points out that Lyons followed Roman useage more than other 2/Rites and that:</div><div><br></div><div><i>Green….is also used for the fourth Sunday of Lent….”Ash” colored vestments are utilised from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive. Where Ash is not available violet is used….black for ...Good Friday.</i></div><div>
<p class="p1"><br></p></div>
<div>The Lyons useage appears to preserve early Roman approaches to the seasonal liturgy as opposed to the more clearly ancient but distinctive practice of Milan. There is a <u>Wikipedia</u> article about it at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_Lyon?wprov=sfti1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rite of Lyon</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>The Archbishop of Lyons as Primate of Gaul enjoyed for many centuries oversight of the three Provinces of Tours, Rouen and Sens. This, and the tradition of Gallican autonomy as codified in 1438 and 1516, led to the survival of distinctive liturgical traditions and developments. These are often associated with Paris which in the late seventeenth century replaced Sens as the Provincial centre.</div><div>Rouen, which remained at least nominally under the supervision of Lyons until 1702, and the cathedral clearly followed very much virtually the same liturgy as Lyons into the eighteenth century. This is beautifully set out in a detailed post from <u>Zephyrinus</u> drawing upon an account published in 1718. This can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://zephyrinus-zephyrinus.blogspot.com/2021/01/rouen-france-voyages-liturgiques-de.html?m=1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rouen, France. “Voyages Liturgiques De France: The Cathedral Chapter”.</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>If the Lenten colour of Rouen was indeed ashen, then this may explain the tradition of the Lenten array used by Sarum in medieval England. </div><div><br></div><div>Unbleached linen hangings throughout Lent in churches and vestments to match are a distinctive feature of restored medieval use in Anglo-Catholic churches, including Westminster Abbey and Wakefield Cathedral as well as parishes, and occasionally in Catholic churches. They were very much associated with the ideas of writers such as Percy Dearmer. He has, however, been seen as codifying far too rigidly the varying practices of medieval England as a kind of English exceptionalism. My doubts about such a <i>schema</i> derive from not, as I recall, ever seeing such vestments listed in the inventories from the plunder of the Henrician and Edwardian period of the 1540s abd early 1550s. Maybe I, or someone, out to look in a more detailed way at these accounts of robbery so carefully transcribed and published by past generations of antiquarian researchers.</div><div><br></div><div>The claims for Sarum Lenten array are set out in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://sarumuse.org/2012/02/10/lenten-array/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lenten Array</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and by my Oxford acquaintance Fr Lawrence Lew OP on the </span><u style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">New Liturgical Movement</u><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> at </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2007/03/lenten-array-in-sarum-use.html?m=1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lenten Array in the Sarum Use</a></font></div><div><br></div><div>If the useage of Lyons was copied by the centralised diocese and Province of Rouen, that is the Duchy of Normandy, then Norman clergy coming, as we know so many did, after 1066 to England may well have introduced it or adapted it on this side of the Channel. Ironically then the exceptionalism of Sarum may in fact derive from Rouen, and that in turn from Lyons.</div><div><br></div><div> </div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-36351681130680433122024-02-13T13:05:00.000+00:002024-02-13T13:05:54.816+00:00Lenten Fasting<div><br></div><div>As we are about to begin Lent we have, hopefully, thought about our observance and discipline for the coming weeks and we have doubtless make those choices as to what “to give up for Lent.”</div><div><br></div><div>I am now of an age when I am no longer required by the Church to fast or abstain, but I do nevertheless seek to observe a tolerably rigorous discipline. The problem is that having made my mental list of what to give up in terms of food and drink I realise that I am, in fact, ‘giving up’ things that I rarely consume …. Which is not, however, to say that my grocery shopping will not have to be adjusted to accommodate the temporary regime. Nor must one forget what one can still eat and drink on Saturday evenings after Vespers and on Sundays, as being a day exempt from the fast, or any major feasts or solemnities that occur ….</div><div><br></div><div>By contrast life in the past was much more strict, and also much more structured, as it still is for the Orthodox. It was not a case of what I am going to give up, but rather, what am I permitted to eat today?</div><div><br></div><div>Changing dietary habits also affect these matters. Fasting on one main meal and two small snacks might have been for many, if not all, quite a hardship a century ago with colder houses, fewer cars and more manual labour, as well as very different working patterns. Today eating more than one main meal and two light snacks any day is liable to bring down upon one the wrath of the healthy eating lobby. Cutting out meat is less challenging when vegetarian and vegan ideas hold so much sway.</div><div><br></div><div>Indeed the age dispensation at 60 is in modern conditions of rising life expectancy and better health probably in need of an increase like the pensionable age - “70 is the new 60” and such like.</div><div><br></div><div>G.K.Chesterton<span style="text-indent: -30px; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> - and that is someone who could have fasted with profit to both his girth and his health no doubt - famously opined </span></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.