A sixteenth century Duke up for auction

The BBC News website reported the other day in the forthcoming auction - this evening in fact - of the 1563 portrait of Thomas fourth Duke of Norfolk from the Rothschild collection. The painting is quite often reproduced in books, and as the article points out was originally paired with the painting of the Duke’s second wife, Margaret Audley. Quite apart from a historical interest as a portrait. It is in exceptionally good condition and a very important piece of work from the early Elizabethan era.. 

The BBC article can be seen at Duke of Norfolk Tudor portrait could fetch up to £3m at auction 

The sale notes from Sothebys can be read at Portrait of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1538–1578) These add to the information about the work, in particular, with regard to the heraldic backcloth.

For those who want some more information about the Duke and his downfall, the Ridolfi Plot, and the fate that befell his eldest son and heir, St Philip Arundel, there are Wikipedia articles but which seem reluctant to download,so I will suggest readers go to them directly.

Unfortunately I do not think these are necessarily very good when seeking to explain the politics, and more, especially the religious politics of the 1560s and early 1570s.

The articles describe people as being either Roman Catholic or Protestant At a time where there was still considerable fluidity between those recognisable, but not necessarily fully distinct groupings. It was not until 1570 that Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V in the bull Regnans in Excelsis eleven years after the Queen and her Parliament has reinstated the Royal Supremacy and Anglican worship. Whilst many of the Queens closest advisors, notably William Cecil, can definitely describe as Protestant - the term had by then been coined in Germany - for some, at least Anglicanism was mainly a stage towards a more radical alternative. Although they were a considerable number of the queen subjects whose commitment to Catholicism had sent them into exile or into active recusancy. The Catholicism that emerged from the Council of Trent had still to make its impact on the life of Catholic Christendom - for example the newly collated missal was not published until 1570. The more streamlined faith of the missionaries from Douai and Rheims, still less the Jesuits, not yet begun their endeavours. The more stringent and deadly anti-Catholic measures of the later years of Queen Elizabeth had not yet been introduced, For many others, there was the confusion of adapting to the new dispensation. In many ways, the fourth Duke of Norfolk exemplifier this. Raised in the Catholic culture of the later years of King Henry VIII and in the reign of Queen Mary I, and heir to a conservative aristocratic family he nevertheless appears to have settled into, they new Elizabethan era, if on the Catholic side of the spectrum. His third wife, Elizabeth Dacre was more explicitly Catholic in her beliefs.

I suspect that, when Norfolk was drawn into the plants to marry him to the exiled Queen of Scots, who for all her Catholicism had ruled over what was officially a reformed realm, such a marriage would not necessarily imply a Catholic restoration as it happened under Philip and Mary. Ridolfi may well have misread the English political situation. For all his Catholic background the Duke had had as a tutor and remained in contact with the Protestant martyrologist John Foxe, with whom he remained on good terms until his last days, and Foxe’s college roommate Alexander Nowell, Dean of St Paul’s, who had definitely reformist and idiosyncratic lideas, ministered to him in the Tower and with Foxe accompanied him on the scaffold, where in his words to the crowd the Duke denied being Catholic.

It is a long time sine I read Neville Williams’ biography  Thomas Howard Fourth Duke of Norfolk and the Jesuit historian Francis Edwards’ The Marvellous Chance but both are well worth reading. Williams’ book makes a sympathetic case for the Duke, who became entangled, surpringly, but also too easily, in the circle of Mary Queen of Scots, and then in Ridolfi’s machinations. Fr Edwards suggests that that conspiracy, like others later around the Scottish Queen, were at least in part directed by English minister like Cecil anxious to destroy both Mary and anyone likely to support her. Only a few years previously Cecil was eloquent in his praise for Norfolk’s skills, and he had been put forward by Queen Elizabeth, along with Leicester and Darnley as a potential husband for Mary when she was still the widow of Francis II. To that extent Norfolk was a victim of his own hubris, and his rivalry with the Earl of Leicester, and now, unbeknownst to him, with Cecil, who single-mindedly targeted Mary of Scots, as John Guy has shown so well. Like his father a quarter of a century earlier he was the victim of deadly court factionalism, and quite possibly an unwitting one. 

The politics surrounding his actual execution in 1572 is set out in a blog from the History of Parliament which can be read at The execution of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk.

 

There is a much better online biography of the Duke than that on Wikipedia from the Tudor Society at Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

I very much hope that the new owner of this portrait will be one that means that it remains on display in this country.

