Once I Was A Clever Boy

Père Grou - a prophetic voice

2012-01-27T09:15:00.003Z

Fr Jerome's address to the Oratory Brothers on Tuesday evening was based on a reading from Père Grou's 1786 La Morale tirée des Confessions de Saint Augustin.

In the book Jean Nicholas Grou (1731-1803) the Jesuit director and spiritual guide sought to use Augustine's understanding of morality to answer the problems of his own day and the consequences of the "Enlightenment" and the world of the Philosophes, Voltaire and Rousseau and their followers. In it Père Grou addressed the eighteenth century misuse of 'philosophy', notably in respect of family life and marriage, the pursuit of personal interests at all costs and a view which saw the role of government as being to secure whatever made one happy, with no wider sense of obligation. Frankly it all sounded quite horribly modern and contemporary to my ears. Within only a few years the whirlwind began to be reaped, and his comments anticipated and are reminiscent of Burke's reaction to events in France.

Père Grou himself came to England and became the chaplain to the Weld family at Lulworth Castle on the Dorset coast, published books in England and died at Lulworth in 1803.

His Spiritual Maxims from 1788 can be read online in this Catholic Treasury version here.

He is a writer of whom hitherto I knew the name rather than the works, but I think he is someone I ought to read - if I can ever find the time.

St Eystein

2012-01-26T14:50:00.004Z

Continuing the Scandinavian theme today is the feast of, amongst others, St Eystein of Nidaros (d. 1188). Eystein (also spelled Øystein; latinized as Augustinus) Erlendsson, was a member of a well connected noble family in Norway, and was perhaps educated in Paris and had been chaplain and steward to King Inge Krokrygg before the latter appointed him Archbishop of Nidaros (today's Trondheim) in 1158 or 1159, an action confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1161 when Eystein was in Rome. Eystein promoted the adoption of canonical life by Norwegian parish priests, officiated at Norway's first royal coronation (that of Magnus Erlingsson, a minor), and fostered the cult of King St. Olaf (buried in Eystein's cathedral), whose liturgical Office he wrote and whose Miracula he expanded. During the years 1181-83, when King Magnus had been dislodged from his throne in a civil war, Eystein was an exile in England. Trondheim has remained the site for Norwegian coronations and inaugurations, and the items of the regalia are preserved there.

Miracles were reported early at Eystein's tomb and he was proclaimed a saint at a Norwegian synod in 1229. Attempts in the Middle Ages to have him canonized papally were unsuccessful. Eystein entered the Roman Martyrology in 2001 with the designation of Sanctus. The present seminary in Oslo is under his patronage

Apart from the Passio sancti Olavi (BHL 6233, 6323; part of Olav's Office), Eystein's chief monument today consists of the chapter house and the lower portions of the transepts of the since much added to and rebuilt Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.

The porch of the north transept of Trondheim cathedral.
A view from 1885

Image: Wikimedia

This view of the cathedral from 1857 shows the north transept and, next to the choir, the chapter house (the latter with a neo-romanesque apse added in the nineteenth century) :

Image: John Dillon

The subsequent restoration and rebuilding work has transformed the building as can be seen in these illustrated online articles about Trondheim cathedral here and here and one about the west front can be seen here.

In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a late fourteenth-century walrus ivory crozier head with traces of gilding which is of Norwegian origin and portrays King St. Olaf on one side and, on the other a bishop whom the V&A cautiously says "probably represents St Augustine" without further indicating whether the Augustine in question were he of Hippo or he of Nidaros. In view of his promotion of St Olaf's cult, Augustine / Eystein of Nidaros would be a good guess:

St Augustine/Eystein

St Olav

Images :Victoria and Albert Museum website

Quite apart from its indication of the cult of St Olav and St Eystein this crozier is also a reminder of the elegant sophistication of late medieval Norwegian art.

Adapted from John Dillon's post for today on the Medieval Religion discussion group

Decapitating Vikings in Dorset

2012-01-26T10:30:00.009Z

Yesterday's Daily Telegraph had an article about the discovery at Ridgeway Hill near Weymouth in 2009 of the remains of 51 young men who had been beheaded in a massacre dated to the tenth or eleventh century. Analysis of the bones indicated taht they were of Scandinavian origin, and the killing had been an organised event, with the severed heads piled up to one side.

There is an online account about the discovery here, and another report, with photographs, by the BBC from the time of the excavations can be seen here.

The latest suggestion according to the Daily Telegraph report is that they were victims of the 1002 St Brice's Day Massacre ordred by King Ethelred II and were perhaps Viking mercenaries. The fact that they had been decapitated from the front suggests that they may have been Jomsvikings - a group who prided themselves on showing bravery in the face of death. There is a reference from Queen Emma, Ethelred's wife, to a Jomsviking leader of a group in England at this time.

Last November I posted about the St Brice's Day massacre in Oxford and the recent discovery of the remains of some of the victims. The post can be read here.

St Paul - an early portrait

2012-01-25T18:58:00.005Z

Today being the feast of the Conversion of St Paul it seems appropriate to post a photograph of a painting identified as being of him which was uncovered by Vatican archaeologists in June 2010. It is in the catacomb of St Thecla in Rome and is dated to the late fourth century, and conforms to the easly descriptions of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Whilst it is not a portrait from life it does indicate both a consistant tradition of how St Paul should be presented in art, and it is alo a reminder of the quality of work being produced in the early centuries of the Church's history.

Image: La Repubblica.it

The story of St Thecla and her association with St Paul, together with some links, is recounted in this online account.

In the Heart of Things

2012-01-25T15:54:00.002Z

My friend Graham Lunn, now an Anglican curate in Reading, has sent me this about this recording:

Commotio's new CD is to be released next week. According to Gramophone "this is a powerful disc of important music", so do help us to climb our way up the charts by ordering your copy this week using these links http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/search.php?searchString=commotio+in+the+heart

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-Things-Choral-Music-Francis/dp/B006O51D10/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1327393381&sr=1-1

or by looking in HMV, Blackwell's or other music shops from Monday.

We had a great time recording this amazing music back in July, and are very pleased with the finished product, which has already had a bit of an airing on Radio 3 and (as previously hinted) a stonking review in Gramophone. If that isn't enough encouragement, it's worth having a listen just to hear the lovely sound of Grace Davidson.

Our last disc got to number two in the Specialist Classical Chart (second only to Andre Rieu and friends), and was a bestseller on Amazon and iTunes. Let's see how much better we can do this time!

Launch concert: St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, 4th February at 7.30pm. Free entry, retiring collection, music from all four CDs, and canapes made by the choir. What's not to like?

"an important new release of a cappella music... soprano Grace Davidson floats effortlessly above Oxford-based chamber choir Commotio, adding her seraphic poise to their perfect intonation... this is a powerful disc of important music"
(Gramophone)

Obit of Bishop Richard Fleming

2012-01-25T09:32:00.000Z

Today is the obit of Bishop Richard Fleming - he died on January 25th 1431 at about two hours after noon aged about 45 and had apparently suffered an apoplectic stroke - and as he is the subject of my research, and indeed who gave the title to this blog, someone to whom I feel a close attachment.

Here are two pictures of his tomb in the Angel choir of Lincoln cathedral:

The tomb and its canopy

Image: knowledgerush.com

The tomb chest enclosing the cadaver effigy

Image: lincolnshireguide.net

As I wrote last year on this anniversary day one thing I believe I have established in my research is that the tomb as it now appears is not quite how it was designed, and that it has been altered in well-intentioned but inaccurate restoration as well as losing the top finials of the canopy.

Please join with me in praying for the repose of the soul of Bishop Fleming and perhaps also spare a thought for me that I can successfully complete my research into his life.

Rites along the Neocatechumenal Way

2012-01-24T14:47:00.006Z

The Vatican's approval of all the additional liturgical forms used by the Neocatechumenal Way on January 20th has caused quite an outpouring in the blogosphere.

I would merely point those interested to this background article by the respected Vatican watcher Sandro Magister in his column "'Placet' or 'Non placet?' The wager of Carmen and Kiko" and to two linked articles on the excellent Rorate Caeli blog: Neocatechumenal Rite approved? Let's call it the New Liturgical Way and From his own mouth: how the founder of the Neocatechumenal Way interpreted the January 20 "approval"

I have only once encountered the Neocatechumenate. That was a few years ago when I attended a friend's wedding at St Charles Borromeo Ogle Street in London. As a wedding it was a very happy and joyful occasion, but, as the bridegroom himself said to two of us who are frequenters of the Oxford and London Oratories it was probably not the sort of worship we had experienced before. That was true. My liturgical tastes lie elsewhere. The bride and groom, and most ot the congregation (but not me and a few others) dancing a two-step round the altar at the end of the Nuptial Mass was, well, different.

However one could not but be struck by the sense of commitment and enthusiasm by the regular members of the community to the liturgy as it was celebrated. Such factors have, I am sure, influenced the officials in the Vatican in their decision - I suspect they consider it better to have the movement within the framework of the Church, with the hope - maybe faint - of keeping it online or in line, rather than unregulated.

The Pope has compared the New Movements and their relationship to the Papacy as like that of the early mendicants and the Popes in the early thirteenth century. The historian in me sees these movements as more Franciscan than Dominican in their ethos - so perhaps we had better watch out for new "Spirituals " and "Fraticelli", or another Fra Dolfino...

We have, no doubt, not heard the last on this matter.

St Nicholas Owen

2012-01-23T10:35:00.003Z

Today is, in this archdiocese, the feast day of St Nicholas Owen. This is a slightly revised version of a post I wrote last year.

A modern statue of St Nicholas Owen

Image: Church of St Nicholas Owen Little Thornton website

St Nicholas was the Jesuit laybrother who used his remarkable skills as a carpenter and stonemason to construct numerous ingenious priest holes to safeguard mission priests in the late sixteenth century. He was born in Oxford c.1550 in a house on the junction of what is now Queen Street and St Ebbe's Street, and his whole family were of Catholic and recusant sympathies. He died as a result of torture in the Tower of London on March 2nd 1606, having been apprehended in the follow-up to the Gunpowder Plot. His refusal to the point of death to disclose the names of priests and their hiding places safeguarded the Catholic mission at this critical time

The recent Oxford DNB life of him by Michael Hodgetts can be read here. There is also an online biography of St Nicholas, who was canonized in 1970 here, and there are some linked articles here about his life and about his capture and death.

The Royal Gold Cup

2012-01-21T10:53:00.003Z

As today is the feast of St Agnes it seems not inappropriate to draw attention to the Royal Gold Cup, which is now in the British Museum. The Cup is decorated with enamelled scenes which narrate the story of St Agnes. The cup is a rare and spectacular survival of late medieval French goldsmiths' work, and is of the highest quality. A detailed account of the cup, its dating and history as well as of its decoration can be read here.

The Royal Gold Cup

Image: Wikipedia

Given the fate of so much historic plate from this period its survival is little short of miraculous, not least given its travels from France to England in the Hundred Years War, to Spain in the seventeenth century and then back in the nineteenth century to England.

Not only is it beautiful in itself and for its craftsmanship, but it demonstrates the fusion of sacred images with secular uses in the court culture of the late fourteenth century.

If you have not already seen the Cup, next time you are in the British Museum go along to the medieval gallery and see it for yourself

" Son of St Louis ascend to Heaven"

2012-01-21T09:41:00.008Z

Whether he had said "Son of St Louis ascend to Heaven" to King Louis XVI on the scaffold was something the Abbé Edgeworth could not recall afterwards such was his own fraught state, but it is one of those things which if it was not said ought to have been.

The phrase links the King to his illustrious and sainted ancestor and to the whole tradition of French sacral kingship which was being killed in the person of King Louis XVI on this day in 1793. Both in destroying the traditional institutions of governance and in destroying the man who was King the revolutionaries perpetrated a great act of injustice not only to a decent man who had sought to fulfill his obligations as monarch in an ever more difficult situation surrounded by mounting horrors - and therein lies his and his family's martyrdom - but also to the whole of the French people by depriving them of their corporate inheritance and means of self definition.

The farewell of King Louis XVI to his family in the Temple on the evening of January 20 1793

Image:catherine delours.blog

Whatever the need for genuine reform and renewal within the French system the onslaught on Throne and Altar, the deliberate seeking of the destruction of all that had been handed down - even to the ridiculous calendric reforms - went infinitely beyond what was required into a world of barbarism, insanity, and only partially rescued by a parvenu military dictatorship under the Corsican ogre. Bernard Fay concluded his biography of the King by saying that France has been morning ever since the moment the guillotine cut off his head. A powerful image which has remained with me. Once out of its bottle the genie of revolt and revolution and their vapid and spurious ideals has, alas, remained within the French political process - hence all the disorders since 1830 when the restored monarchy was overthrown.

To see this in action just observe the antics we shall find ourselves watching in the forthcoming "French Presidential Election." Admit it, you know I'm right.

My posts from last year can be read at King Louis XVI and The Orders worn by King Louis XVI.

I also commend to you this Prayer for the King of France.

John Hunwicke preaching in Latin

2012-01-20T20:19:00.004Z

The official language of the University of Oxford is still Latin, and each January there is a Latin Sermon preached before the University in the Church of St Mary the Virgin - Newman's church from 1828 until 1843.

Last Sunday the preacher was John Hunwicke, a former Anglican priest and member of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and for many years a teacher of Classics at Lancing College. He is not unknown to many readers of this blog I suspect. For those who have not seen it his sermon, complete with a translation, can be read by following this link: Legite plura...

With acknowledgements to the website of Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

The Order of the Elephant

2012-01-20T11:26:00.007Z

My posts The Queen of Denmark and Danish Jubilee celebrations about the fortieth anniversary of the accession of Queen Margrethe II prompts me to post something about the oldest of the Orders of the Danish Crown - the Order of the Elephant.

Believed to have been initially founded around 1462 the Order of the Elephant was to be the Danish version of the two most famous pre-existing European Orders, the Garter (1348) and the Golden Fleece (1430), and can be seen as part of that process which led to the creation of royal chivalric Orders across the continent in the late middle ages - examples include those of the Annunciation in Savoy, the Dragon in Hungary, the Star and later that of St Michael in France, and, probably, the Thistle in Scotland.

Why the Elephant? Elephants were no more common in fifteenth century Denmark than they are now. The probable reason why the elephant was chosen to symbolize the Order was that the battle elephant was used as a symbol of the champion of Christianity, roused by the sight of Christ's blood. In addition the elephant was the symbol of chastity and purity. Medieval typology found several symbolic links between Christ and the elephant, and it is significant that the central medallion of the star of the Order bears the cross as its device. In the 1470s King Christian I had the Order confirmed by the Pope.

However with the advent of the Lutheran reform to Denmark it fell into semi-disuse, as indicated in this online article about the Order. However the Order does appear to have continued to be bestowed, as in the pictures below, and appears on coin portraits of the Kings, so the revival of 1693 appears to be a revival of an existing Order rather than the revival of an entirely dormant one.

King Christian IV (1577-1648), King of Denmark and Norway wearing the Order

Christen Thomesen Sehested,
A painting of the 1600s, before the re-establishment of the Order in 1693

artist unknown

The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe
Another example of the Order from before 1693

Wolfgang Heimbach:
Christian Rantzau (1614-1663)

Images: A Polar Bears Tale blog

The statutes establishing it as it is today were laid down by King Christian V on 1 December 1693. The King's new system of orders of chivalry was a means to create a new structure of social rank in Denmark. With the introduction of absolutism in 1660, the old nobility had been stripped of its privileges, but the nobility was still a factor of political and economic importance. To break its power, the King sought to create a new elite of burgesses and foreigners who could be useful to the King. Alongside the Elephant was the Order of Dannebrog founded by the King in 1671.

As with the Garter, Thistle and Patrick in the United Kingdom, or Orders such as the Golden Fleece and the Holy Ghost the Order consists of only one class, that of Knight. The riband is pale blue and, like the Garter and the Thistle, is worn over the left shoulder - most Orders have the riband over the right shoulder.

Since 1693 there has been the Chapel of Orders in Fredriksborg Palace, where the arms of recipients of the Danish royal orders are displayed on the walls. The chapel witnessed eight coronations between 1671 and 1840.

Today, the Order of the Elephant is awarded according to the statutes worked out under King Christian V in 1693. The statutes were amended by King Frederick IX on 9 April 1958 by a Royal Ordinance, so that both men and women may be awarded the Order.

This Elefantorden - Order of the Elephant -
belonged to the Danish King Christian V (1646-1699)
This badge was made in 1670 by Paul Kurtz, and
the King had the castle on the elephant's back turned
into a whistle...he used it while hunting north of
Copenhagen in Dyrehaven.

King Christian V in the robes of the Order.
These are very similar in design to the contemporary robes of the Order of the Garter and the French Royal orders. The red mantle with white lining uses the national colours of Denmark

The statutes of The Order of the Elephant December 1st 1693

Images: A Polar Bears Tale blog

Collar and badge at Rosenborg Castle

The star of the Order

Images:dkks.dk

Danish Jubilee celebrations

2012-01-19T12:36:00.005Z

A friend has sent me the link to an illustrated article in the Daily Mail about a gala dinner for the extended and interconnected Scandinavian royal houses to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Queen of Denmark's reign. The style is perhaps rather typical of the paper, and the comments, as usual, fairly ( or completely) barking, but the photographs very splendid. The article can be viewed here.

St Wulfstan in stained glass

2012-01-19T10:40:00.004Z

Today is the feast of St Wulfstan (or Wulstan), Bishop of Worcester, who died in 1095 and was the last surviving Anglo-Saxon bishop from the pre-Conquest hierarchy. My post about him from last year can be read at St Wulfstan of Worcester.

