Ultima Thule identified?

The website Greek Reporter is a useful resource for stories about Classical Greece and the Hellenistic world. A recent report outlined the latest theory to emerge to try to identify Thule, or Ultima Thule, as described by Pytheas of Massalia ( Marseilles ) and which survives only in quotations and citations by later Greek authors. 

In the years leading up to 300BC Pytheas sailed from his home city, or possibly from the mouth of the Loire, around the islands to the north for which he gives the first record of their name - Britain. He then sailed a further six days northwards to a wintry world of ice and snow, the very limit of humanity. This he named Thule, or Ultima Thule. Where exactly he was has been a source of much speculation. However the latest theory, which looks on the surface reasonable, given our fragmentary knowledge of Pytheas’ work, identifies it as most probably being Iceland. The article making the case can be read at Greek Discovery of Iceland Supported by Linguistic Evidence

It contains a link to an earlier article on the same website about Pytheas’ exploration of the north-east Atlantic, and his recording of Britain, which can be seen at The First Ancient Greek to Reach Britain and the Arctic

To know more about Pytheas, or at least about the theories about him, Wikipedia has a quite detailed account at Pytheas

Both articles reproduce an Italian map made in 1490 that sought to reconstruct Ptolomey’s second century AD map of the British Isles which was based partly on evidence accumulated during the Roman conquest in the previous century and partly based on Pytheas’ measurements.

The reconstructed Ptolemaic map

Image: Wikipedia 

It may not be the Ordnance Survey, but, all things considered, it is no mean achievement as one looks back across the space of two millennia.

Roman armour from Trimontium

The BBC News website reports on the return to the National Museum of Scotland from the exhibition at the British Museum of the restored and reconstructed Roman brass arm guard from the military camp at Trimontium.

Trimontium, in the Borders, takes its name from the distinctive and dominant Eildon Hills, and was a forward post in the Roman attempts to either subjugate what is now Scotland or to at very least maintain a degree of control beyond Hadrian's Wall in the first and second centuries. 

There is a good introduction to the site on Wikipedia at Trimontium (Newstead)

as well as other online links to information.

Although discovered over a century ago it is only recently that this piece of armour has been identified as protection for the arm of the wearer from shoulder to wrist, and that it has been pieced together from numerous fragments. It is one of only three such pieces known to survive from the Roman Empire.

The online report can be seen at Rare reconstructed Roman armour goes on display 

An award for Wentworth Woodhouse

In my recent article about the plan to rebuild the north-west tower of the Abbey of St Denis I commented that such schemes of restoration  of great buildings struck a deep emotional chord with me. Another example I cited is the ongoing project to restore the great eighteenth century country house at Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire. The fact that this building, so historcally and architecturally important, faced such a sequence of threats to its very survival and is now, seemingly against the odds, being so imaginatively and impressively restored is, I find, deeply moving.

Yesterday the BBC News website reported that the restoration of the Camellia House and Lady Rockingham’s Tea Room at its rear had won an award from the Georgian Group as their 2024 outstanding repurposing of a building of the period. The camellias, thought to be the first imported into this country, are themselves doughty survivors as their home fell into decay around them before they, and it, were rescued.

The article can be seen at Wentworth Woodhouse Camellia house restoration recognised

For those unfamiliar with Wentworth Woodhouse there is, literally, an overview of the spectacular house - it is in effect two stately homes back-to-back - and the equally impressive stable block which can be seen at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire

The interior of part of the house can be seen in a video at Wentworth Woodhouse  - Inside the grand house

The state of much of the interior, and its very real need of restoration, is shown in another of the excellent videos produced by the Preservation Trust at Wentworth Woodhouse Off Limits: breathtaking exteriors mask a brutal reality 

A friend shared with me the latest information video from Wentworth on the ambitious aims for the Stable Block which blends the prosaic realities of adapting historic buildings with a spectacular vision of what might be achieved in coming  years. It can be seen at Stables Regeneration Phase 1: September 2024 update

Carmelite Traditional Rite

To mark the Feast of St Teresa of Avila yesterday the New Liturgical Movement posted an article with a film from the 1950s or early 1960s of the celebration at Aylesford Priory of Mass according to the traditional Carmelite Use. 

