Yesteryear in Parliament

 

As we come to the end of the Parliamentary session it is time to look back at what was achieved, at the pointers to new ways of doing things, of a change of personnel at the top in government, at who did well and who didn’t, at where we go from here ….. no, dear reader I am not talking about the current situation at Westminster - too boring - but rather the assessment one can make about Westminster on this day 650 years ago in 1376 as the Good Parliament came to an end.

Parliament had commenced on April 28th and this had been the longest session to date. In the course of the meeting the Commons had for the first time elected a permanent Speaker in Sir Peter de la Mare, rather than having one MP speaking to the Crown and Lords on a one-off basis, they had raised many instances of what they saw as corruption and inefficiency in government, had invented a new procedure in impeachmentto bring those responsible to trial whereby the Commons corporately brought charges against suspects who were tried before the Lords, and when convicted, stripped of office, they had voiced their fears about the succession to the throne, and now they were going home without voting any taxation.

If in the popular imagination and memory this was the Good Parliament its successor early the following year whereby the government tried to undo some of its actions and got a vote of taxation was remembered as the Bad Parliament. Sir Peter, as first Speaker, for his pains also became the first holder of the office to be imprisoned. 

Nonetheless the Good Parliament had broken new ground, with the Commons showing real independence,  establishing a greater sense of corporate identity through the Speakership, and in the impeachment procedure had found a means of bringing ministers to book.

 

King Edward III

Image: luminarium.org

The background to this was that King Edward III was failing, and indeed died a year later, his eldest son the Prince of Wales was in failing health and was to die during the Parliament on June 8th, and was not a king/in-waiting, and his and heir, Richard was not yet ten.

The tomb effigy of King Edward III in Westminster Abbey

Image: akg-images/ Erich Lessing

The opposition to the demands of the Commons was led by the king’s next surviving son, John Duke of Lancaster. This made him unpopular and led to unfounded rumours that he sought the throne for himself.

John, Duke of Lancaster

Image: Wikipedia from a portrait belonging to his direct descendant the Duke of Beaufort

Impeachment was probably used as a corporate charge to protect individual MPs from legislation which protected nobles from such charges by one person. 

In the 1388 and 1397 Parliamentary moves against firstly King Richard II’s ministers and secondly against his opponents a different process of appeal was used.

As a legal mechanism impeachment re-emerged in 1450, and then not again until 1640, had a fair amount of use under the Restoration and in the eighteenth century. It was last used in 1806, when Lord Dundas was acquitted by the Lords. An attempt to use it against Palmerston in 1848 did not get sufficient votes in the Commons. Some experts doubt if it still is part of the living legal tradition, but in 2019 there was talk by some of seeking to impeach Boris Johnson over his bungled prorogation of Parliament. That would have been fun, the Queen’s evil councillor brought to account at the bar of the Lords. Alas it was not to be.

The development of the concept of Parliamentary responsibility made it otiose here, but in Congressional systems in the Americas, such as the US and Brazil with systems based on the separation of powers it had retained its vitality as a potential check on those in power.

Our sources for these events are the formal records of the Parliament Rolls with their official recording l of new legislation and the other records of the Crown in the Chancery rolls. 

Chronicles give some details as reported back to their compilers for this and meetings well into the fifteenth century. 

Not until 1461 do we have a fragment of the Lords Journal of proceedings m, though this was presumably not an innovation and those for the Commons do not survive until 1547. 

What make our understanding of the Good Parliament so much better is the lengthy account of what went on in the debates in the Commons preserved in the Anonimalle Chronicle of the abbey of St Mary at York which includes a detailed account written by someone who was there in the Commons. There is a note at The First Political Pamphlet? The Unsolved Case of the Anonymous Account of the Good Parliament of 1376 about who or what that source may have been. 