The 150th anniversary of St Aloysius Church Oxford

Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the opening of
the church of St Aloysius in Oxford. On that day in 1875 Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne of Birmingham celebrated a Pontifical Mass in the newly constructed Jesuit church in the presence of Cardinal Manning. This year on the eve of the anniversary the present Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham celebrated a Pontifical Mass in Latin in the Ordinary Form in the presence of Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe OP in the church, which since 1990 has served as the Oxford Oratory.

In attendance were other bishops, a mitred abbot, canons, groups of other religious, a professed Knifht of Malta, and past parish priests both from the diocese and the Oratory. Also present were the Lord Mayor of Oxford and the Vice Chancellor of the University, representives of othe churches in the city, and, of course, many of the regular congregation

The Mass can be seen online at 150th Anniversary of the Parish – Solemn Pontifical Mass 

The liturgy was elaborate and impressive as befits such an occasion and as befits the Oratorian tradition of the beauty of holiness. 

All the signs, and certainly the hopes, are that the next century and a half will continue the ministry of the building and the Oratorian community in Oxford in the way so splendidly shown at the weekend.

The reappearance of the Florentine Diamond

A fortnight ago there was the really amazing announcement by the Imperial House of Austria that, contrary to widespread belief, one of the Habsburg family treasures, the famous yellow diamond known as the Florentine, had not been lost or stolen, nor recut, but had survived thanks to the forethought first of Bl. Emperor Charles I who reclaimed it from public display

in 1918 and took it with him into exile, and then of his widow Empress Zita who took custody of it after his death in 1922. Having kept it, and other family jewels, including a bejewelled badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with her in exile in Spain and then Belgium, she took then in a cardboard suitcase to Canada at the beginning of the Second World War. There she left the small suitcase in a safe deposit box with a bank. When she retuned to Europe in 1953 the jewels remained in the Canadian bank. Two of her younger sons were the only individuals to whom she confided the whereabouts of the items, asking they remain hidden until after the centenary of the Emperor’s death. Now the sons of these two Archdukes, together with the head of the Habsburgs, Archduke Karl, have reclaimed the suitcase and revealed its contents.

Quite apart from the historic interest of the Florentine and the other jewels the story is an eloquent tribute to the Empress Zita as a devout Catholic widow, who mourned her husband for almost sixty seven years, always sombrely dressed in black, and guardian of not merely what was left as a tangible inheritance following the expropriation of their assets by the Austrian and other successor states after 1918, but of the traditions and heritage of the Habsburgs. A truly remarkable woman.

I first saw the story online in The Independent at 137-carat diamond missing since 1919 revealed from in Canadian bank

A friend sent me the link to the original account from the New York Times whose journalist accompanied the Archdukes, and which may be seen at The Florentine Diamond Resurfaces After 100 Years in Hiding

Art Net also had a report on the rediscovery which is available at The Hunt: The Mysterious Fate of the Florentine Diamond

Wikipedia has a history of the diamond at Florentine Diamond, which includes the two stories of its origin. They are arguably not irreconcilable, and the idea that the jewel once belonged to Charles the Bold is an attractive one, in that it was through the marriage of his daughter and heiress Mary to Maximilian of Austria that the Habsburgs secured their prominence in European affairs.

The Emperor Karl League of Prayers - the Gebetsliga - which is in itself well worth supporting, has an online article about the rediscovery at Habsburg Florentine Diamond Reemerges

The history of the jewel and of the carat system for weighing such stones is discussed in The Ancient Secret Behind the Carats of the Florentine Diamond 

A monument well worthy of conservation in Marlborough

I came upon an online report about work to conserve and enhance a remarkable historic monument in Marlboroughin Wiltshire. The Mound, as it is known, is just that, a mound of earth now in the grounds of Marlborough School. This, however, is no ordinary garden feature, but originated as a Neolithic feature second only in size to Silbury Hill as a man-made monument. Later tradition was to identify it as the grave of Merlin. Centuries later it was repurposed as the motte of the Norman castle in Marlborough. In the Norman and Angevin eras the castle was a favoured royal residence with its nearby hunting grounds in Savernake Forest.

The article can be read at Council gives go-ahead for demolition work at historic site

Wikipedia has an introduction to the history of the town at Marlborough, Wiltshire

Two early Christian mosaics from Turkey and Israel

A regular reader of this blog very kindly sent me the link to a Daily Mail online article about two mosaic floors which have been uncovered in Turkey and Israel.