As the article explains this originally was used by the Carmwes as it was the Use of the Church of Jerusalem in the Crusader epoch. As the Carmelites moved into Europe they brought the liturgy they were used to with them. It has remained a possession and preserve of the older Carmelite community. The reformed, discalced version established by St Teresa and St John of the Cross were, after their deaths to adopt the 1570 form of Mass.

The article gives a few further introductory comments and then links to the film of the Mass. This is therefore the Mass as attended by SS Teresa and John of the Cross in the Spain of King Philip II, but also the one offered across medieval Europe in Carmelite friaries, and, until more recently, in those of the White Friars  who followed the ancient practice of the Order. Ultimately it is a living 000 link to the spiritual life of the Crusader kingdoms if the Holy Land and the founding fathers of the Order on Mount Carmel.

The article can be seen at For the Feast of St Theresa of Avila - A Film of Mass in the Ancient Carmelite Rite

The Knights Templar seek redress

We live in a litigious age, with so many seeking redress to the courts for wrongs, be they real or imagined. It reaches to the highest levels and can have wide implications.

In recent years the rather curious legal processes of the Vatican have been in the news with internal espionage and more recently charges relation to high-level fraud and corruption. All grist to the journalist’s mill and those of webmasters and bloggers. 

However a story on the usually very sober Rome based  Zenit website promised something that could be not the trial of the century but of the millennium: the Knights Templar are seeking to sue the Holy See for restitution and compensation, and to establish a new legal basis for their relationship with the Papacy.

The report can be seen at Knights Templar Sue the Pope and Call for Their Rehabilitation

Now, maybe these are not the Knights Templar from 1312, but then who knows? Some Freemasons claim thatthey are, for what that is worth…. not much in my opinion. The Portuguese Order of Christ has a good claim, as they were re-established from the Templars by King Dinis.

This Spanish based group has tried several times in recent years to sue, so we shall have to wait and see what happens.

Try to imagine calculating over seven centuries of lost income, maybe at compound interest, let alone the restitution of property. What about compensation for reputational damage? Will they want the Holy Shroud back? Will they make the French State a party as successor to King Philip IV? Given the present Pope’s oft stated opposition to the death penalty will he feel compelled to pay compensation to the heirs of Jacques de Molay, Geoffrey de Charnay and the other victims? 

Normally I have an instinctive reaction against anything other than a purely academic work that refers to the Knights Templar. Who knows, with the right lawyer, this could be fun. Maybe the courts in California would be a good place to pursue the suit.

  

St Edward the Confessor - Anglo-Saxon and Catholic Christian

Today, were it not a Sunday, would be the Feast of St Edward the Confessor, a patron of England, of the Monarchy and of the Order of the Garter. His feast is kept on the anniversary of the translation of his relics at Westminster  in 1163 and 1269 rather than the anniversary of his death.

 

  

St Edward the Confessor from the Bayeux Tapestry

Image: Wikipedia 

St Edward the Confessor from the Wilton Diptych, circa 1397

This was from probably peak of his cult under King Richard II

Image: Wikipedia

St Edward the Confessor as depicted in an icon commissioned in 2019 for his shrine in Westminster Abbey

Image: Westminster Abbey

Wikipedia, which is very detailed in its lives of Anglo-Saxon royalty, has a lengthy account of his life and cult at Edward the Confessor

The other week I posted in More academic folly  about the blinkered nonsense of those academics who re-name courses and journals dealing with Anglo-Saxon history and literature as Early English or Early Medieval - there is, I stress, nothing wrong per se in that specific terminology - because of a “woke” perception, notably in the US, that “Anglo-Saxon” has white supremacist connotations.