The ruins of  St Mary’s Abbey York

Image: TripAdvisor

The complete text of the account of the events in the Good Parliament can be read in Translation of the Anonimalle Chronicle

The Commons had no permanent home until 1547 when they were given St Stephen’s Chapel where they sat until the fire of 1834.

In1376 they were assigned the great Chapter House of Westminster Abbey whilst the Lords met in the adjoining royal palace - as indeed they still do.

The Chapter House of Westminster Abbey

The original tiled floor is covered to prevent damage

Image: Wikimedia

The knights of the shires, two for each, irrespective of size - think of the US Senate - sat on the benches around the wall. The wall against which they sat was just about to be decorated with a cycle of paintings of the Apocalypse and Last Judgment that took from 1375 until 1404 to complete, and still survives substantially intact today.

The members for the cities and towns had to sit on the wonderful heraldic tiled floor which still survives, which indicates a definite hierarchy. No green leather benches.

There is a well-illustrated account of the Chapter Housr and its architecture and art at The Chapter House Westminster Abbey, and Pyx Chamber

When an MP wished to address the Commons they spoke from the central lectern used by the monks for their Benedictine devotions and governance. Had the Commons stayed in the Chapter House that might have remained the English practice as in other European and American assemblies. In England the descive change came in 1547 when the government assigned the Chapel of St Stephen in the Palace of Westminster to the Commons. The Speaker sat where the altar had been, the MPs occupying the choir stalls, facing each other. How much this led to what has been a basic English and British model of a two party system, His Majesty’s Government and His Majesty’s Opposition facing one another two swords length apart is not entirely clear, but the physical reality of where they met and the natural tendency to seek out and sit with allies shaped future political patterns.

After Écône

Over a week has passed since the SSPX episcopal consecrations at Écône and the publication by the Vatican of the anticipated decree of excommunication and statement that SSPX is now deemed to be schismatic.

A lot of heat and light has been generated - the latter showing up divisions in the fabric of the Church - yet with little true illumination.

The pre-existing stand-off continues, now with added force and bitterness, and no visible positive way forward on a path of reconciliation. It appears to be a case of full steam ahead looking neither to left or right. 

The following selection of links and thoughts are an attempt to share some of the more insightful and challenging comments and commentary I have come across in recent days.

Those who stress their adhesion to the Vatican policy, such as a number of readers commenting on The Pillar website, lay great stress on the virtue of obedience to the See of Peter as a central component of Catholic life and practice. I saw a video made by Jacob Rees  Mogg, who having stressed that on liturgical matters he had great sympathy with SSPX then turned to the matter of obedience. Here he said that whilst Pope Francis was alive one should never, by reason of obedience, criticise him as he was the Supreme Pontiff, but once he was dead it was fine to say it had been a disastrous pontificate ….., which seems to me to be an extreme case of confusing respect for the office with that ( or its lack )

for the individual who holds it. It also strikes me  as being unhistorical, and reflecting a mid- to late nineteenth century Ultamontanism.

By contrast the SSPX would say they are obedient to the immutable legacy of Catholic teaching and that too many of the faithful are being disobedient in the way they live and indeed profess their faith. At this stage the matter of “necessity” in consecrating new bishops and ignoring the Pope becomes an expression of obedience to Tradition as the Society understands it, not as the Holy See does. 

Some who talk of obedience do not appear to say anything seemingly about liturgical abuse, the obviously ‘hot button’ issue with SSPX, or with contemporary deviations from mainstream doctrine post Vatican II.

The question as to the validity of the excommunications and designation of SSPX clergy as schismatic has become a significant talking point.