This year I am posting this photograph of a window in the north clerestory of Great Malvern priory, which is a late medieval depiction of one of the patrons of the diocese. Although it is not in any way contemporary to St Wulfstan's lifetime, it does indicate both late medieval devotion to him and is a handsome example of the glazier's art - the face and head definitely suggest a monastic:

Image: Gordon Plumb on Flickr

The Chair of St Peter at Rome - some reflections

2012-01-18T09:53:00.001Z

As this year we shall lose the feast of the Chair of Peter as it fall on the same day, February 22 as Ash Wednesday it seems appropriate to say something about it on the day which was for long observed as that of the Chair of Peter at Rome, as opposed to that of the Chair of Peter at Antioch, celebrated on February 22 under that title until the changes resulting in the Novus Ordo effectively combined both celebrations.

Bernini's Cathedra Petri of 1647-53

Image:Wikipedia

There is an online history of the observance and the physical relic and reliquary here. The original date appears to be February 22, and that was the day observed as a feast in Rome until the post Tridentine reforms of the calendar. Some places celebrated it as a feast on January 18th to avoid losing the observance with it often falling in Lent, and from this arose the idea of commemorating both of St Peter's cathedra - Rome in January, Antioch on the original feast day.

My two posts from February last year on the subject can be read at Chair of St Peter and More on the Chair of St Peter.

The feast is, of course more about the continuing Petrine ministry of the Papacy than about a tangible relic or past event, and that point gives me the opportunity to post one of my favourite quotations from an historian. It comes from Walter Ullmann's introduction to his A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages, first published in 1972 and still available in new editions, and, having made his essential point that the history of the Papacy is the history of an idea - the Petrine claim - this is what he then says...

the papacy is the only institution in the European or Western orbit of civilization which links the post-Apostolic with the Atomic age

Ullmann continues:

as an institution it has witnessed the birth, growth, prosperity, decay and disappearance of powerful empires, nations and even of whole civilizations; it has witnessed radical transformations in the cosmological field evidenced by bloody revolutions, intercontinental wars and popular upheavels of such magnitudes and dimensions that wholly novel political and social structures appeared in their train.

I think that the first phrase I have quoted, which I first read in 1994, and has stayed with me ever since, was working away at the back of my mind and was a contributory factor to my conversion.

King Harald V of Norway

2012-01-17T15:56:00.003Z

Today being the twenty-first anniversary of the accession of the King of Norway I am republishing my post about him and the Norwegian regalia which I wrote on this day last year. It can be read at The King of Norway.

In doing so may I renew my prayers and good wishes for the King and people of Norway, and especially for my Norwegian friends.

St Antony of Egypt

2012-01-17T15:43:00.005Z

On the principle of "waste not, want not", or, being modern, re-cycling, or better still, that if something is worth saying once it is worth saying twice, here is the link to my post from this day last year about St Antony of Egypt the father of monasticism.

Looking again at the text from his Life it is interesting to see how St Athanasius describes Antony placing his sister in a convent. Is this a translator's choice or does it indicate enclosed religious life for women by circa 270? Again what I find so interesting is the account's description of parish life in Egypt at that time - something that was already established and was to continue for so many centuries there and across Christendom.

Pictures and sermon from the Ordinariate Anniversary Evensong

2012-01-17T14:14:00.007Z

The Ordinariate website now has links to pictures of the service of Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St James Spanish Place in London last Sunday at Images on Flickr . There is also the text of Mgr Newton's Sermon.

Image: Ordinariate website

Ordinariate Evensong

2012-01-16T09:54:00.006Z

After Mass and lunch in Oxford yesterday I went up to London to attend the Ordinariate's Solemn Evensong and Benediction to mark the first anniversary of their erection as part of the Church. This proved to be a splendid and striking event, and which proved to be very well attended.

Now let us be clear - St James Spanish Place where the service was held is, as one might say, a seriously tasty church - fine gothic revival architecture, splendid furnishings and all those Spanish royal connections. It is the sort of church that reaches parts other churches don't. So we were off to a good start with such a location.

The interior of St James Spanish Place

Image: Paul Lew on Flickr

Furthermore this was a great reunion with many friends - long standing fellow converts from Pusey, more recently acquired Oxford Ordinariate friends, cradle Catholic friends, and some faces from years ago, plus new friends. In other words, the usual suspects were there. I was hailed in the street as I walked to the church by one freind, and on the steps of the church beforehand and afterwards there was a buzz of greetings, enquires as to what one another was doing and swapping of information and banter.

The officiant was the Ordinary and amongst those sitting in choir was Bishop Peter Elliott, the Australian bishop responsible for the setting up of an Ordinariate there, and the new US Ordinariate was commended to our prayers.

The grandeur of the setting was matched by the music - Howells, Parry - "I was glad"always makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise - and Stanford - and its performance. In the music and the staging of the liturgy one saw what I consider the essence of "patrimony" - a way of doing liturgy and worship rather than specific forms. As I have written before I really do prefer traditional Vespers to Anglican Evensong, but the similarity was close.

After a sermon from Mgr. Newton which quoted Bl.John Henry Newman writing in 1848 to the father of the future Cardinal Bourne, as in the Apologia, of his spiritual relief at finding himself secure within the Catholic Church and applied it to the members of the Ordinariate, and their gratitude for all that has been achieved there was a procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. Escorting the Sacrament as canopy bearers and supporters were Knights of Malta - those in Solemn Profession, those in Simple Profession and Knights of Grace - an impressive display of support for the Ordinariate.

In addition to those in the church I had a strong sense that we were joined in communion with those who rejoiced upon a different shore at what has been achieved and is being achieved through the Ordinariate.

Whatever the size of the individual groups as they start out on their pilgrimage of faith, here, gathered together was positive evidence of personal commitment and the support of many others within the Catholic Church.

The reception afterwards packed out the undercroft of the church in the best ecclesiastical tradition - and after a few minutes there I went off with friends to the Angel in the Fields, a hostelry close to the church which provided us with excellent Tadcaster beer to sustain and enliven our conversation.

All round a jolly good evening and very well worth the effort to go up to London.

Photographs of the service were being taken and will doubtless appear on the web.

More on Onychomancy

2012-01-14T18:35:00.003Z

Dr Otfried Lieberknecht has posted on the Medieval Religion discussion group some more about medieval divination which readers may find interesting following on from my post Onychomancy:

For those who, like myself, had not yet been familiar with this practice: Onychomancy is a variant or subtype of "Scrying", i.e. of divination by means of a mirror (catoptromancy) or other object with a reflecting surface. Attested in ancient times by Pausanias (VII, xxi, 12) for an oracle in Patrai where the mirror was immersed into the water of a sacred fountain and supposed to reveal whether a sick person would convalesce or die. A boy used as a diviner or medium subject for catoptromancy (as in Reynes' description) is mentioned in the Historia Augusta (Aelius Spartianus, IX, vii, 10) as one of the "madnesses"(amentia) of Didius Julianus: the boy's eyes were blindfolded and charms were spoken upon his head before he had to look into the mirror ("et ea, quae ad speculum ducunt fieri, in quo pueri praeligatis oculis incantato vertice
respicere dicuntur, Iulianus fecit").

John of Salisbury (late 1110s-1180) himself in his childhood was used, or, in his opinion, abused in a similar way by a priest who was supposed to teach him the Psalms (i.e. Latin), see his Polycraticus II, 28:

"Dum enim puer ut psalmos addiscerem sacerdoti traditus essem qui forte speculariam magicam exercebat, contigit ut me et paulo grandiusculum puerum praemissis quibusdam maleficiis pro pedibus suis sedentes ad speculariae sacrilegium applicaret, ut in unguibus sacro nescio oleo aut crismate delibutis uel in exterso et leuigato corpore peluis quod quaerebat nostro manifestaretur indicio. Cum itaque praedictis nominibus, quae ipso horrore, licet puerulus essem, daemonum uidebantur, et praemissis adiurationibus, quas Deo auctore nescio, socius meus se nescio quas imagines tenues tamen et nubilosas uidere indicasset, ego quidem ad illud ita caecus extiti ut nichil michi appareret nisi ungues aut peluis et cetera quae antea noueram. Exinde ergo ad huiusmodi inutilis iudicatus sum et, quasi sacrilegia haec impedirem, ne ad talia accederem condemnatus, et quotiens rem hanc exercere decreuerant, ego quasi totius diuinationis impedimentum arcebar. Sic michi in ea aetate propitiatus est Dominus. Cum uero paululum processissem, flagitium hoc magis et magis exhorrui, et eo fortius confirmatus est horror meus quod, cum multos tunc nouerim, omnes antequam deficerent aut defectu naturae aut manu hostili beneficio luminis orbatos uidi, ut cetera incommoda taceam quibus in conspectu meo a Domino aut prostrati aut perturbati sunt, exceptis duobus, sacerdote uidelicet quem praemisi et diacono quodam, qui speculariorum uidentes plagam effugerunt, alter ad sinum canonicae, alter ad portum cellulae Cluniacensis, sacris uestibus insigniti. Eosdem tamen prae ceteris in congregationibus suis aduersa plurima postmodum perpessos esse misertus sum."

"During my boyhood I was placed under the direction of a priest, to teach me psalms. As he practiced the art of crystal gazing, it chanced that he after preliminary magical rites made use of me and a boy somewhat older, as we sat at his feet, for his sacrilegious art, in order that what he was seeking by means of finger nails moistened with some sort of sacred oil or crism, or of the smooth polished surface of a basin, might be made manifest to him by information imparted by us. And so after pronouncing names which by the horror they inspired seemed to me, child though I was, to belong to demons, and after administering oaths of which, at God's instance, I know nothing, my companion asserted that he saw certain misty figures, but dimly, while I was so blind to all this that nothing appeared to me except the nails or basin and the other objects I had seen there before. As a consequence I was adjudged useless for such purposes, and, as though I impeded the sacrilegious practices, I was condemned to have nothing to do with such things, and as often as they decided to practice their art I was banished as if an obstacle to the whole procedure. So propitious was God to me even at that early age. But as I grew older more and more did I abominate this wickedness, and my horror of it was strengthened because, though at the time I made the acquaintance of many practitioners of the art, all of them before they died were, either as the result of physical defect or by the hand of God, not to mention other miseries with which in my plain view they were afflicted. There were two exceptions - the priest whom I have mentioned and a certain deacon; for they, seeing the affliction of the crystal gazers, fled (the one to the bosom of the collegiate church - the other to the refuge of the monastery of Cluny) and adopted holy garb. None the less I am sorry to say that even they, in comparison to others in their congregations, suffered many afflictions afterward." (tr. by J. B. Pike, Frivolities of courtiers, 1938,p.147)

A child, boy or girl, was required because the incorrupt (virgin) flesh of a child was supposed to have stronger spritiual insights, as Gervasius of Tilbury states ("caro enim incorrupta magis spiritualiter habet intuitus, unde asserunt nigromantici in experimentis gladii, vel speculi, vel unguis solos oculos virgineos praevalere", Otia Imperialia I, 17).

Petrus Garsias (García), who wrote is Determinationes magistrales against Pico della Mirandola by the end of the 15th century, reports and discusses a more or less developed framework of Platonic theory which seems to have served for explaining the the way how scryning works:

"The first manner is by gazing at luminous bodies and instruments. The principle here is that the acies of the human mind in one who gazes on such instruments reflects back upon itself, for the luminosity of the instrument prevents direction or concentration of the mind on exterior things, and repels it, and turns it back upon itself, so that it is forced to gaze upon itself. Thus, according to the philosophy of Plato, if it is purged and cleansed of defilements, which come from the body and cling to the soul, they see as in a clear and clean mirror, and when they inquire about all hidden things, or some portion of them, or some particular hidden thing, it is no surprise that the
soul, turned back into itself, should see such hidden things, for according to Plato the human soul is created fully inscribed with the forms of all knowable things, in respect of its intellectual power..." (quoted from Richard Kieckhefer, Forbidden rites, 1998, p.99)

I am not suggesting anyone takes up scrying or onychmancy - not something to practise (or practice) at home - but it is an interesting insight into the medieval mindset.

Of your charity

2012-01-14T16:17:00.002Z

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Pauline Margaret Watts, whose funeral was yesterday, and for her son and daughter in their bereavement.

Please pray also for the repose of the soul of Arthur Roland (Roly) Griffiths who died yesterday evening, and for his widow and sons at this time.

Please pray for Carl (C.J.) Buckley who is seriously ill in hospital in Liverpool, and undergoing extensive continuing treatment.

Standish church

2012-01-14T15:58:00.005Z

Christipher Howse's article in todays' Daily Telegraph is about the church of St Wilfrid at Standish in Lancashire. This is a place I have never visited, but just from reading the piece the church sounds very interesting with its unusual sixteenth century architecture from an Elizabethan rebuilding and with its recusant connections - including the only contemporary public monument to a Vicar Apostolic, that of Bishop Edward Dicconson. Definitely a place to visit if one is on a Lancashire church crawl.

Standish Church

Image:jennyberrypix.blogspot

The article from the Daily Telegraph can be read here.

Secularism and Society in Sweden

2012-01-14T15:16:00.000Z

A third Scandinavian country, Sweden, and its contemporary "liberal" culture is considered in an article on Zenit Secularism in Sweden. This looks at the way in which the country has accepted a totally permissive sexual ethos, and the consequences of that. What is described is a worrying indicator of where some people would take the rest of Europe and the world given half a chance.

Oslo ordination

2012-01-14T12:53:00.007Z

Staying with a Scandinavian theme my Norwegian friend Ole Martin Stamnestro has sent me on the internet an extensive album of photographs of his ordination as a Deacon in Oslo cathedral on January 6th. It looks to have been a splendid occasion which I regret I was not able to attend.

Here is one of the pictures he sent, showing Martin standing between the Bishop of Oslo and, I assume, his assistant bishop.

The Queen of Denmark

2012-01-14T10:20:00.003Z

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

There is an online biography of the Queen here, and her official website can be viewed at Danish Monarchy. To mark her jubilee the Queen gave an interview to the BBC which can be seen here.

The Queen of Denmark

Image:zimbio.com

Queen Margarethe combines grace and style with a forthright approach to her duties as monarch and to life in general, and is both popular and respected by her own subjects and by her admirers overseas.

Long may she reign.

Onychomancy

2012-01-13T18:35:00.005Z

A discussion on the Medieval Religion discussion group led to a posting from John Shinners about divination by fingerrnails onychomancy).

Never heard of it? Well here's your opportunity to find out, and, if you wish to, try it - Child Protection legislation permitting that is...

Robert Reynes' 1470s commonplace book (ed. Cameron Louis, 1980) has this formula for this type of divination by fingernail ... the translation from the Middle English and Latin is by John Shinners:

[29.]
[English] Take a young child--that is, between 7 and 13 years old--and set him in the sun between your legs. And then wrap a red silk thread around his right thumb three times, and scrape his fingernail well and clean. And then write on the nail these letters with olive oil [to make the nail reflective]: O, N, E, L, I; while writing these letters have the child say the Our Father. And then say this prayer: [Latin] "Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, send us three angels on your behalf, who may tell us the truth and nothing false about everything we shall ask them." [English] And say this prayer three times with good heart and devoutly. And then three angels shall appear in the child's nail. And then have the child say this after you, either in Latin or English: [Latin] "Lord Angels, I command you through the Lord Father Almighty who made you and us from nothing, and through the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the blessed John the Evangelist, and through all virgins and the power of all of God's saints, show us the truth and nothing false about everything we shall ask you. [English] And then have the child ask what he wishes and they shall show it to him.

The Baptism of Our Lord

2012-01-13T10:11:00.003Z

The Baptism of Christ
Piero della Francesca

Image: The National Gallery

Prior to 1955 today was celebrated as the Octave Day of the Epiphany, although as my old St Andrew's Missal points out the Gospel reading was that of the Baptism rather than the visit of the Magi, a survival of an earlier observance of the Baptism on this day. The abolition of the Octave of the Epiphany, regrettable as it was and is was balanced to some extent by restoring today as the feast of the Baptism. That can be seen as legitimate restoration and also providing for a greater degree of celebration of this event which marks the beginning of Our Lord's public ministry.

The Missal which came into use in 1962 retains this feast on this day, but the 1969 Missal moves it to the Sunday after Epiphany, or if Epiphany falls on a Sunday, or as now in England and Wales, if the obligation is transferred to the Sunday, the Baptism is observed on the Monday following. I suspect this was so that more people would attend Mass on the day, rather like the argument for transferring the Days of Obligation to the Sunday in recent years. In my opinion that is a wrong attitude to what people should be expected to do, but I understand the application of that argument if you do not challenge, or are not prepared to challenge, the faithful to practice the public observance faith as it should be done.

In terms of the calendar and the structure of the liturgical year I much prefer the 1955 arrangement, although I would also retain an Octave for Epiphany, and thereby give time to celebrate and reflect upon the manifestations of Our Lord's Divinity and mission. By giving the Baptism its own specific feast it improves on the previous practice, whereas the current Novus ordo concertinas the days together.

A related change in 1969 was moving the feast of St Hilary back one day to January 13th, from its traditional date of the 14th. When it fell on that day it was the first saint's day after the end of Epiphany, and hence its use as an indicator for terms such as those at Oxford.

New light on Roman Britain

2012-01-12T20:54:00.000Z

There were interesting reports this week about the first century Roman helmet found at Hallaton in Leicestershire which has now been conserved and reassembled.

There is a background article here on the Hallaton discoveries, and an article about the helmet and the indications it gives as to contacts between the Romans and the Britons both before and during the time of the Claudian conquest can be read here.

The Hallaton Helmet

Image: BBC

A reconstruction of the Hallaton helmet's original appearance.

Image:msnbmedia4msn.com

Beating my breast

2012-01-12T16:59:00.004Z

On the Zenit post for January 10th their liturgical Fr Edward McNamara of the Regina Apostolorum makes these observations in his answers to liturgical enquiries.