</i></div><div> </div><div>Maybe that can be varied to</div><div><br></div><div><i>The Christian ideal of fasting has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.</i></div><div><br></div><div>My thoughts on these ideas, with various online links, from 2016 can be read at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2016/02/traditional-rule-of-fasting-and.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Traditional Rule of Fasting and Abstinence</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>My reflections from two years ago, again including various links to relevant websites, also seem worth sharing again and can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2022/03/fasting-and-abstinence-in-lent.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fasting and Abstinence in Lent</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>I have posted in past years about exemptions to fasting being purchased by the late medieval population of the archdioceses of Rouen and Bourges and the diversion of funds to spectacular building projects in those two great cathedrals. These and related themes are set out in 2015 in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-tour-de-beurre.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Tour de Beurre</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and in 2021 in </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2021/03/medieval-lenten-and-easter-cookery.html" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Medieval Lenten and Easter cookery</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>Despite citing these medieval precedents it <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">is I think fair to say that Lent is a discipline which has been hollowed out both officially by the Church and unofficially by the congregation certainly over time, but most notably in the last sixty to seventy years. We seem very far removed from Evelyn Waugh going to stay with Ian Fleming in the 1950s and arriving with a set of scales to weigh his reduced portions for Lent.</span></div><div><br></div><div>This is not therefore to say we should ignore fasting and abstinence - far from it. We need to rediscover its history and intention.</div><div><br></div><div>Peter Kwasniewski recently had an article on the <u>New Liturgical Movement</u> website about the discipline and history of fasting in the life of the Church, and especially in respect of Lenten observance. As with all his articles it is well researched and worth reading. It can be seen at <font face="sans-serif" size="3"></font><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2024/02/in-approach-to-lent-fasting-matters.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the Approach to Lent: Fasting Matters</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>A Holy, happy, spiritually reinvigorating and abstemious Lenten Fast to all my readers.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-77554239201348528132024-02-13T10:30:00.000+00:002024-02-13T10:30:19.180+00:00Shrove Tuesday fun and games<div><br></div><div>There still survive - happily - a number of customs associated with Shrove Tuesday that are part of an older ritual year in which the local community actively participated. These events are linked to the liturgical calendar yet are by no means a well conducted religious procession and prayers, but much more an opportunity for the parishioners to ‘let off stream’ before the rigours of Lent. These events were a collective - dare I say ‘Integralist’ - celebration and in that sense did, of course, celebrate community, but without the artificiality of so many modern attempts to “celebrate community” - still worse to “empower” it ….</div><div><br></div><div>Last year I wrote about such traditional events in <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-olney-pancake-race.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Olney Pancake Race</a> </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and in </span><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-shrove-tuesday-atherstone-ball-game.html" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Shrove Tuesday Atherstone Ball Game</a>, </font><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">which includes other such games which are held at Ashbourne, Alnwick and Corfe. It is suggestive that these four examples which survive are scattered across the realm from north Northumberland to Purbeck in Dorset, which may well suggest such boisterous games, as with the Haxey Hood at Epiphany, were once much more common. There are similar events on the continent, pointing to a shared European folk tradition. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881811987987045711.post-45525731822971190662024-02-11T19:36:00.003+00:002024-02-11T19:36:44.834+00:00A medieval gold talisman brooch from Norfolk<div><br></div><div>The <u>BBC News</u> website has an article about a thirteenth or fourteenth century gold brooch which was found by a detectorist in 2022 at the village of Cawston in north Norfolk. The village is described on <u>Wikipedia</u> at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cawston,_Norfolk?wprov=sfti1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cawston, Norfolk</a></font></div><div><br></div>
<div>The annular brooch has a pair of hands clasped in prayer hanging from a<span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> ring inscribed with letters in with some esoteric or caballistic meaning that is now, unfortunately, lost to us. Such magical formulae were popular and often mixed the mainstream of devotion with more parareligious concepts.</span></div><div><br></div><div>It seems a pity that no local museum wished to acquire such an intriguing and charming piece for its collection.</div><div><br></div><div>The illustrated report about the find and speculation about its cultural context can be seen at <font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68206434.amp" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'Magical' medieval gold brooch found by detectorist</a></font></div>
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<div><br></div>Once I Was A Clever Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01367322665145704342noreply@blogger.com3