The more recent discovery is at the castle in Urfa, known at times in the past as Edessa, and the reputed birthplace of Abraham. Dated to the years 460-495 it refers to both the military commander and to the local bishop, senior priest and deacon. Those latter might suggest it was the cathedral. The integration of civil and ecclesiastical authorities is an indicator of the establishment of the administrative structures of Byzantium.

The themes in the design suggest a sense of the harmony of the created order and of Scriptural revelation that accords with later writers in the patristic and medieval centuries.

As with the references to the ecclesiastical hierarchy of this specific community these all point to an established community of worshippers, standing in an established tradition which we would recognise today.

The second mosaic featured in the article was found a few years ago under the prison in Megiddo in Israel and is dated to 230. This specifically describes Jesus as God, and is apparently the first archaeological find to do so. The very elaborate design includes the names of members of the congregation - or maybe the ‘house church’ - of the building from which it survives. Like the Urfa floor it refers to a Roman officer, in this case specifically described as the man who commissioned it. 

The online article is interesting reading, despite its somewhat melodramatic title, and can be seen at Mysterious ancient Christian mosaic reveals lost biblical secrets

Evolution and transformation in latex Roman Germany

Two recent archaeological investigations in Germany have yielded interesting information about the changes in society from the later fifth century onwards that led to the emergence of the early medieval post-Roman culture that succeeded it.

The first was at Delbrück Bentfeld near Paderborn in Westphalia and which yielded what appears to include the site of a cremation of a man who may well have served as a Roman mercenary with accoutrements from the Imperial army. The funds are outlined and discussed in an LBV article which can be seen at The Tomb of a Germanic Mercenary Who Served in the Roman Legions and an Unusual Well with Glass and Organic Remains, Found in Germany

The second site is at Bad Füssing, near Passau on the border of modern Germany and Austria in the Inn valley.

The discoveries are again related to funeral practices in a site which appears to have been used for a considerable length of time. 

The article about it from Heritage Daily can be accessed at Burials offer new insights into splendor and conflict in early medieval Bavaria

These two excavations, from distant and different regions, do suggest cultural fluidity and interchange along and across the borderlands of the Empire and Germania in these centuries.

An eighth century gold medallion from Norfolk

The discovery of an apparently eighth century Anglo-Saxon gold pendant near Swaffham in Norfolk is not only further evidence of the rich deposit of early items in the fields of the county but is also an indication of a significant cultural transition in the East Anglian kingdom. 

The pendant has motifs similar to coins, but no regnal or other inscriptions. The theory is that it was lost, and is not a burial item, as by the date it is assigned Christian burial practices were increasingly normative.  As a result the inclusion of grave goods largely disappeared, and so, in consequence, the information they can give about social conditions and ideas at the time of the interment.

The find is reported by the BBC News website at  Swaffham detectorist finds rare early 8th Century gold pendant

Conserving pillboxes from WWI

Yesterday, on Remembrance Sunday, the Sunday Telegraph had an interesting and informative article about work in Norfolk to preserve surviving pillboxes near North Walsham in Norfolk which were erected to resist a possible, indeed anticipated, German invasion during the Great War. 

As the article explains such an invasion plan did not exist, but the fear of it, fuelled by the popular war-scare fiction of the early 1900s, was for a time genuine, and considerable. Some of the contemporary quotations cited in the article are revealing.

Conserving these miniature blockhouses is certainly a worthwhile project and a way of appreciating how local communities and individuals reacted to the War and its potential impact on rural Norfolk.

The article can be read at How fear of a German invasion swept Britain in the First World War

As a personal addendum my mother and her sister-in-law both recalled going out with their family and neighbours at night to watch the Zeppelin which passed over Pontefract in, I think, 1917, and dropped its bombs harmlessly in the Park - where the racecourse is - and my mother also recalled going the next day with her brother, who was four ears older, to view the craters. Why they went out to watch the potential air-raid was not clear, as there was shelter provision used on other occasions nearby.

A Portuguese ship from 1533 Discovered in Namibia

The Indian Defence Review reports in an online article about the discovery in Namibia of the Portuguese carrack the Bom Jesus, and much of its cargo, which was lost in 1533 whilst on route to India.

What makes this discovery unusual for maritime archaeological work is that the vessel is now inland, having been carried there as sand dunes have moved inland over the intervening centuries.

The arid conditions have helped preserve materials which would have disintegrated in wet conditions, and its isolation has also contributed to its cargo of precious materials surviving. 