Breast-Beating During the Confiteor

In the wake of our opinion (see Dec. 13) that the new translation of the Confiteor ("I confess") would allow for a triple striking of the breast, several readers pointed out an official reply from the Holy See on this topic which I had overlooked.
As one California reader pointed out: "Not that I like this responsum, but it is the final word that I know of on this. Gerunds, etc., are speculative; this is direct and clear."
The text, published in Notitiae 14 (1978), 534-535, says:
"n. 10. In pronouncing certain formulas as in, e.g., the Confiteor, the Agnus Dei, and the Domine non sum dignus, whether on the part of priests or on the part of the faithful, the gestures accompanying the words are not always performed the same. Some strike their breast with a triple strike when saying the aforementioned formulas, others once. Which practice seems that it should legitimately be retained?
"Resp.
"In this case it will help to remember these things:
"1) Gestures and words often tend to give significance to one another.
"2) In this matter, as in others, the liturgical restoration has pursued truth and simplicity according to the passage of Sacrosanctum Concilium: «The rites should be resplendent in their noble simplicity …» (SC, 34).
"While in the Roman Missal promulgated by the authority of the Council of Trent the words were very frequently also accompanied by minute gestures, the rubrics of the Roman Missal restored by the authority of the Second Vatican Council are noteworthy for their discretion with regard to gestures.
"Having said this:
"a) The words mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa which are found in the Confiteor are introduced in the restored Roman Missal by a rubric of this sort: All likewise … striking their breast, say … (OM, n. 3). In the former Missal, in the same place, the rubric read like this: He strikes his breast three times. It does not seem, therefore, that anyone has to strike his breast three times in pronouncing those words in Latin or in another language, even if mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa is said. It suffices that there be a striking of the breast.
"It is obvious also that only one gesture suffices in those languages in which the words for showing one's fault have been rendered in a more simple manner, as, for example, in English, «I have sinned through my own fault», or in French, «Oui, j'ai vraiment peche».
"b) The discretion of the restored Roman Missal is shown to be noteworthy also in the other texts mentioned, namely the Agnus Dei and the Domine, non sum dignus which by words of penitence and humility in one way or another accompany the breaking of the bread and the invitation to the faithful to receive the Eucharist.
"As it was said in response n. 2 of the Commentary «Notitiae» 1978, p. 301: where the rubrics of the Missal of Paul VI say nothing, it must not therefore be inferred that it is necessary to observe the old rubrics. The restored Missal does not supplement the old one but has replaced it. In reality, the Missal formerly indicated at the Agnus Dei, striking the breast three times, and in pronouncing the triple Domine, non sum dignus, striking the breast … says three times. Since, however, the new Missal says nothing about this (OM 131 and 133), there is no reason to suppose that any gesture should be added to these invocations."

I had already mentioned in my earlier reply that a single striking was a valid interpretation, and this official response confirms this.

At the same time, I think this official pronouncement fails the reality test. More than 33 years have gone by since the response was issued and practically everybody using Latin, Spanish and Italian strike their breasts three times at the Confiteor, no matter what the rubric says or fails to say. I think that the same is going to happen in English now that the triple form is restored, and it would be an exercise in futility on behalf of bishops and priests to attempt to oblige the faithful to do otherwise.

Nor would I consider the attempt a good thing in itself. People will naturally do this, and I believe it makes the sign of striking the breast more meaningful.

The present rubrics are clear about not striking of the breast during the Lamb of God, and the practice is now uncommon. The fact that the Agnus Dei is often sung makes it less natural to strike the breast than in the staccato beat of the Confiteor.

At the same time, there are very good arguments to defend the practice. The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, for example, wrote the following in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy: "During the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), we look upon him who is the Shepherd and for us became the Lamb and as Lamb, bore our iniquities. At this moment it is only right and proper that we should strike our breasts and remind ourselves, even physically, that our iniquities lay on his shoulder, that 'with his stripes we are healed'" (page 207).

Thus far Fr Macnamara.

So it still looks as if I am in good company in retaining, or seeking to retain, this practice in my own prayers at the Agnus Dei in a Novus Ordo Mass (as well, obviously, at the Usus Antiquior) as a worshipper...

Creating Cardinals

2012-01-12T13:13:00.005Z

I was interested to read this piece on Zenit:

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 10, 2012 (Zenit.org).- When those to be made cardinals gather for the consistory on Feb. 18, the ceremony will be different than it has been in recent decades.

The Vatican announced that there will be a number of changes in the rite, which was last modified in the post-Vatican II changes to the liturgy.

Pope Benedict XVI confers the red biretta on Archbishop Dziwisz of Cracow

Image: 30giorni.it

According to the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff the rite will be simpler, in part to avoid the impression that the ceremony of creating cardinals has any kind of sacramental meaning.

Instead of having the consistory and then the following day a Mass celebrated by the Pope in which he consigns a ring to each new cardinal, there will be just one ceremony in which the traditional three elements -- the imposition of the biretta, the consignment of the ring and the assignation of their titular churches -- will take place.

As well, both the collect and the concluding prayer have been modified, returning to the texts used prior to Vatican II: The two prayers speak of the powers the Lord gave to the Church, in particular that of Peter. The Pope also prays directly for himself, that he may carry out his duties well.

Insofar as the Scripture texts used, there will only be a Gospel reading, omitting the first reading. The Gospel text used will be that of Mark 10: 32-45, in which Jesus announces his death and subsequent resurrection to the disciples and also tells them they must not seek to dominate others, but to be servants to all.

The following day the new cardinals will still concelebrate Mass with the Pope.

This appears to be a conservative reform in that it makes the nature of the elevation clear, and the return to the previous Collects is consistent with a return to a traditional understanding of the event and the Papal and cardinalate ministry. This would appear welcome, and very much in the mainstream of the Benedictine reforms.

What would be more welcome still would be a return to the full traditional ceremonial and the full attributes of the dignity of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. So not just the red biretta, first given by Pope Paul II (1464-71) - and hence its earlier form than that of lesser ranking clergy - but also of the more ancient galero, and instead of its use merely in heraldry and on notepaper, but its official reception and use at the proper times.

Not that some Cardinals at least do not acquire the symbols of their rank:

Cardinal Burke - a recent photograph

Image: Renegade Trad blog

In All Hats Are Silly , which has some rather fine illustrations, the author from Renegade Trad makes good points about the haphazard way in which senior figures wear one item and not another. Like the author, if I read him or her aright, I would be a wholehearted favourer of tradional usage - if you are going to do something, do it properly.

Bring back the galero - now!

Legal opinion

2012-01-11T09:43:00.000Z

"Sir, the law is as I say it is, and so it has been laid down even since the law began; and we have several set forms which are held as law, and so held and used for good reason, though we cannot at present remember that reason."

- Sir John Fortescue, C.J. in Year Book. 36 Hen. VI ff 25b-26 (1458-9)

The account of the life of Sir John Fortescue (c.1397-1479), lawyer and writer on constitutional theory, by E.W.Ives in the Oxford DNB can be read here. Sir John is an ancestor of both the martyr Bl. Adrian Fortescue and of Fr Fortescue the liturgist.

The effigy of Sir John Fortescue in St Eadburga's Church, Ebrington Gloucestershire

Image: vitrearum on Flickr

With thanks for the quotation to George Ferzoco of the Medieval Religion discussion group.

Even the dogs

2012-01-10T17:09:00.003Z

Words rather fail me when I see this post Non mittendus canibus from Fr Tim Finigan's blog - and do read the article linked to it from the Toronto Star newspaper to get the full flavour of the parish and diocese - other than to say Woof!, or perhaps grrrrrr....

Showing US Seminarians around Newman's Oxford

2012-01-10T14:51:00.002Z

As I did this time last year I spent this morning giving a tour to a party of seminarians from St Paul's Seminary School of Divinity in St Paul Minnesota. They are visiting England to study in particular the life and thought of Bl. John Henry Newman, and I was again asked to provide a guided tour of places associated with Newman in central Oxford.

We started after the mid-morning Mass at the Oxford Oratory and after an introduction as to life in Oxford in Newman's time I was also able to show them St John's College, with its links to St Edmund Campion, the backhanded compliment to the Oxford Movement that is the Martyrs Memorial of 1841 and the site of the Catherine Wheel inn where the Oxford Martyrs of 1589 were arrested on our way to Trinity.

Trinity College Chapel

Image: panoramio.com

Here I was able to show them the chapel, little changed since Newman made his first communion there as an Anglican in 1817, the hall and, having pointed out the windows of one of the rooms he is known to have occupied, finally we looked at Newman's memorial bust in the grounds.

From Trinity we went past the Sheldonian Theatre, scene of the moves to condemn the Tracts, the Bodleian and the site of Newman's lodgings in 1822 and where he heard of his election to the Oriel Fellowship. At St Mary's, currently starting a major set of repairs and renovations, I was able to talk about the place of that church in the life of Newman and the Oxford Movement, with its mixture of acadmic preaching and pastoral care as well as pointing out the south porch and its controversial design incorporating a statue of the Virgin and Child from the time of Archbishop Laud.

As last year the group was photographed in the shadow of Newman's pulpit, and I then took them across the High Street into Oriel, showing them the chapel, with the various Newman links, and concluding with a visit to what is now known as the Newman Oratory above the entrance, and now with its modern commemorative stained glass window by Vivienne Haig.

The Window in the Newman Oratory

Image: Oriel college website

This afternoon the seminarians are going to visit the College at Littlemore, and, after more lectures in Oxford, will then go to visit Maryvale, Ocsott and the Birmingham Oratory at the beginning of next week.

As with their precedessors last year they were a lively and interested group to show around, with plenty of questions about Oxford and Oxford life for me to answer. It was a great pleasure to meet a class of young men of obviously wide ranging gifts who are preparing to enter the priesthood in the near future. It was also very good to meet up again with Fr Tom who was leading the pilgrimage. Once again they were evidence of a confident and approachable Catholicism in the American mid-west.

Vilifying and celebrating Archbishop Laud

2012-01-10T14:20:00.008Z

The fact that Archbishop Laud, about whom I posted earlier today, was a controversial figure, both in his own times and subsequently, is undoubted. There are two contrasting, but not unreasonable, interpretations, both of which make some good points, which can be read here and here.

The Archbishop was described by Fuller as "low of stature, little in bulk, cheerful in countenance (wherein gravity and quickness were all compounded), of a sharp and piercing eye, clear judgment and (abating the influence of age) firm memory."

The presentation of his readily recognisable image in picture and word expressed the views of others about him.

An engraving by William Marshall is unsympathetic in showing the Archbishop in his later years after his fall from power

Image:npg.org.uk

A hostile cartoon of 1644: The Devil offers a horned Archbishop Laud a cardinal's hat.

Presumably this is to go with his mitre - something in itself which Laud would never have worn.

The figure on the left is presumably an allusion to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, whilst that on the right proffers a biretta, rosary,a cross and surpliceas well as a bag of relics or for a pyx.

The items on the table may be meant to be money or Hosts.

Image:gutenburg.org

Another hostile pamphlet from the time of the Archbishop's execution

scholarsresource.com

The Oxford Movement rediscovers Laud

Image:openlibrary.org

Archbishop William Laud

2012-01-10T09:36:00.001Z

Archbishop Laud by Sir Anthony van Dyke

Image from Mercurius Politicus blog

Archbishop William Laud was judicially murderd by the Long Parliament on January 10th 1645. It is in no way unreasonble to see him as a martyr, although officially the Church of England has never recognised him as such - I do n't think he made it to the rather curious calendar contained in Common Worship in 2000.

He has, of course, always been esteemed by High Anglicans. Whether he can really be classed as an Anglo-Catholic is open to debate. I think he is more what one would term a High Anglican or a Catholic Anglican, and believed in the branch theory. His Arminian (if that is what it was) base does not, I think, quite follow on from the Elizabethan Church Papists, although I am not sufficiently versed in the subject to make a definite assertion as to the influences that formed him. He did of, of course, belong to St John's College, here in Oxford, which had strong Papistical inclinations stemming from its founder Sir Thomas White.

To call him an Anglo-Catholic or Romaniser is, perhaps, to fall for the arguments of his opponants - including those of my odious fellow Orielensis William Prynne - and not to see what he sought to do. His vision was an Anglican one of a reformed, purified Catholicism for the realms of his King. In obedience to the pursuit of that vision that he was a good and great man - arguably the greatest Archbishop of Canterbury since 1558.

The post 1660-62 Church of England was not operating in quite the way he had, but the vision he and others had encouraged, even if it became a minority interest, survived to provide a key element in the thought of the founders of successive Oxford Movements. Without Laud, Andrewes, Wren, Cosin and others there would have been neither Wesley and 'Methodism' in the 1730s, still less Keble, Pusey, Foude and Newman in the 1830s. Anglo-Catholicism, in the outward forms as we used to know it, might have been very different from Laud's version, but Laud gave it an historical pedigree which helped legitimate it.

There is something fitting (dignum et justum est) that it was in the church over whose south porch stands the statue of Our Lady and the Christ Child whose very existence was used as one of the ridiculous charges to destroy Laud in 1644 that the Oxford Revival of 1833 was launched.

If you are visiting Oxford do not fail to go and see Canterbury Quad at St John's College, built in the 1630s by Laud, and one of the greatest buildings in the city, redolent of those tranquil, halcyon, visionary years of Court High Anglicanism in the middle of the reign of King Charles I - a truly moving place to be when one reflects on the storm of destruction that was to follow.

Canterbury Quad at St John's

Photo by fr Laurence Lew OP on Flickr

St John's still possesses vestments he gave to the college, and the purple scull cap he wore to the scaffold, and these and other treasures are displayed, and can be seen at advertised times.

In 1660 Laud's body was reinterred in the chapel of his beloved St John's. When I was a regular worshipper at Pusey House, which is almost opposite the college on St Giles, I developed the conceit that poor Laud must be not only turning, but positively spinning in his grave over the current state of the Church of England. I came to envisage the Pusey faithful assembled in the choir stalls one day at 1662 Mattins or Evensong when one of the paving stones would be lifted from underneath, pushed aside and a pair of lawn clad sleeves would lift out the Archbishop's head, and then he would lift himself out and join us in reciting the Office - his sepulchral rotations had finally brought him under the road to a safe haven with us.

A revised version of a post from this day last year.

Irish soldiers of the King

2012-01-09T17:06:00.000Z

A topic which was recently featured on BBC News 24 also surfaced in the Daily Telegraph last week. This is the way in which Irishmen, serving in the southern armed forces who enlisted under the Crown to fight in the Second World War were discriminated against after 1945 by the republican government, were liable to indictment for desertion, and were all denied employment or benefits.

Image: royalirishregiment.co.uk

The article, by Kevin Myers, can be read here, and shows how the attitude of the southern Irish government has been transformed in the wake of the Queen's visit to Dublin last May.

Not only does it draw attention to the impact of the visit, but it is a reminder of treatment that seems shoddy and shocking, given the dual nationality which has been maintained since 1921-2.

Pugin at Ramsgate

2012-01-09T15:58:00.004Z

Clive Aslett had an article in last Wednesday's Daily Telegraph about the plans and appeal to restore Augustus Welby Pugin's last great creation, his house and the church and abbey of St Augustine at Ramsgate, which can be read here. I have posted about the appeal before and the article gives a good account of the buildings at Ramsgate and places them in the context of Pugin's life and work.

Celebrating a year of the Ordinariate

2012-01-09T09:42:00.000Z

Monsignor Newton will preside at this commemoration celebration, which has been organised by Fr Christopher Pearson and the Marylebone Ordinariate Group, and to which all are invited.

The music for the event has been chosen to reflect some of the familiar repertoire of the Anglican Choral Tradition and will include works by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Henry Balfour Gardiner and Sir Edward Elgar.

Epiphany Sunday

2012-01-08T09:05:00.004Z

As today is being observed as Epiphany Sunday it provides another excuse to post one of the most famous depictions of the visit of the Magi, that by Gentile da Fabriano. Painted in 1420-23 for the church of Santa Trinita in Florence it is now on display in the Uffizzi. There is an article about Gentile here and a more detailed one about the painting here.

The Adoration of the Magi

Gentile da Fabriano

1423

The central scene

Image farm1.staticflickr

Quite apart from its considerable appeal as a devotional image or as a work of art I am also drawn to it because it was commenced in the year Bishop Fleming was consecrated in Florence by Pope Martin V, who was late to be a patron of Gentile, commissioning him to work on the nave of the Lateran basilica in 1427, although the artist died that same year. It is therefore an indication of the cultural milieu in which "my bishop" was moving in his years at the Papal court in Florence from 1418-20.

Byzantine wall paintings

2012-01-07T15:12:00.003Z

This being Christmas Day for the Orthodox I thought I would share some pictures of Orthodox wall paintings which were recently posted on the Medieval Religion discussion group. They are in the small church of St George at Kurbinovo in what is now styled the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and date from 1191. There is an online introduction to the church here.

The paintings at Kurbinovo are classified among the works of the "Dynamic Style" of the second half of the twelfth century and are perhaps the latest of the surviving exemplars (which surely included many lost ones, extending throughout the Empire, including Constantinople).

The church itself is small, and outwardly unimpressive, but the paintings inside are on the grand scale - an indication of what one should expect to have existed across eastern and western Christendom at the time.

There are pictures here and here. A detail from the Dormition scene with "dynamic" drapery pattern(s) is here and the expressive style can be seen in the heads of the Apostles. There is a figure of a standing Christ and the Virgin of the Nativity, and St John the Baptist and also this wonderful, cadaverous head of Lazarus.

There are other paintings from the church here and here and this is the Angel from the Baptism scene. There is what appears to be a painting showing St Anne and the Virgin, and there is a detail of it here.

Adapted from a post by Christopher Crockett on the Medieval Religion discussion group in December 2011.

Christmas Greetings to the Eastern Orthodox

2012-01-07T09:00:00.003Z

Today being Christmas Day for my Russian Orthodox friends in Oxford and elsewhere, and also observed by my relatives of Serbian Orthodox descent, I extend to them seasonal good wishes.

A Russian Orthodox friend from the church here in Oxford - a redundant church which they have renovated and furnished in recent years - was telling me yesterday of the slightly comic consequences of having to adjust the calendar when everyone else was celebrating in the western tradition. Thus the family's Advent calendar had to be renumbered to start in mid-December, and December 25th observed as an anticipation of today.