Thomas Casemore has written a very good article about this phenomenon, and its wider implications, in The Catholic Herald. It can be read at Another attack on Britain’s Christian heritage: Don't say 'Anglo-Saxon' Catholic

May St Edward the Confessor pray for the King and the nation

St Wilfrid

Today is the Feast of St Wilfrid, the great Northumbrian born seventh and early eighth century Bishop of York, and then of Hexham, founder of what became the see of Chichester, tireless missionary and a determined and combative fighter for the rights of the Church and its adhesion to the Roman obedience.

I have posted about him in 2010 in St Wilfrid, in 2011 in Celebrating St Wilfrid, in 2013 in More on St Wilfrid, and in 2022 in St Wilfrid. These cover more of his life and achievements, and have links to relevant sites.

I have also written about his place in the formation of Fr Faber in my 2011 article St Wilfrid and Fr Faber. Continuing the Oratorian theme in 2013 I wrote about the foundation at the church of St Wilfrid in York of a new Oratory in the city in St Wilfrid's York

A modern depiction of St Wilfrid

Image: St. Wilfrid’s Catholic High School

A while back I happened upon an online piece which interviewed the author of an English Historical Review article about the way in which those who claimed the St Wilfrid on his deathbed in 709/10 at Oundle had nominated them to succeed him in the abbacy at Ripon or to the see of Hexham, and happened to be the only witnesses to what the saint had said…. The article can be read at Historian turns detective to uncover ancient Ripon conspiracy

Whilst looking for illustrations I found a very well illustrated account of Hexham Abbey ( strictly speaking Priory) on the website of Great English Churches. This has, in addition to splendid views of the interior of the later medieval church and of the stone episcopal seat from the Anglo-Saxon era, a good selection of pictures of the significant quantity of painted decorative woodwork from the fifteenth century in the building. It may not be the greatest art but it does indicate what medieval church interiors were like. The article can be seen at Hexham Abbey

Hexham Abbey is very well worth seeing, as is the very attractive town centre as part of an exploration of Hadrian’s Wall, looking for the Wars of the Roses battlefield or at the Jacobite associations of Dilston Castle, or simply enjoying the glorious Northumberland countryside.

St Wilfrid Pray for us

The Sacristy at Westminster Abbey

Writing about the proposed rebuilding of the north-west tower and spire of the Abbey of St Denis coincides, I find, with publicity about a not altogether dissimilar project at what is in not a few ways its English equivalent as a royal monastery and necropolis, Westminster Abbey. This is the plan to rebuild on the excavated medieval foundations the Great Sacristy which was an original part of King Henry III’s scheme. It stood to the north of the nave, an almost freestanding structure on an L plan, linked at one end to the North Transept, and on the other to the north door of the nave. It was demolished in the early eighteenth century. The new building will rise from the medieval foundations and provide storage space and serve as an entrance for visitors to the Abbey, who will then walk round to the West Door to enter the main building. As a new building in the present reign it is to be named the King Charles III Sacristy.

Westminster Abbey has produced two short videos about the project which can be seen with the Dean at Introducing: The King Charles III Sacristy. and with the architect at  Designing: The King Charles III Sacristy . The main website, which includes those two videos, can be viewed at The King Charles III Sacristy | Westminster Abbey

There is also a video of The Queen visiting the site as the recently announced Patron of the scheme, which can be seen at Camilla tours site of new King Charles III Sacristy at Westminster Abbeyand in a longer version at Queen becomes Patron of Westminster Abbey's Sacristy project

There is a report on the excavation from the archaeologists responsible for the work, Pre-Construct Archaeology, which can be seen at Westminster Abbey – Pre Construct Archaeology

There are other reports from 2020  about the excavation in The Guardian at Lost medieval sacristy uncovered at Westminster Abbey, and shorter ones in Current Archaeology at Sacristy uncovered at Westminster Abbey, and in Archaeology Magazine at Medieval Great Sacristy Uncovered at Westminster Abbey - Archaeology Magazine