The article says that the plan is to create a museum in the nearest to house the remains of the vessel and its contents. This would doubtless encourage tourism and bring in investment and revenue.

The article can be viewed at 500-Year-Old Treasure Ship Found in Namib Desert With Gold, Ivory and Priceless Global Artifacts

An Iron Age gold coin from Germany

His garden maintenance has an online account of the discovery of a gold quarter-stater from near Leipzig that is dated to the fourth century BC.

The article sets out to firmly place the discovery in its historical and cultural context. The coin may be more in the way of a tribute offering rather than something used in monetary exchanges. 

The writer also suggests, from the wonderfully long German name of such tiny cup shaped gold coins - or maybe tokens would be an equally good term - an interesting explanation of the folklore notion that one could find a crock of gold at the end of a rainbow.

 

The article can be seen at Exceptional discovery: in Germany, a 2,200-year-old gold coin reveals a forgotten myth and unseen exchanges

The living and the dead of Medieval Edinburgh

  

I chanced upon a BBC News article which led me to other online sites which report on discoveries made in studying more than a hundred skeletons found in 1981 in excavations within St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh

Edinburgh 900 was been a celebration marking the novocentenary of the charter in 1124 from King David I founding the burgh and his establishment of St Giles as its mother church.

The official video about the project and the facial reconstruction of five of the individuals can be seen at 

🔎 Edinburghs first burghers

 

The BBC News article which first alerted me to the whole project, and which concentrates on a male teenager who died from the plague in the mid-fourteenth century, can be seen at First scientific evidence of Black Death in Edinburgh found on skeleton

The scientific skills involved in such work continue to advance and are very impressive indeed.

Writing this it strikes me that this is a very suitable subject for All Souls and November Dead Lists as we recall those who were here before us, and that their residual mortal remains can still reveal that they were once flesh and blood, as well as bones, like us.

Identifying the site of the battle of the Granicus

Researchers in Anatolia believe they can pinpoint the actual site of the battle of the Granicus, fought in 334BC, and the first of Alexander the Great’s victories over the Persian Empire.

The Grabicus is a river which flows north-west into the Sea of Marmora. Whilst the general location of the battle is well known, these latest investigations by analysing the descriptions of the battle and the terrain, as well as archaeological evidence of burials have led to a much more precise identification.

Their conclusions are set out in an article on Biography.com, and which can be viewed at A Stunning New Discovery May Rewrite the Legend of Alexander the Great

Wikipedia has a very detailed account of the battle and a discussion of the sources at Battle of the Granicus

and there is additional information about the geography of the site at Biga Çayı

A hoard of gold coins from the Dissolution era

The ZME Science and BBC News websites have reports about a significant hoard of gold coins found during lockdown in a garden at Milford on Sea in Hampshire. The total of 70 gold coins date from the early years of King Henry VI in the 1420s, include others issued under King Edward IV and King Henry VII, but the majority are from the reign of King Henry VIII, ending in 1535-7. Their face value is £26.5.5 and a halfpenny. Designated the New Forest Hoard, in the basis of the last date for minting they appear to have been buried about the time of the dissolution of the monasteries - and that is suggested by the ZME article as the reason for their concealment. I am not sure that monasteries such as Christchurch Priory - or for that  matter the nearby Beaulieu Abbey - would have necessarily held such quantities of cash, and I would be inclined to see this as family rather than institutional wealth. 

It occurs to me than another possible reason for burying a sizeable sum in gold might have been the threat of a French raid in the area in 1544-45, best remembered today for the loss of the Mary Rose. 

In addition by that time the government was debasing the silver currency and these gold coins may have been buried as a safeguard against the consequent inflation.

The coins have now been sold in smaller lots at auction.  Personally I think it is to be regretted that the hoard could not be kept together, although I assume it has all been catalogued and that can be cited by researchers.

The ZME article can be seen at A Couple Doing Gardening in England Found a Massive Trove of Henry VIII Gold Coins Likely Hid By a Church

The BBC News reports can be seen at Hampshire couple find Tudor coins worth £230k while gardening and at New Forest hoard of 70 coins dug up in lockdown fetch over £380k

A possible relic of the Gunpowder Plot

Yesterday was the anniversary of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and its failed attempt to blow up the King, Lords and Commons at the State Opening.