My relatives with Serb ancestry got the best of both worlds as children - Christmas as Catholics with their mother and her family on December 25th, then keeping an Orthodox Christmas with their emigre father almost a fortnight later.

Image from Cantate-Domino blogspot

Blessed chalk for Epiphany

2012-01-06T20:26:00.005Z

At the end of the Epiphany Mass at SS Gregory and Augustine this evening Fr Saward blessed and distributed chalk for the traditional blessing of homes.

With the blessed chalk you write

20+C+M+B+12

above the doorways - 2012 for the year, C, M and B for the three Magi - Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar - and Christus mansionem benedicat - May Christ Bless this House.

Whilst writing say 'Christus mansionem benedicat' and then recite this prayer:

Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who inhabit it. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our concern for others may reflect your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Shrine of the Three Kings

2012-01-06T17:02:00.001Z

St Matthew tells us that the Magi returned to their country by another way, and so they leave the pages of the Gospel, but tradition, legend and piety has not stopped there.

They acquired names and kingdoms - Caspar, King of Tarsus -the land of Myrrh, Melchior, King of Arabia-the land of Gold, and Balthasar, King of Saba (pron SAY-ba) or Sheba- where Frankincense flows from trees. [Ancient Ind, Persia,Kasdim-Chaldea] - and were provided with a history.

"When the Children of Israel were gone out of Egypt and had won and made subject to them Jerusalem there was in the Kingdom of Ind a tall hill called the Hill of Vaws or the Hill of Victory. Twelve clerks of astronomy kept watch for the Star that was prophesied by Balaam to be the birth of Christ." The Star ascended above the hill and was seen by the three wise men. The Three Kings presented their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child. Gold symbolized kingship, frankincense showed godliness, and myrrh death. In return, He offered charity and spiritual riches for gold, faith for incense, and truth and meekness for myrrh.

The Kings returned home by a different route and St. Thomas found them in India and baptized them. They became martyrs and were buried outside the walls of Jerusalem. They were moved to Constantinople by Emperor Constantine’s mother St Helen to the Church of Hagia Sophia, and then to Milan. Finally in 1164 Archbishop Rainald of Dassel translated what were believed to be their relics to his cathedral in Cologne, where they continue to be venerated.

The Archbishop died in 1167 and the great reliquary which holds the bones was constructed between 1180-81 and about 1225, and is arguably the greatest surviving of all medieval relic chasses.

Archbishop Rainhold as depicted on the shrine

Around the relics there developed an extensive devotional and hagiographic literature. The text of an Early English translation of The Three Kings of Cologne by John of Hildesheim in its 1886 edition can be read here

I have heard the charming story that the church bells along the Rhine spontaneously rang as the relics passed by on their journey to their new home - it may be poetic licence, but it is a rather splendid notion.

There is an illustrated article about the Three Kings Shrine here and another with more detailed illustrations here.

As to the relics themselves and their provenence I have seen a documentary about them which pointed out that some of the wrappings were made from early and expensive Byzantine silk - these were well attested relics long before they came to Cologne.

The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral

Images: Wikimedia

Celebrating the Epiphany

2012-01-06T14:12:00.001Z

The Adoration of the Magi
Juan Reixach
c.1411-1485+

I am observing the Epiphany today - on its proper day, along with the Pope in the Vatican and the overwhelming historic majority of Catholics through the centuries.

Everyone I talk to thinks we should keep the feast today - not move it to the nearest Sunday, or, strictly speaking, I know, move the obligation to that day. Before there were evening Masses, and if it was not a holiday, I could imagine a case for moving the celebration, but not now. It encourages people not to put themselves out to go to church - and we should be putting ourselves out to worship the Lord. The Magi are a rebuke to such laziness - they bothered a lot more than the Episcopal Conference appears to think the average Catholic can be bothered to do. And, if the Bishops are right about such apathy, rather than pandering to it, what are they going to do to change it? We must maintain pressure to reinstate the proper observance of Epiphany, Ascension Day and Corpus Christi on their traditional days.

So I said the Office of Epiphany last night and this morning, attended Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Oratory at lunchtime, and will be present at a second such celebration at SS Gregory and Augustine later on, and I am wishing people a happy Epiphany for today.

Theabove passage is a re-posting of what I wrote last year as I still hold to the views I expressed then. I would add that the homily at the Mass celebrated at the Oratory stressed the point of the Epiphany is the adoration by the Magi, not their gifts. If the Epiphany is indeed about adoration, and we adore that which we hold to be paramount, then I think it right to say that we should be , and should be expected to be, willing to put ourselves out just a little to offer that adoration to the Incarnate Godhead.

Epiphany

2012-01-06T09:38:00.001Z

To mark the Epiphany I am doing as I did on Christmas Day and reproducing, with a few emendations, a post from last year.

It is Stefan Lochner's depiction of the Adoration of the Magi, dated to c.1440-45. It forms the central panel of his triptych of the Virgin and Child with the saints of Cologne, which is in the Lady Chapel of Cologne Cathedral - a cathedral which houses the relics of the Magi. As I had used his Madonna of the Rose Bower on my Christmas Day post I thought I would reproduce his Epiphany picture, partly because I like his paintings and particularly as in it he re-uses the same image of Our Lady:

The following are notes on Stefan Lochner from the Web Gallery of Art site:

This German late Gothic painter, considered to be the greatest representative of the school of Cologne. He is known primarily for his highly mystical religious paintings.

Little is known of his early life, but he is thought to have studied in the Netherlands, possibly under Robert Campin (tentatively identified with the Master of Flémalle), whose influence is evident in the treatment of the drapery and the careful rendering of detail in what may be Lochner's earliest extant painting, St Jerome in His Cell (heirs of Edith von Schröder Collection).

Lochner settled in Cologne about 1430. The earliest work he did there was an altarpiece for the church of St Laurenz (centrepiece with the Last Judgment now in Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; the wings are dispersed). The abundance of minute observation reflects his continued interest in Netherlandish art. But in the central panel he bound the various themes into a unified composition through the use of a dominating rhythmic design.

In the later 1430s Lochner must have been in the Netherlands again, where he encountered the art of Van Eyck. The first work to reflect this influence is the Madonna with the Violet (c. 1443; Erzbischöfliches Diözesan-Museum, Cologne). Van Eyck's influence is most noticeable in Lochner's chief work, the great town hall altarpiece much admired by Dürer. In this Altar of the Patron Saints, now in Cologne cathedral, Lochner adds to the idealism of the older painters of the Cologne school with a wealth of naturalistic observation in the figures, while the sculpture-like draperies lend them a monumental dignity. In 1447 he became a member of the town council, and from the same year dates the splendid Presentation in the Temple (Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt), which was originally in St Katharinen. The exquisite Madonna of the Rose Bower (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne) was painted soon afterward.

Lochner became one of Cologne's greatest painters, combining naturalism with a masterful sense of colour and design into a festal solemnity of representation. His work forms perhaps the most successful visual interpretation of late medieval German mysticism before Grünewald. Book illumination was also done in his workshop.

The tough life of a modern Capuchin

2012-01-05T13:50:00.007Z

A correspondent on the medieval religion discussion group drew readers attention to this newspaper story about the tough regime of modern Capuchins in Sicily, which has also featured in other papers. In many ways it is heartening reading - as well as being amusing.

Birthday of the King of Spain

2012-01-05T11:45:00.005Z

Today is the 74th birthday of the King of Spain, and an opportunity to express good wishes to a sovereign who has not only proved dutiful and capable but is also a shining example of what a monarchy can offer a nation.

The King and Queen of Spain

Image:barcelonareporter.com

His reign shows what could be done in other countries less fortunate than Spain and which have not restored their historic institutions of governance. The recent problems surrounding one of his sons-in-law are unfortunate and the Royal family are clearly showing their distance from allegations of financial scandal, but the King's achievements far outweigh what must be, I trust, a passing shadow.

An insight into his approach to kingship in the modern age can be gleaned from this article from 2008 which is based around letters he wrote to the Prince of Asturias whilst the Infante was studying in the USA.

The King and Queen of Spain and the Prince of Asturias

Image: Daily Telegraph

Spain is very fortunate indeed in its King and Queen and their royal family, as is the cause of monarchy across Europe and the world.

Solemn Profession at Ryde

2012-01-05T10:40:00.004Z

Please remember in your prayers Sister Elizabeth Burgess, formerly of the Oratory Parish here in Oxford, who will make her Solemn Profession as a Benedictine nun at St Cecilia's Abbey Ryde in the Isle of Wight tomorrow.

Ordination in Oslo

2012-01-05T10:11:00.009Z

I commend to your prayers my good friend Martin Stamnestro who will be ordained as a deacon by the Bishop of Oslo in his cathedral tomorrow evening.

Martin is Norwegian by birth and upbringing, but with a degree from Durham, followed by a D.Phil. in liturgical history from Oxford. I met him as Pusey House, and he is one of my group of friends from there who, like me, have been received into the full peace and communion of the Catholic Church. He has been training in Norway and Germany for ministry.

St Olav's Cathedral, Oslo

Image: Wikimedia

There is more about the cathedral here.

Most Holy Hame of Jesus

2012-01-03T18:31:00.008Z

Today is the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, a feast which originates in the middle ages, was extended to the universal Church by Pope Innocent XIII in 1721, changed to a movable date by Pope Pius X, discarded in 1969 and, happily, reinstated on this date in 2000.

The Pope, King Philip II and the Doge of Venice join in the adoration of the Holy Name
El Greco

Image: fisheaters.com

There is a history of devotion to the Holy Name here, which amongst other things points out the extent to which it developed in medieval England from St Anselm (d.1109) onwards, and an older article from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopaedia here. To this one might add the use of the Name as a foundation title for Archbishop Rotherham's Jesus College at Rotherham and Bishop John Alcock of Ely's college of the same name at Cambridge from the last quarter of the fifteenth century. This was of course at the end of the century which had seen the extensive promotion of the devotion by St Bernardino and St John Capistrano on the continent.

There is a history of the feast itself and the various days on which it has been celebrated here.

Here is St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1152) on the Most Holy Name of Jesus:

The sweet Name of Jesus produces in us holy thoughts, fills the soul with noble sentiments, strengthens virtue, begets good works, and nourishes pure affections. All spiritual food leaves the soul dry, if it contain not that penetrating oil, the Name Jesus. When you take your pen, write the Name Jesus: if you write books, let the Name of Jesus be contained in them, else they will possess no charm or attraction for me; you may speak, or you may reply, but if the Name of Jesus sounds not from your lips, you are without unction and without charm. Jesus is honey in our mouth, light in our eyes, a flame in our heart. This name is the cure for all diseases of the soul. Are you troubled? think but of Jesus, speak but the Name of Jesus, the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin? so that you fear death? invoke the Name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. No obduracy of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this holy Name; there is no heart which will not soften and open in tears at this holy name. Are you surrounded by sorrow and danger? invoke the Name of Jesus, and your fears will vanish.

Never yet was human being in urgent need, and on the point of perishing, who invoked this help-giving Name, and was not powerfully sustained. It was given us for the cure of all our ills; to soften the impetuosity of anger, to quench the fire of concupiscence, to conquer pride, to mitigate the pain of our wounds, to overcome the thirst of avarice, to quiet sensual passions, and the desires of low pleasures. If we call to our minds the Name of Jesus, it brings before us His most meek and humble heart, and gives us a new knowledge of His most loving and tender compassion. The Name of Jesus is the purest, and holiest, the noblest and most indulgent of names, the Name of all blessings and of all virtues; it is the Name of the God-Man, of sanctity itself. To think of Jesus is to think of the great, infinite God Who, having given us His life as an example, has also bestowed the necessary understanding, energy and assistance to enable us to follow and imitate Him, in our thoughts, inclinations, words and actions. If the Name of Jesus reaches the depths of our heart, it leaves heavenly virtue there. We say, therefore, with our great master, St. Paul the Apostle: If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.

To St Bernard also is attributed this hymn, which was adopted as the Office hymn for today when Bernardine dei Busti composed the propers of the feast:

Jesu, dúlcis memória,
Dans véra córdis gáudia:
Sed super mel et ómnia
Ejus dúlcis præséntia.

Nil cánitur suávius,
Nil audítur jucúndius,
Nil cogitátur dúlcius,
Quam Jésus Déi Fílius.

Jésu, spes pæniténtibus,
Quan píus es peténtibus!
Quan bónus te quæréntibus!
Sed quid inveniéntibus?

Nec língua válet dícere,
Nec líttera exprímere:
Expértus pótest crédere,
Quid sit Jésum dilígere.

Sis, Jésu, nóstrum gáudium,
Qui est futúrus praémium
Sit nóstra in te glória,
Per cúncta semper saécula.

Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast!
Yet sweeter far Thy face to see
And in Thy Presence rest.

No voice can sing, no heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find,
A sweeter sound than Jesus' Name,
The Savior of mankind.

O hope of every contrite heart!
O joy of all the meek!
To those who fall, how kind Thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah! this
Nor tongue nor pen can show
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.

Jesus! our only hope be Thou,
As Thou our prize shalt be;
In Thee be all our glory now,
And through eternity. Amen.

There is also this hymn dating from the fifteenth, or possibly the eighteenth, century translated by J.M.Neale in 1851, and published in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1860. Of the various tunes to which it can be sung I think Oriel is the best known, and, of course, the most suitable:

To the Name of our salvation,
laud and honor let us pay,
which for many a generation
hid in God's foreknowledge lay;
but with holy exultation
we may sing aloud today.

Jesus is the Name we treasure;
Name beyond what words can tell;
Name of gladness, Name of pleasure,
ear and heart delighting well;
Name of sweetness, passing measure,
saving us from sin and hell.

'Tis the Name for adoration,
Name for songs of victory,
Name for holy meditation
in this vale of misery,
Name for joyful veneration
by the citizens on high.

'Tis the Name that whoso preacheth
speaks like music to the ear;
who in prayer this Name beseecheth
sweetest comfort findeth near;
who its perfect wisdom reacheth,
heavenly joy possesseth here.

Jesus is the Name exalted
over every other name;
in this Name, whene'er assaulted,
we can put our foes to shame;
strength to them who else had halted,
eyes to blind, and feet to lame.

Therefore we in love adoring,
this most blessèd Name revere;
holy Jesus, thee imploring
so to write it in us here,
that hereafter, heavenward soaring,
we may sing with angels there.

Queen Catherine of Valois

2012-01-03T14:40:00.005Z

Today is the 575th anniversary of the death of Queen Catherine of Valois, the widow of King Henry V, mother of King Henry VI and, through her eldest son by her second husband, Owen Tudor, the grandmother of King Henry VII.

Queen Catherine's funeral effigy at
Westminster abbey as it is today

Image: findagrave.com

The article on her life by Michael Jones in the Oxford DNB can be read here.

She was Queen consort and then Queen mother or dowager in the lifetime of Bishop Richard Fleming, who attended her coronation at Westminster on February 23 1421, and who took part in King Henry V's funeral in the autumn of 1422.

Continuing renovation in Brighton

2012-01-03T14:28:00.003Z

Fr Blake has a post about the latest progess he has made in the restoration of his church in Brighton which can be read at Renovations at St Mary Magdalen. This continuing cleaning and remnovation in the church is really very good news for that church and parish, and for the wider Church - Fr Blake and his parishioners have shown what can be done with faith, determination and fundraising. It is a project I commend to your pockets as well as your prayers, and should, of course, be viewed in situ, and when in use liturgically.

Returning to Oxford

2012-01-02T20:49:00.008Z

I returned to Oxford today after my Christmas and New Year holiday with a cousin in Totnes in Devon. Once again I had the pleasure of catching up with my three paternal cousins and some members of their families. It has been a great delight in recent years to be able to spend more time with this side of my family - for many years we were simply too many miles apart. In addition there is the interest of re-visiting this historic town and seeing another part of the country.

We spent a relatively quiet time over Christmas, but enlivened by family members calling in. In addition to some reading - not, of course, the books I took with me from Oxford and returned with, still unread, but ones that belong to my cousin, I took the opportunity to catch up on Sky TV link with a whole range of history viewing.

There were some interesting Time Team programmes - notably those on the evolution of the village of Nether Poppleton in my home county of Yorkshire around the site of St Everilda's seventh century monastery, on Bishop Waynflete's buildings of the 1460s at Esher and the first Earl of Bedford's house at Chenies in Buckinghamshire from the 1530s and 40s.

Two interesting programmes concentrated on the reign of King James I. The first reconstructed on a test site what would have happened had the Gunpowder Plot actually been carried through. The explosion of the thirty six barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords would, on this evidence, have been catastrophic. The second programme dealt with the background to the 1611 translation of the Bible, and with an intelligent dramatic presentation of the King at the 1604 Hampton Court conference - the actor helped significantly to restore the image of the King as a shrewd and clever political operator, something which has not always been the case.

There were also new programmes on ancient Egypt and the links between Rameses II and the story of the Exodus, arguing sensibly (rather than otherwise) for links between Akenhaten's monotheism and the revelation to Moses, others on oriental art and archaeology, and the last of the trilogy on the history of Jerusalem (soon followed on the BBC News 24 by the latest, violent, dispute between different groups over cleaning the church of the Nativity in Bethelehem).

We enjoyed watching Great Expectations, though somehow I rather kept expecting someone to tell Gillian Anderson's Miss Haversham (a bit of a left-over from the summers of love of the 1960s?) that the truth was out there...well, there were all those fog-shrouded Essex marshes surrounding the place with all kinds of dark secrets. Had it been David Suchet's Mr Jaggers one might have suspected Hercule Poirot had taken up time-travel. No matter - a production that did make me want to read a novel I have not read.

My cousin being a sports fan there was also the opportunity some good ski-jumping to watch and enjoy - except, of course, for when the recording ran out four jumps before the end...