Life Site News has a perhaps predictably trenchant article about the matter at Leo XIV can’t excommunicate the SSPX or its bishops – here’s why

The respected Italian commentator on the Vatican Roberto de Mattei has an article which can be accessed at The Situation Regarding the SSPX Episcopal Consecrations of July 1, 2026

The Canadian traditionalist broadcaster Kennedy Hall has two articles which investigate whether the Vatican response actually accords with the Code of Canon Law. These can be accessed at The Formula That Failed: Why Tucho’s Note Does Not Excommunicate You and at Tucho Has Leo in a Real Bind

He also has a response to the comments on his video site made by the well known US conservative Catholic commentator Dr Taylor Marshall at A Consideration of Marshall’s Arguments Contra-SSPX: Part One

Fr Clément Barré has a lengthy article which is reproduced on Rorate Cæli on the ambiguity around SSPX as an institution within the Church. It can be read at The SSPX's Ecclesiology of Substitution: Part of the Whole, or a new Whole? — And the Problem with a Crisis that Never Ends.

 Rorate Cæli also has a very useful article by Serre Verweij which tries to put the present stalemate in a wider context and to suggest how the situation may develop. This can be read at Rome and the Econe Consecrations: a Dispassionate Analysis of What is at Stake

The questions the article raises about whether SSPX have waited, or moved during last years Sede vacante is an interesting one.

A lot of the coverage suggests that the wrong people were the Vatican representatives in the discussions earlier this year with SSPX, and that different people might have yielded a different result. 

I will say again that I think it is to be regretted that no agreement was reached when Pope Benedict XVI initiated a new dialogue in the early years of his papacy.

If stalemate is seemingly the current situation between the Holy See and SSPX there are encouraging signs with the calls for the relaxation or, better still, removal of Traditiones Custodes from leading figures in the hierarchy, from senior Cardinals downwards.

I am rather tempted to put together a post about the history of Papal excommunications over the last millennium and to share that with my readers.

Images: Wikipedia

Death in Angola in 1976

This post is not concerned the usual type of things I write about, but I trust readers will indulge me.

It is a link to an article I wrote almost ten years ago about the fate of a group of British and American mercenaries who were captured and tried in Angola in 1976. Four of them were executed by firing squad in the football stadium in Luanda on this day fifty years ago. The trial and its aftermath caught my interest at the time and I researched the story years later for this blog.

I was surprised and gratified that some of the families if the men involved found it, and indeed found it a means of contacting others.

The unamended blog can be viewed at Judicial Murder Forty Years on

Wikipedia has an account of the case at Luanda_Trial

English cities and towns in 1377

Ian Wright from Brilliant Maps has a map and accompanying notes drawing upon on the evidence contained in the records of the first of the Poll Taxes, that of 1377. The information is then used to calculate the population and relative ranking of English cities and towns in the year King Edward III died and was succeeded by his grandson King Richard II.

Such tables of relative size are quite common in books on economic history and historical geography but I suspect are not that well known to the wider reading public, so sharing this map and the statistics seems to be a good idea. 

The article can be seen at Map Of The Largest Towns And Cities Of England In 1377

The tax was a uniform levy of 4d a head for adults and teenagers. A single groat, valued at 4d would be the sum paid for an individual or in a mixture of pennies and half-groats or the fractions of a silver penny.

A groat issued under King Edward III in the years 1369 to 1377, and minted in London at the Tower

Image:MedievalCoin on Reddit

Is King Alfred under a carpark?

I have written a while ago about the possibility that some of the bones of King Alfred could be identified. In 2014 I wrote A bone of King Alfred? which includes links to other, relevant, reports. In 2024 I returned to the subject in Uncovering more of Hyde Abbey

Now the Daily Telegraph online website has a story about a new site at Hyde Abbey which might contain the skeletal remains of King Alfred, his wife and his son King Edward the Elder. The article can be seen at Alfred the Great’s remains ‘located under car park’

There is also a short video about the discovery from the German medieval historian Lemmy history - who is well worth following with his studies of the Yorkist era in particular - which can be viewed at One Of England's Most Important Kings 'Found Under A Carpark' - Yet Again?

Some of the articles make the point that establishing DNA or related evidence would be much harder than with King Richard III whose remains are half a millennium younger, and who had both male and female line relatives who could give the appropriate biological samples. 