 

The BBC News website had a tropical story with a report about a gold ring found by a metal detector close to the Warwickshire birthplace of the leader of the Plot, Robert Catesby. The house was later occupied by another of the conspirators, John Wright. Wright and his brother Christopher had been at school with Guy Fawkes in York, and were killed in November 8th alongside Catesby at Holbeche House in Staffordshire in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of Fawkes and the gunpowder at Westminster. 

On the inside of the ring is an inscription about being a friend in deed that could well be linked to the Plot, if “deed” is taken to mean the act of blowing up Parliament.

The ring is due to be auctioned next month. One would hope it goes to a public collection where it can be displayed.

The online article can be viewed at Gunpowder Plot 'leader's ring' found in Lapworth to go to auction

Wikipedia has biographies of Catesby and the Wright brothers at Robert Catesby and at John and Christopher Wright

Unearthing Hadrian’s Wall west of Carlisle

Archaeologists in Cumberland have opened up at Drumburgh the foundations of part of the continuation of Hadrian’s Wall west of Carlisle along the southern shore of the Solway Firth. 

Recent excavations in Carlisle have revealed significant evidence about life in the Roman city - arguably the last such community at this extremity of the Empire, and the equivalent of an outlier in the Nile Valley or the upper Euphrates. 

Revealing something of this westernmost section of the Wall is interesting as I think, from my visits there in past years, that although the line of the wall has been ascertained there is nothing visible above ground of the Roman structure until Carlisle itself is reached. 

The archaeological work is reported upon in an article from the BBC News website and it can be seen at Hadrian's Wall section discovered in Drumburgh dig

There is more about the location of the Wall at this point and about the post-Roman history of its remains from Wikipedia at Drumburgh

Tannhäuser

As someone who greatly appreciates the soaring and stimulating music as well as the mix of myth and legend in their plots of Wagner’s operas I was interested to read an online article from the LBV magazine about the basis, such as it can be ascertained,  for the legend of the thirteenth century figure of Tannhäuser.
 

The piece can be read at The Enigma of Tannhäuser, the 13th-Century German Poet Who Found the Venusberg

The Wikipedia entry about him is quite short but it can be read in conjunction with the other article at Tannhäuser

Then sit back and find a recording or video of what is one of Wagner’s early masterpieces…

All Souls Day

Today is All Souls Day, transferred because All Saints Day fell on Saturday and was advanced to yesterday and subsumed the normal Sunday observance.

I was able today to follow two Extraordinary Form Masses with absolutions at the cataphalque. The first was at lunchtime from the FSSP Shrine in Warrington and celebrated with chant, and the second, earlier this evening, a full Solemn Requiem from the Oxford Oratory.

Praying for the Departed is a very important part of the Catholic Faith and something I do by remembering a fairly long list of people at every Mass I attend. Apart from specific anniversaries this time of year is a good one at which to catch up on remembrance of the of the dead.

Being a historian in addition to deceased family and friends - and as I get older that list inevitably gets longer - and the general intention of all the faithful departed, I also include individuals of whom I know, but I have never ever met in the flesh because they died many years or indeed centuries ago. As Purgatory is outside the constraints of time as we know it this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. The Church teaches that those in Purgatory, whilst unable to pray for themselves, can pray for their companions in that state of being, and for those here on earth who pray for them. I do have a sense that some of those I have prayed for have, or may have, prayed for me also. Prayers for those who have finished their time in Purgatory are not wasted as they can be applied through the Treasury of Merits to others still in purgation.

For the souls in Purgatory I pray, not merely for their repose, but also for them in the hour of their death, as quite a number of them suffered violent, unpleasant and terrible deaths. This seems possible, because of the atemporality of the Divine - to God all things are eternally present. Whom I pray for I will keep in pectore, but it does enable me to do something for those who accompany me as an historian.

Rest eternal grant unto them O Lord and let light perpetual shine upon them.

St John Henry Newman, Doctor of the Church

This morning the Pope formally declared in a Mass for All Saints Day, and at the close of the Jubilee for Catholic Education, that St John Henry Newman is the thirty eighth Doctor of the Church and has been also designated as the co-patron of Catholic Education alongside St Thomas Aquinas.

These further honours for St John Henry have followed swiftly upon his beatification and canonisation. They indicate that his significance and role does indeed extend to the Universal Church, the “one true fold of  the Redeemer” into which he was received at Littlemore in 1845. He is not just a saint for the English or the English-speaking world, but for the whole Catholic community across the globe. 