I came back today in time to attend the annual Oxford Oratory 'At Home' held by the Oratorians for helpers in the life of the church. Once again this was a very enjoyable occasion, and an opportunity to catch up with friends from the community, on their news and on plans for the future.

The return home and the New Year has, however, been rather overshadowed by news of the serious illness of friends and of their relatives, and also of bereavements - one from last February which I only heard about just before Christmas, others quite recent.

January

2012-01-01T14:20:00.003Z

Image:Wikipedia

The Duke of Berry, dressed in blue and seated to the right, and wearing a handsome fur hat to indicate his status, celebrates the Christmas and Epipany seasons. There appears to be the exchange of gifts - New Year or Epiphany ones - and a cultivated and splendid lifestyle. This is a pattern which would have been replicated or emulated across Europe in royal and aristocratic households.

Note the canopy and cloth of estate with his arms above the Duke's head and the tapestries or hangings with their battle scenes decorating the room. The firescreen is also an interesting feature, as is the woven rush matting - rushes on the floor clearly did not mean a strewn hay stack as one might be led to believe, but a fitted covering in such a household.

On the left is a sideboard or buffet with a display of gold plate as was expected on such occasion to display princely magnificence, and other splendid plate is in use at the feast, as well as an aquamanile for washing the hands of those dining at the table. The pieces shown are very similar to the relatively few surviving examples from the period in museums and collections such as those of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges.

The painting is attributed to the artist identified as the 'the courtly painter'.

Calendar pages

2012-01-01T14:01:00.001Z

One minor New Year's resolution for 2012 is to post the appropriate calendar page from the Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry each month. There is an article about this famous Book of Hours here, which has links to articles on the artists involved. The manuscript was begun by the Limbourg brothers Herman (b. 1385), Paul (b.1386 or 7) and Jean (b. 1388) in 1412, but left unfinished when they all died, probably of plague, in February 1416. The Duke died that same year and the Hours were completed by later artists, in a recognisably different style.

The majority of the calendar pages are by the Limbourgs themselves, and include marvellous views of the ducal and other royal residences in France. What they do not indicate in their idyllic representations - and, given the nature of the book, why should they I might add - is that they were produced against the background of civil conflit between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, as detailed in the journal of the Bourgeois of Paris, and, in 1415, King Henry V's invasion and the French defeat at Agincourt.

I will post each one seperately month by month with some notes about the scene.

New Year - the Gate of the Year

2012-01-01T12:24:00.006Z

So we are now in 2012, and we can all wish one another a happy and prosperous New Year. What it will actually bring is, of course, largely hidden from us. Some things are clearly going to happen - we can look forward to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and to the Olympics - though the latter will keep me well away from London in July and August if I can help it - and we shall have to endure coverage of both a French and a US presidential election. Apart from that, and a predictable continuing economic crisis, we do not know what is going to happen. The experts normally fail to forsee events - just think back to this time last year. Who predicted the Arab Spring, the phone hacking scandal or the scale of the Eurozone problem? We can say that those will continue to make the news, but in what way, and with what consequences - that we do not know. The one thing we can predict at any New Year is that the unpredictable and unpredicted will happen.

Given the times in which we are living I am minded to think of the lines, originally published in 1908, which King George VI quoted in his Christmas broadcast in 1939 and the advice of the man who stood at the gate of the year, and to put one's hand into the hand of God:

God Knows

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart bestill:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957)

There is an article by Christopher Howse about the poem and its author here.

New Year sleep out

2011-12-31T09:28:00.003Z

Spare a thought and a prayer, and maybe some money, for two of my friends from the Oxford Oratory, Jo O'Donovan and Catherine Brown, who are going to do a sponsored sleep out tonight in Oxford from 6 pm until 6 am in aid of the Oxford Oratory Appeal.

Given that these two ladies are, well, not in the first flush of youth (and I am sure they will not mind me saying so) this is a very commendable effort on their part, and deserves support and encouragement.

St Sylvester and the Donation of Constantine

2011-12-31T09:03:00.002Z

The other day I mentioned the Donation of Constantine and as to day is the feast of its alleged recipient St Sylvester I thought I would put in a link to an introduction to this famous and influential text - it can be read here. There is an article on Pope Sylvester I here.

The Emperor Constantine gives Imperial authority and the papal tiara to Pope Sylvester I.
Note the presence of the umbrellino.
A thirteenth century fresco in the church of Santo Quattro Coronati in Rome

Image: Wikipedia

Coronation in Budapest

2011-12-30T10:23:00.013Z

Today is the 95th anniversary of the coronation of the Bl. Emperor Charles as King Charles IV of Hungary in 1916. The fact that he had received this sacramental was of enormous spiritual significance to the King and his Queen Zita, and why he refused to renounce his rights in 1921.

The ceremony, central to the traditional Hungarian concept of kingship, was both deemed to be a constitutional requirement and also. it seem, as a means of binding the new King, who had succeeded to the throne in late November, to the existing balance of political pwer within the realm by the Prime Minister, Count Tisza.

There is an account of the preparations for the coronation in Miklos Banffy's memoir The Phoenix Land and there is a detailed description of the day, set within the action of a sprawling novel about a Magyar aristocratic family, in Lajos Zilahy's The Dukays.

The King taking the Coronation oath

The King on horseback upon the hill composed of soil from every county in Hungary.
This part of the ceremonial involved the King riding up the hill and brandishing his sword to the four points of the compass to symbolise his defence of the frontiers of the kingdom - indeed the oath speaks of extending them.

King Charles IV, Queen Zita and Crown Prince Otto.
The King died in 1922, Queen Zita in 1989 and Otto in 2011.

King Charles IV wearing the Holy Crown
and mantle of St Stephen and holding the sceptre.

Images: The Emperor Charles League of Prayer

St Thomas of Canterbury in Monreale and Soria

2011-12-29T11:01:00.005Z

Here is another depiction of St Thomas made soon after his death. It is part of the decoration of the apse of the cathedral at Monreale in Sicily.

He is shown standing between Pope St Sylvester I and St Lawrence. The association of themes and ideas appears clear - St Sylvester was believed to be the recipient of the Donation of Constantine, with all that was taken to imply for Papal and ecclesial authority, and St Lawrence had been martyred in 258 for refusing to compromise and hand over the Church's wealth, and thereby its independence, to the Imperial authorities. St Thomas is therefore presented as being in good company in respect of Church-State relations.

Image: John Dillon posting on Medieval religion discussion group 29/12/2009

The historical and cultural context of the creation of the mosaic and the cathedral are discussed in John Julius Norwich's splendid and evocative The Kingdom in the Sun, the successor volume to the equally compelling The Normans in the South. Both books make you yearn to travel to Sicily and the rest of the Regno to visit the places he describes.

St Thomas's murder as depicted in a late twelfth-century wall painting in the church of San Nicolás in Soria (Castilla y León). The painting, exceptional in that its shows the Archbishop being stabbed in the back rather than struck in the head, is discussed in two articles here and here. There is a brief BBC film clip showing more of the painting here.

Just as St Thomas's early depiction in the apse mosaics at Monreale has been ascribed to the influence of one of King Henry II's daughters, Joanna/Giovanna, Queen of Sicily, so this painting has been ascribed to the influence of another daughter, Eleanor/Leonor, Queen of Castille.

St Thomas of Canterbury at Chartres

2011-12-29T09:59:00.007Z

Today is the feast of the martyrdom of St Thomas of Canterbury in 1170.

Quite apart from my work as a medieval historian as a former churchwarden at St Thomas the Martyr in Oxford he is a saint who interests me. My post about both the saint and the church from last year can be read at St Thomas of Canterbury.

As a consequence of the shock engendered by his death and the cult that developed around him St Thomas was widely depicted in art. Many of these representations in England were casualties of King Henry VIII's fulminations against veneration of St Thomas - "that traitor Becket."

Thanks to some posts on the Medieval religion discussion group by Christopher Crockett, that veteran enthusiast for all things Chartrain, I am reproducing some images from Chartres Cathedral, where Becket's supporter John of Salisbury was Bishop from 1176 until his death in 1180.

Clark Maines in an article 'A Figure of St. Thomas Becket at Chartres' in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte XXXVI, 1973), pp. 163-173, identifies one of the figures on the south portal of Chartres cathedral as St Thomas. This can be read on JSTOR if you have access at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1481845 The figure on the right is, in this reading, St Thomas, trampling on King Henry II.

Images:images.library.pitt.edu

Also at Chartres in the ambulatory is a window telling the story of St Thomas, and given by the Guild of Tanners. It can be viewed, with some explanatory notes, here.

St John the Evangelist

2011-12-27T10:39:00.005Z

I have always identified St John the Evangelist as my name-saint - being a bit squeamish it is probably because he was the one Apostle not to be martyred - and perhaps also because the Cluniac priory in my home town was under his patronage. Anyway I do rather like the mystical and theological approach to faith. Thinking about it as I get older I think I should maybe identify with St John the Baptist and indulge in my urge to tell the brood of vipers what I really think, and go round preaching repentence - but I do want people to like me, so maybe not...

St John the Evangelist has not, to my mind, provided the inspiration for artists that the Baptist has. Too often he is depicted as a long haired rather effeminate young man, and not really the mystical theologian of the New Testament texts, still less one of the sons of thunder with a pushy mother...

This painting by Memling is rather better in conveying something of the meditative quality of St John, and anyway it is late medieval and therefore, ipso facto, good.

St John the Evangelist
Hans Memling c.1430 -1494

Image: artexpertswebsite.com

Here are both St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist in the same artist' s Mystic Marriage of St Catherine from the St John Altarpiece of 1474-79 which is in Bruges - the other female saint in the composition is St Barbara:

Here is Memling's panel from the same altarpiece showing St John on Patmos:

There is great charm and delicacy in Hieronymous Bosch's 1485 painting of St John on Patmos:

Image:stjohnleonia.org

Although there is something of the nice young man from Sotheby's or Christie's holding up an object at an auction to the figure, and it is a really rather splendid chalice, there is more of both youthful impetuousness and conviction as well as the intensity of devotion and of mysticism in El Greco's paintings of him, as here:

Image: southbear.com

Good King Wenceslas

2011-12-26T14:20:00.006Z

Although his feast day is on September 28th thanks to the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas

not only St Stephen but also St Wenceslas comes to mind today.

The story of J.M.Neale's 1853 carol and its musical accompaniment can be read here.

St Wenceslas and his page on St Stephen's day

A painting by Henry Munyaradzi (b.1931)

Image: arcadja.com

There is a modern online illustrated life of the tenth century Duke of Bohemia who was to become the patron of the monarchy and country here, and there is a modern adaptation of a 10th century Slavonic text biography here.

The Crown of St Wenceslas
It was made for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who was also King of Bohemia

Image: hrad.cz

I have published two previous posts about the fourteenth century crown of St Wenceslas which can be read at The Crown of St Wenceslas.

The helmet preserved as that of St Wenceslas

Image: radio.cz

His relics are enshrined in the St Wenceslas chapel in St Vitus cathedral in Prague, and there is more about it here.

St Wenceslas
Fourteenth century statue in his shrine chapel in Prague Cathedral
Probabbly by Peter Parler
Image: Wikipedia

St Stephen

2011-12-26T09:51:00.007Z

St Stephen, whose feast falls to day is, of course venerated as the proto-martyr of the Church.

The Stoning of St Stephen
From the St Stephen Altarpiece by Michael Pacher c.1470

Image: art.com

There are a series of readings and traditional devotions to him, as well as various depictions here.

St Stephen.
He is quite often shown in a standing pose but being bombarded with stones.
A rather effete depiction of a saint who was anythin but that, being noticeably robust according to the Acts of the Apostles in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.

The remainder of this post is adapted from a post from this day in 2005 on A Catholic Life.

"If you know what witness means, you understand why God brings St. Stephen, St. John, and the Holy Innocents to the crib in the cave as soon as Christ is born liturgically. To be a witness is to be a martyr. Holy Mother Church wishes us to realize that we were born in baptism to become Christ — He who was the world's outstanding Martyr" (Love Does Such Things by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.)

We have only just celebrated the birth of our Lord and already the liturgy presents us with the feast of the first person to give his life for this Baby who has been born. Yesterday we wrapped Christ in swaddling clothes; today, he clothes Stephen with the garment of immortality. Yesterday, a narrow manger cradled the baby Christ; today, the infinite heaven has received Stephen in triumph (St. Fulgentius, Sermon 3)

This painting is a detail from The Ordination of St Stephen by Blessed Fra Angelico
(circa 1395-1455) in the Niccoline chapel in the Vatican.
Saint Peter is ordaining Stephen to the diaconate while Saint John the Beloved (whose feast is tomorrow), holding his Gospel, looks on.
The composition is remarkable: the three heads of Peter, John and Stephen form a triangle, a symbol of communion in the Three Divine Persons. Peter is handing over the chalice and paten which are very large. Fra Angelico makes the Most Holy Eucharist central; he paints what Saint Thomas Aquinas taught, i.e. that the unity of the Church is constituted and held together by participation in the adorable Body and Blood of Christ.

Source for the above excerpt: Vultus Christi

The Martyrdom of St Stephen.
A rather florid Baroque view.

Saint Stephen, martyr of Christ, ora pro nobis. Amen

Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, so to imitate what we revere, that we may learn to love even our enemies: for we celebrate the heavenly Birthday of him who knew how to pray for his very persecutors to our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son: Who liveth and reigneth with Thee.

1962 Daily Missal

Images: A Catholic Life blog

Unto us a Child is born

2011-12-25T09:35:00.001Z

A Holy, Blessed and Joyful Christmas to you all

Madonna of the Rose Bower

c. 1440

Stefan Lochner c.1400-1451

Oil on panel, 51 x 40 cm
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

This small panel which employs several iconographic models is an especially charming remnant of Cologne Gothic.

It depicts the "humble Madonna" (Madonna dell' Umiltà) as Mary is sitting on the ground or on a pillow placed on the ground, gently holding an infant in her lap. Their figures are surrounded by adoring angels who offer flowers and fruits to the baby Jesus. To create a backdrop for the scene, two diligent angels stretch out a golden brocade curtain which reminds the viewer of the reigning, victorious Madonna. At the same time, this curtain insures separation from the rest of the world and the intimacy of the holy family. Above, surrounded by light-rays, we can see God the Father and the dove of the Holy Spirit. This intimates the Immaculate Conception; thus the painting includes the depiction of the Holy Trinity. This is the picture of completeness with the Divine Mother as its centre.

The image of being enclosed is reinforced by another motif: the low stone wall around Mary, which recalls the "hortus conclusus" (enclosed garden), the symbol of Mary's purity and innocence.

The spectacular carpet of flowers covering the ground intimates the earthly Garden of Eden, as does the bower of roses. Roses were often connected with the Madonna; such a simile appears in several medieval Latin hymns to the Virgin.

The musical child angels in the foreground play an important part in the creation of an idyllic atmosphere. Their instruments - two different sized lutes, a harp and a portative organ - are realistically rendered, and their small hands reveal their musical expertise.

Notes from the Web Galley of Art

This is the same post as I produced for Christmas Day last year, but I could not immediately think in the vast number of possible depictions of another image of Our Lady and the Christ Child that had quite so much appeal, so I decided to republish it.

The Expectation of Our Lady

2011-12-24T09:06:00.003Z

I was charmed as usual last Sunday by the recessional hymn we sang following the Solemn Mass at the Oxford Oratory. It is by Fr F.W.Faber (1814-63) and I thought I would share it with readers.

It is Faber at his best - presenting theological truth with warmth and emotion, and using vivid images, but it is restrained at the same time - not as 'over the top' as he could be when it came to devotion to Our Lady. I am grateful to my friend Irim Sarwar who hunted out the text on the internet for me. The hymn's charm is enhanced by its lilting, slightly bouncy tune, which is from an Oratorian compilation of 1870, and can be founfd in the Oratory sponsored Catholic Hymnal. It seems a very appropriate piece to share on Christmas Eve.

Like the dawning of the morning
On the mountains’ golden heights,
Like the breaking of the moon-beams
On the gloom of cloudy nights;
Like a secret told by Angels,
Getting known upon the earth,
Is the Mother’s Expectation
Of Messiah’s speedy birth.

Thou wert happy, Blessed Mother,
With the very bliss of Heaven,
Since the Angel’s salutation
In thy raptured ear was given;
Since the Ave of that midnight,
When thou wert anointed Queen,
Like a river over-flowing
Hath the grace within thee been.

On the mountains of Judea,
Like the chariot of the Lord,
Thou wert lifted in thy spirit
By the uncreated Word;
Gifts and graces flowed upon thee
In a sweet celestial strife
And the growing of thy Burden
Was the lightening of thy life.

And what wonders have been in thee
All the day and all the night,
While the angels fell before thee,
To adore the Light of Light.
While the glory of the Father
Hath been in thee as a home,
And the sceptre of creation
Hath been wielded in thy womb.

And the sweet strains of the Psalmist
Were a joy beyond control,
And the visions of the prophets
Burnt like transports in thy soul;
But the Burden that was growing,
And was felt so tenderly,
It was Heaven, it was Heaven,
Come before its time to thee.

Oh the feeling of thy Burden,
It was touch and taste and sight;
It was newer still and newer,
All those nine months, day and night.
Like a treasure unexhausted,
Like a vision uconfess’d,
Like a rapture unforgotten,
It lay ever at they breast.

Every moment did that Burden
Press upon thee with new grace;
Happy Mother! Thou art longing
To behold the Saviour’s Face!
Oh his Human face and features
Must be passing sweet to see
Thou hast seen them, happy Mother!
Ah then, show them now to me.

Thou hast waited, Child of David,
And thy waiting now is o’er;
Thou hast seen Him, Blessed Mother,
And wilt see Him evermore!
O His Human Face and Features,
They were passing sweet to see;
Thou beholdest them this moment,
Mother, show them now to me.