However two of King Alfred’s elder brothers, King Ethelbald and King Ethelbert, are interred at Sherborne Abbey in a vault where their skeletons are visible. So it might be feasible to see what evidence they could provide, and if it indicated a familial link.

King Alfred from his ‘London Penny’ of 886

Image: Emotions 3D.wordpress.com

For more about the coin and its historic significance see Alfred the Great penny

Prayer and commemoration at Battle Abbey

With the forthcoming exhibition of the BayeuxTapestry 

at the British Museum there will over the next year be, I am sure be a great deal of coverage and discussion about the events of 1066.

Tragically the monument to his victory and the place for atonement and prayer for the departed created by King William I at Battle Abbey has, apart from some ruined domestic buildings and the gatehouse, gone, yet another casualty of the dissolution of the monasteries.

The English Heritage website for the abbey includes some reconstructions of what has been lost as well as photographs of the existing remains. It can be viewed at   History of Battle Abbey and Battlefield

A reconstruction of Battle Abbey 

in the early sixteenth century

Image: English Heritage and Media Storehouse

Plan of the abbey

Image: English Heritage

However an insight into the continuing prayer offered by the monks can be gleaned from a BBC News article about one of the surviving office books from the later years of the abbey. From this it can be seen that the specific cycle of intercession established at its foundation by the Conqueror in about 1071 was maintained until the suppression in 1538.

The report can be seen at Newly unveiled prayer book shows religious life after Battle of Hastings

A Viking longship in a Lincolnshire church

My eye was caught by a report on the BBC News

website about the church, or as it is now designated, Minster at Stow in Lindsey between Lincoln and Gainsborough.

 

The church at Stow is far less known than it should be, built as it was between about 975 and the late twelfth century. In those years it served on occasion as, in effect, a pro-cathedral and as a Benedictine abbey, which later moved to Eynsham in Oxfordshire.

Stow demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon churches could be conceived and built on a grand scale, and that the Normans would on occasion retain and enhance them, and that a church on a rural episcopal estate could be given a lavish eastern arm in the later twelfth century.

It is a building of dignity and grandeur and contains the tallest central crossing to survive from the Anglo-Saxon centuries. The only really comparable one is at Cholsey near Reading, which is of similar date, but there the arches are much lower.

 

The nave, crossing and chancel of Stow Minster

Image: Stow Minster

The feature said to be from the Viking era in the article, the longship, is inscribed into one the the eastern tower piers. It is illustrated and discussed in Stow Minster longship graffiti holds clues to Viking past

The Wikipedia entry about the church is disappointing so I will suggest readers look at one from the parish which can be seen at History

StowMinster from the south east

Image: Joanna Hughes on Facebook 

Stow Church from the north west before restoration in the mid-1860s

Image: Wikipedia 

One feature of the history of Stow that the websites do not mention is the fact recorded by his biographer that when St Hugh of Lincoln, bishop from 1186 until his death in 1200, visited his episcopal manor house with its fish ponds a particularly fierce male swan - a cob - became attached to the Carthusian bishop, accompanying him round the grounds and guarding him whilst he slept. No-one else could approach the bird, and when St Hugh died the swan flew away, never to be seen again. The swan is, of course, the emblem of St Hugh.

St Hugh of Lincoln in his Carthusian habit 

with his swan

Charterhouse of St Honoré, 

Thuison-les-Abbeville, France

Image: liturgies.net

More about the restoration of Salford Cathedral

Some days ago I wrote in Restoring Salford Cathedral about the recently completed scheme of restoration of the fabric and of the decoration of Salford Cathedral. I have now come upon another illustrated online report about the project on the Zenit website which can be seen at Salford Diocese unveils restored cathedral for growing congregation in modern age

The restored choir of the cathedral 

Image:Diocese of Salford

The tower and choir vaults

Image: Facebook