I first became aware of Newman as a schoolboy and as I grew into an Anglo-Catholic before going to Oxford to one of the two colleges of which he was a member. Through my time at Oriel and at first Pusey House and then also at St Thomas’ he seemed somehow to accompany me. Eventually, rather like him, I came to see that I was called into the unity that is Catholicism, and was received at the Oxford Oratory. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend his beatification in Birmingham in 2010, and to have also visited his room and library at the Birmingham Oratory and the new shrine for him there on several occasions

From what I have read of his vast output as theologian, apologist, historian, novelist and letter writer I can sense his profundity, but also his lightness of touch as a pastor and counsellor, and his great wisdom. I should read more of his works and revisit some of his most famous works - and would urge others to do so.

A friend shared with me yesterday an excellent video made just over a decade ago by Fr Nicholas Schofield and Fr Marcus Holden about St John Henry. It is informative and balanced, and filmed in many of the places that Newman one would have known. It also includes interviews with people I knew in Oxford and who bring expertise and insight into recounting his life.

The video can be seen at Lead Kindly Light: The Life and Message of John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

The Court of King Richard II and the Ashanti Ewers

The Art Newspaper has an article about the display in York at the York Army Museum of three bronze ewers taken as loot from the court of the Ashanti king by British troops in 1896. The three items have been brought together again from the museums which now hold them in this country. 

Now before we all go woke and start talking about restitution we need to consider the origin of these bronze vessels. The best known of the three, and now part of the British Museum collection, was made in England for use at the court of King Richard II, and bears his arms. The possible routes and times which could have brought this piece and its two companions from Europe to West Africa are discussed in the article. 

I have written before about these bronze items in a post in January last year which can be viewed at The bronze ewers from the court of King Richard II recovered from Ghana 

 

The online article about the current exhibition of the reunited ewers can be seen at Three medieval ewers shrouded in mystery go on display in York

The website of the York Army Museum can be visited at York Army Museum

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The Battle of Bossenden Wood

By chance I came upon a video from The History Chap

about the Battle of Bossenden Wood, which is said to be the last battle fought on English soil. It occurred a few miles outside Canterbury in May 31st 1838.

The background to this was in part the extraordinary career of the leader of the uprising and in part the political ferment and economic tensions of much of the 1830s.

The video can be seen at Britain's Strangest Battle: Redcoats vs the Messiah of Kent

Wikipedia has an account of the events with some additional details, and that can be seen at Battle of Bossenden Wood

These two accounts do not mention the strong Kentish tradition of political volatility and radical religious movements from the later medieval period onwards. There had been significant uprisings in the county in 1381, 1450, 1471, 1483, and 1554. This has been in part explained by its distinctive social and tenurial structure. I would also think that straddling as it does the principal land route from London to Dover, and then to the continent meant it was open to the rapid transmission of news and ideas. 

Lollards groups were established quite early in the history of the movement within Kent and remained active until the beginning of the sixteenth century reformation. Radical Religious movements also had support in the county in the early stages of the Civil War, and groups such as the Muggletonians survived there.

Factors similar to those which could lead to political descent Would likely also manifest themselves in religious dissent, and the two came together to a considerable degree in Wyatt’s rising in 1554, although as leader Wyatt had tried to avoid religious issues being raised by his followers.

Anglo-Catholic splendour

A friend has shared with me an excellent online portrait and description of the great church of the Holy Angels at Hoar Cross in Staffordshire. It is one of the greatest works of G. F. Bodley, together with Thomas Garner. At the time Bodley was the architect of choice for Anglo-Catholic patrons like Mrs Meynell-Ingram who was the sister of Viscount Halifax, the leading layman of the movement. Mrs Meynell-Ingram commissioned the church as a memorial to her husband who had died in 1871. The church was built between 1872 and 1876, and substantially extended during the years 1891 to 1906.

The feature on the church can be seen at The Church of Holy Angels – Hoar Cross

At the end are links to two other splendidly illustrated posts by the author. The first is about the Victorian churches of All Saints Leek and All Saints Denstone. The second is about one of A.W.Pugin’s undoubted, and best preserved, masterpieces, the Catholic Church of St Giles Cheadle, commissioned by the Earl of Shrewsbury.

Thinking about Agincourt

Today is the 610th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt in 1415. It seems an eminently suitable day upon which to share an idea I was ruminating upon the other day.