Reflecting on Advent

2011-12-24T08:55:00.003Z

Now we have got to Christmas Eve I think I have managed to observe a rather better Advent than in some years. Not that I have not had far too many distractions and general end-of-year and pre-Christmas hassle, but I do think it has been a bit more spiritually profitable than some other years. That is not to say that its lessons will not have to be relearned next year all over again. Nonetheless the fact that Advent this year has been as long as it can possibly be has meant that there really has been a bit more time to reflect on the God who came in time, comes to us in time and will come at the end of time.

Another regal anniversary

2011-12-24T08:42:00.003Z

Last year we saw the thirty-fifth anniversary of the accession of the King of Spain to the throne, and this year has seen the twentieth anniversary of the King of Norway and the thirtieth of the Queen of the Netherlands, whilst this coming new year will witness the fortieth anniversary of the Queen of Denmark and, of course, our own Queen's Diamond Jubilee. With these in mind perhaps one can spare a thought and a prayer for the de jure King of Portugal who today marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of his father's death and his inheritance of the claim to the throne. Dom Duarte III and the Portuguese people deserve better than the present situation of the country offers.

Dom Duarte's website can be seen at Portuguese Monarchy, and there are other sites devoted to the history of the Most Faithful Kings at Real Familia Portuguesa and at Unveiling the Portuguese Monarchy.

O Virgo Virginum

2011-12-23T11:03:00.004Z

The additional Sarum antiphon for today is:

Latin:

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud?

Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem.

Filiae Jerusalem, quid me admiramini?

Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

English:

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?

For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.

Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?

The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

The first line appears to refer to Our Lady's response to the Archangel at the Annunciation in Luke 1:34, whilst the reference to the Daughters of Jerusalem links to the repeated references to them in the Song of Songs.

O Emmanuel

2011-12-23T10:02:00.002Z

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum, veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations, and their Salvation: come and save us, O Lord our God.

'Emmanuel' derives from Isaiah 7:14,

'Ecce virgo concipiet, et pariet filium,
Et vocabitur nomen eius Emmanuel'

'Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
And his name shall be called Emmanuel.'

This is referred to the birth of Christ in St Matthew's Gospel:

'Hoc autem totum factum est, ut adimpleretur quod dictum est a Domino per prophetam dicentam: Ecco virgo in utero habebit, et pariet filium, et vocabunt nomen eius Emmanuel,
quod est interpretatum Nobiscum Deus.'

'Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was said by the Lord through the prophet,
saying: Behold, a virgin shall have a son in her womb, and bear him, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being translated, God with us.' (Matthew 1:22-23).

Emmanuel, 'God with us', is perhaps the most important title in the series.

'Rex', 'King' is a title often applied to Christ in the New Testament, e.g. at Matthew 2:2, 'Ubi est qui natus est rex Iudaeorum?' 'Where is he that has been born King of the Jews?' Or the title placed on the cross: 'Hic est Iesus rex Iudaeorum' 'This is Jesus, King of the Jews' (Matthew 27:37).

'Legifer', 'lawgiver' equates Jesus with Moses who gave the law to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. Jesus is portrayed as giving a new law, e.g. in his delivery of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. Or cf. John 13:34, 'Mandatum novum do vobis: ut diligatis invicem, sicut dilexi vos' - 'A new
Commandment I give you, that you should love one another, as I have loved you.' ['Mandatum' here gives us 'Maundy' as in Maundy Thursday, the day of the Mandate].

'Exspectatio gentium' has already been mentioned with reference to 'O Clavis David'. It derives from Genesis 49:10,

Non aufertur sceptrum de Iuda,
Et dux de femore eius,
Donec veniat qui mittendus est,
Et ipse erit expectatio gentium.

'The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah,
nor the leader from his thigh,
until he comes who is to be sent,
and he will be the expectation of the nations.'

'Salvator', 'Saviour', is applied regularly in the Old Testament to God, and equally regularly in the New Testamen to Jesus. The equation is made explicit in the last words of our antiphon, 'veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster' - 'Come and save us, O Lord our God'.

Fr East adds this comment "In England, there was an eighth antiphon, 'O virgo virginum', 'O virgin of virgins', applied to Mary; and example of English exhuberance spoiling the careful and spare patterning of the Roman liturgy."

O Rex gentium

2011-12-22T10:08:00.004Z

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.

O King of the Nations, and their desire; the Corner-stone, who makest both one; Come and save mankind, whom thou formedest of clay.

The key text here is Haggai 2:8,

'Et movebo omnes gentes, Et veniet Desideratus cunctis gentibus'

'And I shall shake all nations, and the Desired One will come to all nations.'

Haggai is a prophet writing at the time of of what is called the Restoration, that is, the return of the Jews to the holy land after the exile in Babylon, the rebuilding of the temple and the restoration of public and religious institutions. As Haggai writes, these things do not yet amount to much, but he forsees a time when the glory of the restored temple with exceed that of Solomon's original building. Christians see this prophecy fulfilled in Christ.

The phrase 'Rex Gentium' I have not found exactly, but cf. Psalm 2:6-8,

Ego autem constitutus sum Rex ab eo
Super Sion, montem sanctum eius,
Praedicans praeceptum eius.
Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu;
Ego hodie genui te.
Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam,
Et possessionem tuam terminos terrae.

'Yet have I set my King:
upon my holy hill of Sion.
I will preach the law, whereof the Lord hath said unto me:
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Desire of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [i.e. nations]
for thine inheritance:
and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.'

The corner-stone goes back ultimately to Isaiah 28:16,

Ecce ego mittam in fundamentis Sion lapidem,
Lapidem probatum,
Angularem, pretiosum, in fundamento fundatum;

'Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious
corner stone'

This is quoted at 1 Peter 2:6. St Paul at Ephesians 2:20 also refers to Christ as 'ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Iesu' - 'Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.' In context, Paul explores the meaning of this image as referring to the Jews and Gentiles as it were coming to God from two directions, and meeting in Christ, as two walls meet and join in the
corner-stone. 'Who makest both one' refers to Ephesians 2:14, 'qui fecit utraque unum'.

'Quem de limo formasti' derives from Genesis 2:7, 'Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terrae.' Again Jesus is identified with the God of Creation, the God of Genesis.

A number of texts have been combined to produce a coherent theology: Christ is the Lord of all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, as a corner-stone supports both walls; he is the agent through whom both were made, and will lead both to a destiny greater than anything in their previous existence.

In addition tomorrow, December 23rd, the last day of the O Antiphons, traditionally has a special antiphon for the Benedictus at Lauds:

Ecce completa sunt omnia, quae dicta sunt per Angelum de Virgine Maria.

Behold, all things are fulfilled, which were spoken by the Angel to the Virgin Mary.

So we are ready for Christmas...

Virgin, maiden or young woman?

2011-12-21T15:23:00.003Z

In his address at Mass yesterday evening at the Oxford Oratory Fr Jerome spoke about the passage in Isaiah 7:14 which speaks of a young woman who will conceive and give birth to Immanuel, which has of coursetraditionally been identified with the events of Christmas. Critics are keen to point out that the original Hebrew says 'young woman' not 'virgin', and that this is then seized upon to "disprove" the Virgin Birth or Christianity.

As Fr Jerome pointed out to us this fact has been one of which Christians and their critics have been aware since at least the Dialogue of St Justin Martyr with Trypho circa 130, so this is no new discovery. Furthermore the Septuagint, itself seen as inspired, renders the word as 'Virgin', and that two centuries before the birth of Christ. There is nothing exceptional about a young woman conceiving - that is the course of nature; an older woman like St Elizabeth is noteworthy; a vigin - now that is exceptional.

O Oriens

2011-12-21T10:02:00.004Z

O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.

O Day-spring, Brightness of Light Everlasting, and Sun of Righteousness:
Come and enlighten him that sitteth in darkness and the shadow of death.

This description derives from the Song of Zechariah, or Benedictus, Luke 1:78-79,

Per viscera misericordiae Dei nostri:
In quibus visitavit nos, Oriens ex alto,
Illuminare his qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent . . .

'Through the bowels of compassion of our God,
Through which the Dayspring from on high has visted us,
To illuminate those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death . . .'

Notice that our antiphons are proceeding in a chronological direction through the Bible; not in the texts quoted, which are from here, there and everywhere, but in the events alluded to: Creation - Exodus - Jesse - David - and now the beginning of the Gospel, John the Baptist.

The symbolism of light is often applied to Christ in the New Testament, but for specifically eternal light we should look to Isaiah 60, which is all about light. The chapter begins,

Surge, illuminare, Ierusalem, quia venit lumen tuum,
Et gloria Domini super te orta est.

'Arise, shine, Jerusalem, for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.'

Note orta, 'risen', the past participle of orior, of which Oriens is the present participle. At verse 19 of this chapter we find,

Non erit tibi amplius sol ad lucendum per diem,
Nec splendor lunae illuminabit te;
Sed erit tibi Dominus in lucem sempiternam.

'The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light.'

This is taken up in the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse:

Et civitas non eget sole, neque luna ut luceant in ea, nam claritas Dei illuminavit eam, et lucerna eius est Agnus. (Rev. 21:23)

'And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.'

We should also note the Second Letter of St Peter, 1:19,

Et habemus firmiorem propheticum sermonem: cui benefacitis attendentes quasi lucernae lucenti in caliginoso donec dies elucescat, et lucifer oriatur in cordibus vestris.

'We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.'

The 'Sun of Righteousness' comes from Malachi 4:2,

'Et orietur vobis timentibus nomen meum Sol iustitiae, et sanitas in pennis
eius.' [note again the use of orior]

'And there shall rise upon you who fear my name the Sun of Righteousness,
with healing in his wings.'

To quote a much later writer, Charles Wesley, who continued this highly creative tradition of turning the scriptures into liturgy:

"Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
Triumph o'er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Daystar, in my heart appear."

Or again, by the same author - quoting it in his original form; we are more familiar with it in the slightly altered form it received from G. Whitefield, M. Madan and others:

"Hail the heavenly Prince of peace!
Hail the Sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings."

A vacant throne?

2011-12-20T15:29:00.006Z

A friend has pointed out to me this illustrated post from Andrew Cusack about recent changes to the what might be termed the seating arrangements in Dublin Castle, which can be read here. In many the Clever Boy approves no more than Mr Cusack does, and possibly even less... However the Clever Boy is rather given to the view that those who are not entitled to use things should not do so, so maybe the recent changes are apposite, if unfortunate in their totality, to put it mildly...

O Clavis David

2011-12-20T13:06:00.006Z

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel: qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et exuc vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris.

O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel; that openest, and no man shutteth, and shuttest, and no man openeth: come and bring the prisoner out of the prison-house, and him that sitteth in darkness and the shadow of death.

Our antiphons grow fuller and fuller of allusion.The main reference is to a certain Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who is promised at Isaiah 22:22,

Et dabo clavem domus David
Super humerum eius;
Et aperiet, et non erit qui claudat;
Et claudet, et non erit qui aperiat.

'And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.'

Into this text, more or less, the antiphon inserts the word 'sceptre'. This comes from a Messianic prophecy very early in the Bible, at Genesis 49:10,

Non aufertur sceptrum de Iuda,
Et dux de femore eius,
Donec veniat qui mittendus est,
Et ipse erit expectatio gentium.

'The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah,
nor the leader from his thigh,
until he comes who is to be sent,
and he will be the expectation of the nations.'

And who is this who sits in darkness, in prison? We find him in Isaiah 42, another key Messianic passage, which begins:

'Behold my servant, who I uphold: mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth;
I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the
Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in
the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall
he not quench . . .'

Then at verse 7 we find that his mission is:

Ut aperies oculos caecorum,
Et educeres de conclusione vinctum,
De domo carceris sedentes in tenebris.

'To open blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.'

We find St Luke quoting this passage in the Song of Zechariah, or 'Benedictus', in Luke 1:78-79,

Per viscera misericordiae Dei nostri:
In quibus visitavit nos, oriens ex alto:
Illuminare his qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent,
Ad dirigendos pedes nostros in viam pacis.

To Fr East's comments I would add that this antiphon clearly resonates with the Petrine commission of the keys, found in Matthew 16:19, and linked to Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23. Just as it refers back to Isaiah 22, so it links forward to Revelation 1:18.

In addition, tomorrow, December 21st, the traditional feast of St Thomas in the western rite, has a special antiphon for the Benedictus at Lauds:

Nolite timere: quinta enim die veniet ad vos Dominus noster.

Fear not, for on the fifth day our Lord will come to you.

'Habemus Papam'

2011-12-19T19:22:00.003Z

Last night the Clever Boy went with a friend to see Habemus Papam/We have a Pope, a recent Italian film about the election of a Pope who between election and appearing on the balcony of St peter's to be acclaimed by the faithful suffers a catastrophic panic attack. The film is about his reaction, that of the Sacred College and the psychoanalyst brought in to help him.

The film uses archive footage and clever scene setting, and the actors look and act like a possible College of Cardinals - continental cinema does these things very well. It is described as a comedy - the publicity stresses this - but I cannot say it was bundle of laughs. There were some amusing bits of interplay between the Cardinals which were credible.

The problems seemed to be that here was an intersting idea, but it rather lost the plot - like the unfortunate Pope at the centre of the drama. This film is not The Shoes of the Fisherman, nor is is The Pope Must Die. A curious offering.

O Radix Jesse

2011-12-19T10:05:00.005Z

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people, at whom kings shall shut their mouths, to whom the Gentiles shall seek: Come and deliver us, and tarry not.

'Radix Jesse' derives from Isaiah 11:1,

Et egredietur virga de radice Iesse, Et flos de radice eius ascendet.

'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.'

Jesse was the father of King David, founder of the Davidic dynasty of the Kings of Judah. It is very much alive. The Davidic dynasty came to a sticky and apparently final end when Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was taken prisoner by the King of Babylon:

'And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon' [2 Kings 25: 7] where he subsequently died. That was apparently the end of the line for David. But the Jews believed that God would send a Messiah, an 'Anointed one' (Greek 'Christ'), a king in succession to David, a new branch growing up from that truncated tree. Our antiphon salutes Jesus as that new shoot, growing from the stump of Jesse.

If we move on to Isaiah 11:10 we find more of our antiphon:

In die illa radix Iesse, Qui stat in signum populorum, Ipsum gentes deprecabuntur.

'And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.'

The Tree of Jesse as a genealogy of Our Lord, as in the Gospels, was common in medieval churches - the east windows of Dorchester Abbey and Selby Abbey, as well as a window in the nave of York Minster all illustrate it, as does the reredos of Christ Church Priory in Hampshire. These are all fourteenth century examples.

The remaining portion of our antiphon we find at Isaiah 52:15,

Super ipsum continebunt reges os suum,

'The kings shall shut their mouths at him'.

For Christians, this is a 'key' passage of Isaiah, for it occurs at the beginning of one of the 'suffering servant' passages, which Christians have always understood as referring to Christ:

'He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53:3-5).

Our O-antiphons, as we have seen, begin with Christ as the God of Creation (O Sapientia), then of the Exodus and the Law (O Adonai). Now we move on to Christ as Son of David, with a hint of his role as suffering servant.

O Adonai

2011-12-18T10:03:00.006Z

O Adonai, et dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O Adonai, and Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gavest him the Law in Sinai: Come and deliver us with an outstretched arm.

"Adonai" means "Lord" and is the name used in the Jewish tradition for God. The divine name, spelt with the consonants JHWH, was probably pronounced "Yahweh"; however, it came to be considered too holy to pronounce at all, and the Masoretic vowel-signs for the word Adonai were attached to the consonants. This was a signal for the reader to say "Adonai" rather than "Yahweh" when reading aloud. The convention was misunderstood by some (though not all) of the reformers, who combined the consonants of JHWH and the vowels of Adonai to create the quite novel word Jehovah. In recent years we have seen the commendable reprobation of the use of the term Yahweh in Catholic Bibles and texts by the present Pope

Our antiphon, then, identifies Christ very directly with the God of the Old Testament, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3) and gave him the Commandments on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20).

The phrase 'domus Israel', 'house of Israel'; is used many, many times in the Old Testamen as a name for the Hebrew people, and also a few times in the New Testament.

The phrase 'in brachio extento', 'with outstretched arm' is characteristic of the Book of Deuteronomy in describing God's mighty act of delivering Israel from bondage to the Egyptians; cf. Deut. 26:8, 'et eduxit nos de Aegypto in manu forti, et brachio extento.'

The O-Antiphons therefore begin by associating Christ with God in Creation: he is the Sapientia, Wisdom, who was with God and was God in the beginning, without whom nothing was made; in other words, with the God of Genesis.

Then they move on to associating him with the God of the Exodus, which in the NewTestament itself is regarded as a type of Christ's redeeming passion (cf. Luke 9:30-31, the Transfiguration: 'And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his Exodus, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.')

Several more of the antiphons compare the redemption wrought by Christ with deliverance from situations of imprisonment or slavery mentioned in the Old Testament. Curiously, none mentions the Exile in Babylon, which is alluded to so plainly in the first verse of our Latin hymn:

Veni, veni, Emmanuel,
captivum solve Israel,
qui gemit in exilio,
privatus Dei Filio.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,Redeem thy captive Israel,That into exile drear is gone,Far from the face of God's dear Son.

That happy and creative allusion is down to the hymnographer.

A Prime Minister who does "do God"

2011-12-17T15:09:00.003Z

Today's newspapers have reports of a speech made here in Christ Church cathedral in Oxford last night by the Prime Minister in which he said that the Church of England should be proclaiming traditional Christian teaching with more vigour. This he based partly on the point that if the Archbishop of Canterbury feels able to comment on politics (and who is indeed prone to comment on any and everything at the drop of a mitre) then he as a layman in public life can comment on the ecclesiastical sphere. A fair point. Unlike some of his recent predecessors the Prime Minister clearly does "do God."A good point. He stresses that this is a Christian country and that churchmen should not be afraid to assert the teachings of the faith and not to lie down passively in the face of opposition or rivals. Another good point.