We can perhaps think of the Hundred Years War as a conflict that was bounded by a number of factors which inhibited both England and France from securing the victor they might desire, until, that is, French by a slow process of attrition, eased the now enfeebled English out of everywhere but Calais by 1453-4. Even then the English were back again in 1475, 1492, 1513, 1545, and, even after the fall of Calais in 1558, tried yet again in 1562. The Hundred Years War had no concluding peace treaty - the nearest thing to that was perhaps the Treaty of Amiens of 1802 when King George III agreed to no longer style himself King of France and removed the French quartering from his coat of arms.

If then this protracted conflict was not a single war but more an existential reality for both realms, which neither could win, intervening ambitious peace treaties such as Paris in 1259, Brétigny in 1360, Troyes in 1421 or even Cateau Cambresis in 1559, let alone extended truces and pledges of peace and amity, failed to bring what they seemingly offered.

It is as if the two principals, let alone their allies, could never achieve victory due to their own limitations, or the constraints of the times in which the events took place. Thus the great English mid-fourteenth century naval victories of Sluys in 1340 and Winchelsea/ Les Espagnoles sur Mer in 1350, and the land victories of Crecy in 1346 and, even more catastrophic for the French, Poitiers with the capture of King Jean II in 1356, were not the knock out blow they may have seemed in the immediate aftermath. In the following years the French offered huge swathes of land to the English, but failures to ratify in full, or the French insistence on retaining ultimate sovereignty over the territories involved meant no lasting peace was negotiated.

Neither England or France could have seemingly achieve that degree of advantage to dictate a lasting solution. Despite the difference in size and resources between France and England, the centralised and cohesive nature of the latter’s administration made it an extremely formidable opponent, Whilst the more diverse and fragmented nature of France made it prone to factional conflicts. There was therefore something of a stalemate, interrupted by campaigns that aimed to resolve the conflict, but which could never achieve it.

In this context Agincourt stands out as being different, along with the English victory at Verneuil a decade later, but that was a consequence of Agincourt. King Henry V’s victory on this day in 1415 was so crushing that it looked like the long desired or feared knock-out blow. Not only was the French army crushed, its leaders killed or captured, but the results seemingly crushed French political action and initiative. Circumstances at the court of the French king and the deaths of two successDauphins as the internecine feuds between the French princes resumed whilst King Henry sailed home to England, transformed for the moment into a major European ruler. Two years later he was back and began the systematic conquest of Normandy, the richest duchy within the Royal domain. Allied with Burgundy after the murder on the bridge at Monterau of Duke Jean the Fearless in 1419, by the summer of 1420 the English king could achieve the Treaty of Troyes which made him heir and regent of the kingdom of France. He spent much of the last year or so of his life fighting those who opposed it. Had he lived two months longer he would have succeeded King Charles VI as the French monarch. 

Whether King Henry V could have subdued the realm he was promised is, of course, unknowable, but the likelihood of a decisive English victory was never closer. This had come about because of the victory won by the then largely unknown English king and his depleted army at Agincourt. 

As a victory it very rapidly entered the national consciousness in England, partially through deliberate government messaging and propaganda, and also one can assume because it naturally resonated with the populace. When Shakespeare wrote about it almost two centuries later his audience knew the story, what they wanted was the emotion and exultation of St Crispin’s Day - and for another such victory over the old enemy they would have to wait for Blenheim in 1704.

Agincourt and the events of the reign of King Henry V did not deliver final victory in the Hundred Years War for the English, but it must have seemed close. For the French the catastrophic humiliation may have served to 

embolden them under King Charles VII to find the way to gradually reclaim their country, but it was no easy task. The rigidities of resources and the nature of political life and military campaigning imposed constraints it was almost impossible to overcome. What had happened at Agincourt made that impossibility look possible.

The King at the Vatican

On Thursday I watched the television coverage of the state visit by King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the Vatican and what bit was available of their subsequent visit to St Paul’s Outside the Walls.

The meeting with Pope Leo XIV and the service of Midday Prayer in the Sistine Chapel was dignified, and historic, if not quite for the reasons claimed in advance. 

So far as I know the exchange of chivalric orders between a Pope and a British monarch had not occurred before. The Papal order received by The King was the Collar of the Order of Pius IX. There is more about the Order from Wikipedia at Order of Pope Pius IX

I do have to agree with articles in the Catholic Herald and the Daily Telegraph that this occasion was the first time in something like five and a half centuries that a Pope and an English or British monarch had prayed together was misleading, implying that such occasions were almost routine in medieval centuries.

We know Anglo Saxon kings from the House of Wessex, ancestors of the King, including the future King Alfred, visited Rome on occasion, or like King Caedwalla who abdicated and retired there and built a church whilst living as a hermit, but thereafter, such visits or meetings were rare. 