The Prime Minister, speaking at an occasion to commemorate the 1611 Bible translation, stressed Biblical teaching as a moral basis for social life. From what else I have read of his views in these matters I think Mr Cameron understands this in a very interior way - faith is a matter of personal conviction and behaviour above all, and less a matter of structure and organisation.

I have to point out that this is not the historic understanding of Christianity of either the established Church in this land over the centuries - Catholic or Anglican - nor of the Conservative Party. A few weeks ago the Prime Minister was telling his party conference he believed in same-sex marriages because he was a Conservative, not in spite of it. Now he may be able to believe both - you can be a Christian in public life and at the same time support something which is against the clear tradition of the faith. His attitude to abortion may well be the same. It is liberal, libertarian - but not truly Christian or Conservative.

I do not want to be grudging - a Prime Minister with a concern for belief and spiritual values which he is prepared to voice is infinitely better (well, let's face it, anyone or anything would be) better than the sanctimonious and hypocritical Mr Blair. If, however, Mr Cameron sees Conservatism as a form of Christian Democracy, it really has to be more than words and telling churchmen to do their job - much as that needs to be done in certain cases. The eminently Biblical Epistle of St James has something to say about faith and works.

O Sapientia

2011-12-17T10:02:00.007Z

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom, which camest out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.

The Antiphon is based on Wisdom 8:1, "Attingit ergo a fine usque ad finem
fortiter, Et disponit omnia suaviter."

Wisdom, in the Old Testament "is more than a mere quality and tends increasingly to
become a hypostasis, so especially in Prov. 8 and Wisd. 7.22 ff" (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church - ODCC).

Proverbs 8:12 ff runs:

"Ego sapientia, habito in consilio, et eruditus intersum cogitationibus . . . Meum est consilium, et aequitatis; Mea est prudentia, mea est fortitudo. Per me reges regnant . . ." [Making the link between Sapientia and Prudentia].

Wisdom 7:22 ff. runs:

"Est enim in illa [i.e. in Sapientia] spiritus intelligentiae, sanctus,
Unicus, multiplex, subtilis, disertus, mobilis,
Incoinquinatus, certus, suavis, amans bonum, acutus,
Quem nihil vetat, benefaciens,
Humanus, benignus, stabilis, certus, securus,
Omnem habens virtutem, omnia prospiciens,
Et qui capiat omnes spiritus,
Intelligibilis, mundus, subtilis."

"In the New Testament Divine Wisdom is incarnate in Christ, who St Paul calls 'the wisdom of God' (I Cor 1:24)" [ODCC]. The relevant passage is as follows:

I Corinthians, 1:23 ff,

Nos autem praedicamus Christum crucifixum: Iudaeis quidem scandalum, gentibus autem stultitiam, ipsis autem vocatis Iudaeis, atque Graecis Christum Dei virtutem, et Dei sapientiam: quia quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus: et quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus.

"But we preach Christ crucified: to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power ('Virtue') of God and the Wisdom of God; because what is foolish of God, is wiser than men; and what is weak of God, is stronger than men."

"Amongst the Fathers most use 'Wisdom' as a synonym for the Incarnate Word or Logos" (ODCC).

The phrase "suaviter fortiter" occurs in Boethius De Consolatione and has been regarded as the only definite reference to the scriptures and/or the Christian liturgy in that work. But see James Shiel's interesting article "fortiter suaviter" which can be found online here.

The abstract of the article is as follows:

F o r t i t e r s u a v i t e r

by James Shiel

A happy phrase used by Lady Philosophy in Boethius' Consolation has often been quoted as a meagre but significant indication of Christian belief. But it seems rather to be the normal expression of a Neoplatonic sentiment about the combination of power and effortlessness in divine action. And the pleasure expressed by Boethius over the verbal felicity simply echoes the emphasis placed on appropriate dignity of idiom in Eleatic and Platonic descriptions of the divine.

"It is therefore the supreme goodness which rules all things strongly and orders them sweetly." ashiel.html - fn1[1]

This sentence occurs at a pivotal point in Boethius' dialogue with Lady Philosophy. Their discussion had started with his complaint about the injustice of his being imprisoned and condemned as if blind Fortune ruled the universe. The Lady gradually steers him through arguments about the instability and illusion of what men generally regard as good, such as
wealth, power, esteem. The prisoner at last comes to fasten firmly on to one abiding conviction, that, despite the bitter appearances to the contrary, a supreme goodness coordinates all things, including the vagaries of Fate. From that central stance the dialogue can go on to explain the nature of Providence, its control over Fate, its compatibility with human free-will, its rewarding of moral effort and prayer.

A Christian version of the crucial sentence has been noted in the Latin church liturgy, in an Advent antiphon with a memorable plain-chant tune. I translate it from the Liber Usualis (a more complete text than that given in Bieler's edition of the Consolatio):

O Wisdom who have come from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end strongly, sweetly, and disposing all things, come to teach us the way of prudence." ashiel.html - fn2[2] The
antiphon is evidently based on the Vulgate Book of Wisdom, the Sapientia Salamonis (8,1) ashiel.html - fn3[3], which in turn was a close translation from the Greek Septuagint: "Wisdom stretches from end to end strongly and disposes all things gently." ashiel.html - fn4[4]

Boethius in prison communes with Lady Philosophy

Image:hermes-press.com

O Antiphons

2011-12-16T10:01:00.011Z

Some years ago on the Medieval Religion discussion group there were a series of posts on the Great Os - the antiphons to the Magnificat sung at Vespers from December 17th to 23rd. I thought I would recycle them with a bit of editing and a few additions on my own part.

The commentaries were originally written by Fr Bill East and posted in 1998, and reposted by Tim Henderson in 2000. In addition I have drawn on a post from Fr Thomas Sullivan OSB of Conception Abbey in Missouri about the monastic practice of singing the Great O's. Today there is an introduction, and then each day there will be an exposition of the antiphon.

Oliver Treanor's Seven Bells to Bethlehem is an excellent Advent book based on reflections on the themes of the O Antiphons.

Most people first become aware of the O Antiphons with the hymn Veni, veni Emmanuel. The antiphons themselves are more ancient in origin and date back to at least the ninth century. The hymn itself was composed in the 12th century in French and the Latin version of the hymn was first published at Cologne in 1710. It was translated by J.M.Neale in to English in the mid-nineteenth century and with a setting adapted by Thomas Helmore from a fifteenth century processional.

According to Fr William Saunders as quoted on Wikipedia:

"The exact origin of the "O Antiphons" is not known. Boethius (480–524/5) made a slight reference to them, thereby suggesting their presence at that time. At the Benedictine abbey of Fleury (now Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire), these antiphons were recited by the abbot and other abbey leaders in descending rank, and then a gift was given to each member of the community. By the eighth century, they were in use in the liturgical celebrations in Rome. The usage of the "O Antiphons" was so prevalent in monasteries that the phrases "Keep your O" and "The Great O Antiphons" were common parlance. One may thereby conclude that in some fashion the "O Antiphons" have been part of Western liturgical tradition since the very early Church.

The Benedictine monks arranged these antiphons with a definite purpose. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one—Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia—the Latin words ero cras are formed, meaning, "Tomorrow, I will come". Therefore Jesus, whose coming Christians have prepared for in Advent and whom they have addressed in these seven Messianic titles, now speaks to them: "Tomorrow, I will come." So the "O Antiphons" not only bring intensity to their Advent preparation, but bring it to a joyful conclusion."

The notes in my copy of the St Andrew's Missal stress the mounting sense of expectancy through Advent leading to the heartfelf intercessions of these antiphons and says that Honorius of Autun (d. circa 1151) likened the seven O Antiphons to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, with which Christ was filled.

The Sarum Office started using the antiphons a day earlier on December 16th and concluded with an eighth antiphon, O Virgo Virginum on December 23rd. This was revived by the liturgists of the Oxford Movement and I will post that in addition on December 23rd. I do not know why this change occurred - I wonder, but do not know, if it could be with a system of saying anticipated Vespers, so there was an extra one on the 23rd that needed an antiphon of its own. With this the acrostic becomes vero cras : "Truly, tomorrow."

Writing of monastic practice Fr Sullivan writes:

"In parts of Germany, for example, it was the custom to illuminate the antiphon for the day very beautifully on a separate piece of parchment and to expose it to view upon the great lectern in the centre of the choir, as we do with the Christmas book here at Conception. In most churches, provision was made for the special ringing of bells at Vespers on these days: they were rung as if on a feastday or the heaviest bell was used. We at Conception ring a bell all through the Magnificat. Sometimes the antiphon was doubled, that is, sung after each verse or couplet.

But the most interesting of all observances for the great antiphons were the pomp and circumstance which almost everywhere and especially in the monasteries, were attached to the intoning of them. The intoning of antiphons on feast days was always reserved to the abbot or other dignitaries of the chapter and this was particularly true of the O Antiphons. The right of intoning one of the O Antiphons was jealously limited by immemorial custom to certain higher officers in the community and each of these great functionaries had his own appropriate antiphon. In most monasteries, the antiphon O Sapientia (O Wisdom) was reserved to the Abbot and O Adonai to the Prior. Some antiphons were entoned by the obedientiary or functionary most closely associated with the theme of the antiphon: O Radix Jesse was reserved to the gardener, O Clavis David to the cellarer whose duty it was to keep things under lock and key, and O Rex Gentium to the infirmarian, since the antiphon contained the clause, "Come and save (or heal) man whom you have formed out of clay." At Conception, the dean of studies or the librarian sometimes presented the Christmas book to the Abbot for entoning "O Sapientia" and the groundskeeper for the antiphon "O Radix Jesse."

Moreover from this custom of making much of the privilege of entoning the great antiphons a curious development resulted. It seems to have been regarded as becoming that the high functionary so favoured should mark his sense of the honour done him by standing for a treat for the community for "making or keeping his O" (faciendo suum O). The account rolls of the various departments record the expenses for this haustus or treat, frequently beer, fish, spices, and almonds. It is surprising that this party-like spirit should prevail over the fasting days of Advent; probably the whole system may be best explained as a lingering survival of that spirit of joy and expectation which was a prominent though not a unique feature in the Advent liturgy of the early centuries.

The letter O simply tells us that we're talking to someone. but O also reminds us of much more. It makes us think of something having no beginning or end. It resembles the shape of our mouth and the sound we make when we face a mystery we cannot fully comprehend."

Rorate Mass this coming Saturday

2011-12-14T11:59:00.003Z

Today is the first of the December Ember days in the traditional practice of the Church, with their three seasonal Masses. A Mass with a similar introit and the same Gospel as that for today, Rorate, can be offered as a votive on other days at this time of year, and is devoted to the expectancy of Our Lady. It is celebrated by candlelight as dawn breaks. There is a background post here about the tradition.

In recent years the offering of this Extraordinary Form Mass has become a regular feature of the Advent calendar of the Oxford Oratory, and this year the Rorate Mass will be celebrated there at 7am on Saturday this week, December 17th. So if you are around Oxford and want a good start before the next bout of Christmas shopping you know where to go.

* Revised in the light of the first comment received - many thanks to the friend who put me right in this matter.

The Prince Consort

2011-12-14T10:01:00.010Z

150 years ago today the Prince Consort died. A highly gifted man who was not always appreciated by his wife's subjects as he was entitled to be by reason of his abilities and the support he gave her, and who after the Queen's death became something of an image of what was seen as an old fashioned world, it has only in recent decades that his reputation has been recovered and his talents valued. Rather like the Albert Memorial he was an object of wry amusement or even ridicule until restoration occurred to both reputation and monument. It is wonderful to be able to see the latter once again as it was intended, and to take in the craftsmanship and the grandeur of the composition.

The Albert Memorial

Image:aviewoncities.com

Although the link above questions the story that his statue was painted black during the Great War on the odd sounding notion that its reflection would help German zeppelin raids on the capital - and thinks it was a pre-1914 response to atmospheric pollution which had destroyed the gold leaf - the idea does convey something of the attitude to 'German' Albert.

The restored statue of the Prince Consort on the Albert Memorial

Image: yourlocalweb.cm/Westminster

I think there is something deliberately and unpleasantly offensive in G.K.Chesterton's strictures from 1920 or thereabouts on the Memorial. Writing after visiting Jerusalem the rabidly anti-German GKC considered there was nothing so conspicuous, gilded or gaudy in Jerusalem, and that an Orthoox pilgrim confronted by it would probably hope it was a temple erected to Christ, fear it was to Antichrist and probably recoil with unimaginable perplexity if told that the gilded idol was really "a petty German prince who had some slight influence in turning us into the tools of Prussia."( Dudley Barker G.K.Chesterton p.241).

I see that there is a new book by Helen Rappaport, who I met through St Bede's Hall when it was functioning, which looks at Albert's death and its impact on the Queen, the Crown and the nation.
Magnificent Obsession:Victoria, Albert and the Death That Changed the Monarchy was published last month by Hutchinson, and is a book I would like to find time to read.

Amongst Prince Albert's many achivements is the church at Whippingham on the Osborne estate on the Isle of Wight. Built in 1854-5 and completed in 1861-2 it is the work of the architect A. J. Humbert, but working on the Prince's overall design. The church website is here. What makes the church particularly interesting is the insight it gives into the spirituality of Victoria and Albert. Along with their Mausoleum at Frogmore and the work carried out by the Queen at St George's Windsor, and the number of paintings with a religious theme in their appartments at Osborne. This is not 'Black Protestantism' by any means, and ought to provide for more fruitful academic attention than it has hitherto received - but I will come back to that topic on another occasion.

Meanwhile let us remember the Prince Consort with gratitude for his great achievements - not least the South Kensington complex and his contribution to the development of the monarchy in the nineteenth century.

The Vestments of Dr Adrian Fortescue

2011-12-13T14:10:00.003Z

A friend has pointed out to me a set of posts on the St Lawrence Press blog about the surviving vestments of Dr Adrian Fortescue the original author of, inter alia, that classic work for practical liturgists The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described. There is an online biography of him here, and Fr Aidan Nichols has a book on him coming out in the new year.

In my days at Pusey one of the regular female attenders, who now, like me, has crossed the Tiber remarked of some of the Sacristan-servers "They ought to have bracelets marked not with WWJD [What Would Jesus Do] but WWFD - What Would Fortescue Do."

The posts are about vestments which were both designed and worn by Fortescue, and are in the gothic style, and can be viewed at The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD. Part I, The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD - Part II, The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD - Part III, The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD - Part IV, The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD - Part V, The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD - Part VI, The Vestments of Adrian Fortescue, DD - Part VII

St Lucy

2011-12-13T10:41:00.006Z

Today is the feast day of St Lucy, one of the Virgin martyrs who is named in the Roman Canon, and who has enjoyed widespread veneration through the centuries.

St Lucy and her mother Eutychia receive a vision of St Agatha after praying at her tomb.
A painting of 1410 by Jacobello del Fiore (c.1370-1439).
Civic Museum Fermo

Image:Wikipedia

There is a good account of her life and legend here showing how her story and image developed. She continues to be particularly celebrated in Sweden and, as this article on St Lucy's Day shows, that tradition has spread to other Scandinavian countries during the last century. An example of the diffusion and 'invention' of tradition. The article also examines teh reasons for the persistence of devotion to St Lucy in a Lutheran country far from the origins of her cult in Sicily.

The Imperial Crown of India

2011-12-12T10:06:00.009Z

Today is the centenary of the Coronation Durbar in Delhi of the King-Emperor George V.

There is an online article about the Durbars of 1877, 1903 and 1911 here. I understand from a friend who works on the history of India that the ceremonial was carefully modelled on that of pre-1857 Mughal Imperial enthronements.

There is another about the title Emperor of India here, from which I was interested to learn that the title was used until June 22 1948, ten months after partition and independence, and two years before the present Indian state became a republic.

The King-Emperor receiving homage
Image: myspace.com

The two previous Durbars had been held by the Viceroy, but in 1911 the monarch himself was present.

This can be interpreted as part of what can misleadingly be termed the "invention of tradition" at that time. I would prefer to use a term like "recovery of tradition" to describe the process. It is interesting that King george V, by temperament arather retiring man shoul dbe so prominent in this process. Under him the Coronation service was restored to more of its traditional form, St Edward's Crown permanently set with precious stones, the Investiture of the Prince of Wales revived as a public ceremony and held at Caernarvon, the Durbar held by the King-Emperor, the wearing of the Imperial State Crown at the State Opening from 1913 and, later on, at the suggestion of his cousin Princess Marie- Louise, the Royal Maundy once more given by the Monarch in person. This policy has been continued by King George VI - as for example the revival of much of the Order of the Garter ceremonial in 1948 to mark its 600th anniversary - and by the present Queen.

The King-Emperor and Queen-Empress at the Durbar

Image: Press Association

The presence of the King-Emperor posed a ceremonial problem. As a Coronation Durbar it was fitting for him to wear a crown ansd robes of state. However the Act of Settlement of 1701 forbids the removal from the realm of the crown jewels. As a result a new crown had to be made - there are details about its composition and cost, together with a photograph, here. The government were sceptical about having new crwons across the Empire and it was suggested that after its return with the King to Britain it should be broken up. This was rejected by the King, who considered his Indian subjects would appreciate seeing it alongside the other regalia in the Tower of London.

Then the question arose as to when the King-Emperor should put the crown on. Entering the Durbar arena and putting it on himself would make it a non-religious ceremony, which was opposed by Archbishop Davidson of Canterbury, but a Christian coronation of the ruler of an overwhelmingly Hindu and Muslim empire deemed inappropriate. As a result the King-Emperor entered the Durbar robed and crowned, and the Queen-Empress wore robes and a tiara made for the occasion. This was inherited by the present Queen from Queen Mary, but not used until recent years when it has been worn by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

When the funeral of King George V was held in 1936 no place was found for the Indian crown - the second Orb, that of Queen Mary II, placed on Queen Victoria's coffin in 1901 is said to have symbolised her position as Empress of India. By contrast in Austria alongside the Imperial Crown was placed a replica of the Hungarian Crown to symbolise the dual monarchy - and India could be deemed to be analogous.

The Imperial Crown of India

Image:Hylaride on Flickr

Following the independence of India and Pakistan and their becoming republics this spectacular crown has remained a museum piece rather than part of the living regalia of the monarchy. However as a crown that is not bound by statute to this realm it could take on the function of one to accompany the Monarch to his or her other realms, either to be worn or carried at State Openings of Parliament. Rather like the 'House-Crown' of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II became the Imperial Crown of Austria after 1804-6 the Indian Crown could take on a new function.

Now that would be an invention or revival, or extension, of tradition - but it would, to my mind, make sense.

The Abdication of King Edward VIII

2011-12-11T10:08:00.001Z

Seventy five years ago today there occured the abdication of King Edward VIII. At the time it was a profound shock to Britain and her Empire, and remains a subject of fascination, and an event with a continuing legacy for the monarchy.

The Instrument of Abdication

It took a day for the necessary legislation to pass through Parliament here and in the Dominions

Image: Wikipedia

Both Crown and subjects were fortunate in that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were to prove so faithful and conscientious in the exercise of kingship, and to have transmitted that tradition to the Queen and through her to the next generations.

There have been many accounts of the abdication crisis which make for interesting reading, but I was struck by this portrait of the King by his former secretary Sir Alan Lascelles which I found on the internet "Prince Charmless: A damning portrait of Edward VIII".

Lascelles expressed his view of Edward that "for some hereditary or physiological reason his normal mental development stopped dead when he reached adolescence."

There are varying interpretations of the life and character of King Edward VIII and Lascelles' view may not be definitive, even if as a former Private Secretary it tends to the authoratative. There is an interesting similarity to a view I have seen of the other English King who was the eighth of his name* - King Henry VIII has been presented as a monarch whose accession at the age of almost eighteen had the effect of stunting his development - not that he was not intelligent, but that he stopped developing emotionally. An interesting, if coincidental, similarity perhaps - and in both cases matrimonial difficulties were to follow.

* In reality there have been eleven English Kings called Edward and nine called Henry (ten if you are a Jacobite) - there are three Kings Edward before the Norman Conquest, and Henry The Young King 1170-83 as co-ruler with his father.

St Edmund Gennings and St Swithun Wells

2011-12-10T11:37:00.003Z

On December 1oth 1591, fifty years to the day after Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were executed, Londoners were able to witness another set of executions, those of a priest, St Edmund Gennings and of a layman, St Swithun Wells, who had made his house at Grays Inn available for St Edmund to celebrate Mass.

Arrested at the altar St Edmund was led away to prison still in his vestments and St Swithun. who had not been present, was arrested upon his return home. Both were executed outside the house, the priest being hanged drawn and quartered, the householder being hanged.

St Edmund Gennings
Modern statue in St Etheldreda's Holborn

Image: Lawrence Lew on Flickr

St Swithun Wells
Modern statue in St Etheldreda's Holborn

Image: Mary's Dowry Productions

There is piece about both of them from Mary' Dowry Films in connection with two films about the two martyrs here.

There is an online life of St Swithun Wells here. He had been born in Hampshire in 1536 and his name suggests devotion on the part of his parents to the local saint, St Swithun, whose shrine was in Winchester cathedral.

St Edmund Gennings was born in Lichfield in 1567, and his martyrdonm had a profound effect on recalling his brother to the Catholic faith and to discover his own vocation. The Oxford DNB life of St Edmund, with a link to that of his brother can be read here and there is another online life of him, with an early portrait, here.

A gentleman of the bedchamber

2011-12-10T09:24:00.014Z

December 10th is the 470th anniversary of the execution in 1541 at Tyburn of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham for adultery with Catherine Howard, whose marriage to King Henry VIII had been annulled a few days previously.

Retha M. Warnicke's Oxford DNB life of the Queen includes biographies of both these two men and can be read here. There is also an online life of Culpeper here, and one of Queen Catherine here. *

Queen Catherine Howard
Minaiture by Hans Holbein the Younger
The portrait has been persuasively identified through the jewels on her dress, which match those in her inventory.

Image Wikipedia, from the Royal collection

Quite apart from its interest as one of the more sensational episodes in an era of court sensations this story has always had the added interest of a connection with my home town of Pontefract. It had been during the King and Queen's progress to the north in the late summer of 1541 that the affair between Catherine and Culpeper flourished.

The one surviving letter from Catherine to Culpeper probably belongs to the earlier stages of the tour, being thought to have been written at Liddington or Lincoln. It can be seen and read both in the original and in transcript on this link to the National Archives website or by clicking on the red arrow under the photograph.

Letter from Catherine Howard to Thomas Culpeper, 1541

"Yours as long as life endures, Katherine"

The royal party arrived at Pontefract Castle on August 23 1541, and it was at Pontefract that four days later the Queen appointed Dereham, to whom was technically married, as her secretary. Whilst the King went on alone to visit Hull before he entered York in state with his Queen, and whilst the Privy Council were, amongst other things, confirming in meetings at Pontefract the new statutes of the King's new cathedral foundations at Gloucester and Peterborough, as well as those for the new secular chapter for that at Ely, elsewhere in the castle less salubrious activities were apparently taking place...

Pontefract Castle
A painting of circa 1630 now in Pontefract Museum.
In 1541 the castle would have appeared much the same, although possibly better maintained.

Image: Wakefield MDC Museums

On the internet I found an account of Thomas' father Sir Alexander Culpeper of Hardreshull and Bedgebury in Kent who had died the previous summer - probate on his will being granted on June 21st 1541. Thomas, the lover of Queen Catherine, was the son of his father's third marriage, and appears to have been about ten to fifteen years younger than his elder siblings. His mother died in 1542.

Details of his father's life, and those of his family, including the text of his will, which is interesting in itself with its extensive religious provisions, offering an insight into the spirituality of the gentry in the period, can be read here.

Sir Alexander and Lady Culpeper's tomb is in Goudhurst church:

Tomb of Sir Alexander Culpeper and his wife Constance in Goudhurst church, Kent

Image:pashnit.com

Stone relief of 'Old Sir Alexander' Culpeper and his family.
In the jamb of the bay window above the effigies of Sir Alexander and his wife is asmall stone relief dated 1537. It depicts God in Majesty, the Virgin and child, St George slaying the dragon, and kneeling figures of the Culpeper family.

Image: gen.culpepper.com

* The only episode of the recent televison series The Tudors I have seen was about the affair of Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpeper.The episode lived up to all I had been led to expect - serious or bizarre historical inaccuracies, anachronistic costuming and sets, indifferent acting, and some fairly pornographic scenes - but also, as others had indicated, there were the occasional flahes of insight. A curious production.

The Visionary of Tepeyac

2011-12-09T10:03:00.006Z

Last year I posted this piece about Our Lady of Guadalupe and St Juan Diego Cuatitiatoatzin. This is an opportunity to make it available again.

This year Our Lady's feast is not subsumed by Sunday, so both the apparition and St Juan Diego will be commemorated. St Juan Diego's commemoration falls today, the anniversary of Our Lady appearing to him on the hill of Tepeyac 480 years ago. There is an online life of him and the story of the reception of his story here.

St Juan Diego Cuahtlatoatzin

Image : Wikipedia

Not only is this a day to give thanks for Our Lady's appearance to St Juan Diego and its impact on the life of the Church in New Spain, but also to pray with and for the Church in Mexico which has witnessed bouts of terrible persecution within the last century and a half from anti-clerical and anti-Christian forces.

Immaculate Conception - an Antolinez in England

2011-12-09T08:45:00.008Z

I have now found an image of the other version by Jose Antolinez of the Immaculate Conception.

It is in the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle in county Durham, which has the largest number of Spanish paintings in Britain outside London in addition to its other collections - notably of French eighteenth and nineteenth century art and furnishings. The Bowes is very well worth visiting if you are in the area - it is quite a surprise to find a collection similar in nature to the Wallace Collection in London on the edge of a small northern market town. The website of the museum is here.

Image: Bowes Museum

The painting is, in my opinion, quite lovely - one that stays in the memory with its charm and delicacy and joyful exhuberance. Worth a visit to the Museum for that alone.

José Claudio Antolinez (1635-75) spent most of his painting career working in his home city of Madrid. He commonly painted depictions of the Immaculate Conception, done in a colourful and gentle style. By contrast, Antonlinez himself was known for having a bad temper and a considerable ego. His '"haughty character and sarcastic personality gained him many enemies among his contemporaries", and he played maddening jokes on his colleagues.In addition to religious paintings, he also produced several portraits and genre scenes. He died in Madrid from a fever in 1675 after suffering a number of wounds during a fencing match.

Immaculate Conception

2011-12-08T09:49:00.008Z

We have been preparing for today's Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception here at the Oxford Oratory with the usual Novena in church - I have managed to attend most days, but not, alas, all - and had Solemn Vespers and Benediction yesterday evening. This evening there will be a Solemn Mass. Not only is the Oratory under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady but also the Archdiocese of Birmingham, so it has a double significance for us.

There is auseful account of the historical development of this dogma here.

The Immaculate Conception
by José Claudio Antolinez (1635-1675)

Image: Catholicism Pure and Simple blog

There is another version of this painting by Antolinez at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, and is quite breath-taking to see.

Deep night hath come down on this rough-spoken world

And the banners of darkness are boldly unfurled;

And the tepest-tossed Church - all her eyes are on thee,

They look to thy shining, Sweet Star of the Sea.

Fr Faber

St Ambrose

2011-12-07T10:40:00.006Z

In my post St Ambrose in Milan last year I looked at what St Ambrose may have looked like, and what he looks like now. This year I thought I would share this early fourteenth century view of him, simply because it is a beautiful painting.

From the cycle by Simone Martini of 1313-18 in St Martin Chapel in the Lower Church at Assisi. A detail from the Dream of St Ambrose as depicted by Simone Martini

Image: yet-another-fashion-blog

Of course it could be a comment on so many synodical and such like meetings.

Understanding the response of SSPX

2011-12-06T13:20:00.001Z

There was a post from last week on New Liturgical Movement about the SSPX's response to the CDF and particularly the Doctrinal Preamble. It is by the well-respected Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli. Although it does not tell us more that we already knew, it does provide more in the way of informed interpretation. The discussions are clearly not easy going, but they are not over yet. It can be read at Fellay: “We cannot accept the Preamble as it is”

Celebrating St Nicholas

2011-12-06T10:20:00.015Z

The other evening an acquaintance who was born as a Catholic in Italy, but who despite ( or because of?) a Jesuit education and following settling here in England and research in Germany lapsed into Anglicanism, and a great devotion to Martin Luther ( he carries a copy of the Ninety Five Theses in his pocket) asked me why we did not celebrate St Nicholas in England as is done on the continent. I did not forbear to point out that this was a legacy of the baleful effects of the Protestantism into which he had fallen.

There is a wonderful array of information about the cult of St Nicholas and links to a huge selection of images of him created over the centuries on the website of the St Nicholas Center which I would recommend this as a resource to anyone interested in his cult. Here is a painting which I particularly liked, with iths wonderful detail, from the 125 paintings they feature, not to mention icons, sculptures, illuminations and stained glass:

St Nicholas
The master of St Lucy, 1486-93
Groeninge Museum Bruges

The saint sits frontally on a vaulted stone throne which stands in an open gallery. He is blessing the spectator. The handle of his staff is adorned with the images of St Lawrence (with the grid), St Mary Magdalene (vase) and St James the Less (fuller's club). On each side of the throne can be seen a piece of the arcade which opens out onto a landscape with the panorama of Bruges. From left to right we can recognize the towers of Our Lady's, St Saviour's, the Oosterlingenhuis (house of the German hanza), the belfry, the Poorters' Lodge, and to the right of the canopy the Jerusalem Church. Scholars in the 1950s made out the panel to be the centrepiece of a St Nicholas retable with fixed wings which each contained two scenes from the life of this saint on top of one another. In this manner it was possible to identify the enthroned bishop as St Nicholas. The scenes portray to the left the charity of St Nicholas and the miracle of the grain, and to the right the murder of the three children and their resurrection from the salt-tub.

Donated as a Van Eyck, the central panel was very soon ascribed to the Master of the Legend of St Lucy. As with another series of panels by this master, as well as by his contemporary and fellow-citizen the Master of the Legend of St Ursula, a date has been suggested on the basis of the stage of building of the carefully portrayed Bruges belfry. Seeing that the octagonal crown with the wooden steeple was built between 1482 and 1486 and, after the fire of 1493, rebuilt from 1499 to 1502, a painting in which the belfry has this superstructure could have been made between 1486 and 1493 or after 1502. The former dating seems to be more probable.

There is a remarkable similarity in composition and conception between the enthroned St Nicholas by the Lucy Master and the panel with Santo Domingo de Silos, painted between 1477 and 1477 for the church of that name in Daroca (Spain) by Bartolomé Bermejo (now Madrid, Museo del Prado). This Santo Domingo de Silos retable was also originally flanked by two horizontally split panels. It could be assumed that the St Nicholas altarpiece was a Spanish commission in which Bermejo's retable in Daroca was recommended as a model.

Image:Web Gallery of Art

Last year I posted about the Relics of St Nicholas and this year I thought I would link to a site about one of the finest medieval churches dedicated to St Nicholas in England - indeed one of the 'must see' parish churches of the country - St Nicholas Stanford on Avon in Northamptonshire. There is a fine set of expandable images of the church here. The church contains a rich array of tombs from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, fine medieval glass, screenwork and a seventeenth century pipe-organ. One previous incumbent was William Laud, the future Archbishop of Canterbury.

When I first visited it I found a connection to my home area. In the middle ages the manor and advowson was held by Selby Abbey in Yorkshire and in 1430 the newly elected Abbot John Cave (1429-36) leased the manor to his nephew, who like the Abbot, came from South Cave in the East Riding. The Cave family descendents went on to buy the manor at the dissolution and still live at Stanford Hall - they now hold the revived Braye barony created by King Henry VII.

Stanford is a small village supporting a great treasure in its parish church - I recall a television appeal years ago to raise money for its restoration. Sadly it is now in a union of parishes, and only has a service once a month on the first Sunday plus ones at Christmas and Easter.

Together with a visit to the delightful late seventeenth century Stanford Hall, with a fine collection of Jacobite portraits and adisplay about the first modern attempts to produce powered flight in England in 1898, is an ideal place for an afternoon out exploring the treasures still to be found in the countryside. On a winter day something to look forward to for next summer perhaps?

St Birinus

2011-12-05T10:29:00.008Z

St Birinus, whose feast it is today, was the missionary bishop who evangelised the mid-Thames valley and later the Kingdom of Wessex. He died in 649 0r 650. Originally buried at Dorchester on Thames his relics were later tranlated to Winchester, although there were relics and a shrine, of which part remains in a modern reconstruction, at Dorchester. This served as the site of the of a cathedral until 1072 when the cathedra of the united east-midland dioceses was established at Lincoln.

The former cathedral, which retained for some time pro-cathedral status, was refounded as an Augustinian priory, now known as Dorchester Abbey, and its surviving church is one of the most interesting examples of a medium-sized monastic building and its gradual eveolution. It has some wonderful medieval glass and carving, both on the building itself and in the fine selection of tomb effigies. In the modern reconstructed cloister walk is a fine display of twelfth century architectural fragments which was organised by my Orielensis friend David Kendrick.

The biography of St Birinus by Barbara Yorke in the Oxford DNB can be read here and David Nash Ford's account has more about local legendary associations. It can be read here.

The stress in the life of St Birinus upon his miraculous recovery of a Papal gift to him - a corporal which Pope Honorius I himself had blessed - can be understood as an expression of the unity of his mission with the see of Peter, and the monastic church at Dorchester is dedicated to SS Peter and Paul. The suggestion is that the King of Wessex gave him as an estate a site not only with a Roman origin and remains, but one which may well have still sheltered a residual British Christian community.

On a more prosaic, or whimsical, and even Chestertonian, note I believe I am right in saying that it was St Birinus who first noted the consumption by the Anglo-Saxons of ale or beer.

St Birinus is consecrated as a bishop
Medieval glass roundel in the north chapel of Dorchester abbey

Image: sacred-destinations.com

St Birinus preaching to the King of Wessex and his followers.

Fourteenth century glass in the east window of Dorchester abbey

Image: ecclsoc.org

The exquisite mid-nineteenth century Catholic church in Dorchester dedicated to him, and its continuing programme of restoration and redecoration, initiated by the parish priest Fr John Osman has been featured in other posts on this blog, but the parish webite at St Birinus, Dorchester gives more information.

If Dorchester Abbey is well worth visiting for its medieval features, then a visit should, no must, be combined with one to see both the wonderful work executed recently in St Birinus but also to attend Mass there - the corporal in use may not be a gift from the Pope, but the liturgy is. St Birinus would approve.

St Barbara

2011-12-04T10:15:00.004Z

In addition to St Osmund today is also the traditional feast day of St Barbara - whose cultic recognition was one of the victims of Pope Paul VI's cull in 1969-70. The reason was, I understand, the lack of historical evidence for her actual existence - as with St Catherine of Alexandria. Her very name Barbara suggested a Barbarian origin, and she was expunged as a pious fiction. However reading her story as oulined in the link below I am tempted to say that her story looks very much like that of an 'honour killing', and should not have been so easily dismissed.

In the meantime the long standing devotion to her has not ceased as is mentioned in this online article about her. Maybe, like St Catherine, she will make a liturgical comeback.

She is one of the demoted saints who turns up, complete in her case with artillery piece, in one of Robertson Davies' comic ghost stories in High Spirits - a book which I recommend as I do the rest of his works.

St Barbara in her tower by Robert Campin 1438

The Werl Altarpiece in The Prado Madrid

This painting is interesting in its own right as a depiction of an early fifteenth century interior

Image: Wikipedia

Saint Barbara and her tower,
French, (Villeloup, Aube) circa 1520–30
Statue in polychromed limestone

Image: Wikipedia