King Cnut, while attending the Roman coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II in 1027 would have met Pope John XIX and from Scotland King Macbeth in 1050 would have met Pope Leo IX. 

After 1066 King Henry I met Pope Calixtus II at Reims in 1119, whilst King Edward I and Pope Gregory X had met on crusade before their respective successions in the Holy Land in the early 1270s and again in Italy after the Pope’s election in 1272. The next reigning monarch from these realms to meet a Pope was King Edward VII who met Pope Leo XIII in 1903, King George V who visited Pope Pius XI in 1924, and then there were the visits to the Vatican by the late Queen, initially as Princess to Pope Pius XII, and his successors, and welcoming two of them to this country.

Jacobites might opine, of course, that in the eighteenth century the three claimant Stuart Kings, James III and VIII, the other Charles III, and Henry IX and I - who are all buried in St Peter’s - regularly met Popes, although only the first was officially recognised as monarch by the Papacy. Some of the later Stuart claimants as Italian and Bavarian rulers doubtless met other Popes.

Similarly the revival of the English royal link with St Paul’s Basilica and Abbey by making His Majesty the Royal Conrator on lines similar to those between France and the Lateran and Spain and Sta Maria Maggiore is a good and positive, as well as historic, thing to do. So too was the gift to His Holiness of the status of Papal Confrator of St George’s Windsor. 

I am sure this, quite rightly, appeals to The King’s sense of history and his genuine commitment to inter-church relations. 

We have indeed, happily, come a long way from the sixteenth century reformations and the active, or indeed passive, discrimination against Catholics here in the UK, even if relics of it still survive.

At same time, as some of the better informed commentators have pointed out, however the real theological differences remain - exemplified by the announcement of the impending appointment of Dame Sarah Mullaly - I wonder if that should be Doolally or Mulligatawny - as “Archbishopess”of Canterbury and the further splintering, if not shattering, of the Anglican Communion.

It occurs to me that the ecclesial changes within the King’s lifetime have made the dialogue between Rome and Canterbury, for all the high level meetings, the work of ARCIC, and the much more obviously friendly personal relationships that have developed on an individual and institutional basis, actually more difficult. This is has been due to the importation of new - and very dubious - ideas by many Anglicans. For all the outward distance the communions headed by Pope Pius XII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher had fundamentally more in common than they do today. 

Tudor royal locket in the news again

Several websites have had report upon the announcement of the launch of an appeal to acquire for the British Museum the early sixteenth century gold locket found in Warwickshire in 2019. Thought to be associated with a joust in October 1518 it bears the initials and plant badges of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon.

The Daily Telegraph has an article about the locket and the appeal at Proof that Henry lost his heart to his first wife (who kept her head)

The BBC News website also covers the story with additional illustrations at Golden 'Tudor Heart' Necklace Sheds New Light on Henry VIII's First Marriage

The Art Newspaper has a report about the locket which can be seen at Golden 'Tudor Heart' Necklace Sheds New Light on Henry VIII's First Marriage

The link on The British Museum website for donations to the purchase fund can be accessed at The Tudor Heart appeal

This seems to be a very well worth while cause to give to so as to secure the item for the national collection.

The Norbertine Rite

I came by happenstance upon a video that introduces the life of St Norbert of Prémontre and the Order of White Canons he founded and their distinctive Rite for the celebration of Mass. As the video explains after the Council of Trent and the promulgation of the Mass of 1570 the Canons moved towards using that liturgy but some distinctive Norbertine usages survived, notably the distinctive almuce and several of these are described and shown.

Today the Canons are referred to as Norbertines after their founder, but I equally think of them as Premonstratensians, as that is the term used by medievalists to refer to the Order. There were a considerable number of their houses in medieval England, especially in the east and north. Today they still serve several parishes in England, as well as in Europe and the US.

The video can be seen at The Lost Mass of St. Norbert

Recreating Bishop Lyhert’s vestments

The Art Newspaper has a most interesting report arising from the extensive restoration and redisplay of the collection at the Castle Museum in Norwich. Amongst the items in the collection are some fragments of silk from the vestments found at the end of the nineteenth century in the tomb in Norwich Cathedral of Bishop Walter Lyhert. He was diocesan from 1446 until his death in 1472. His most celebrated contribution to the cathedral was the beautiful lierne vault which elegantly crowns the twelfth century nave. He also appears in the Paston Letters both in connection with disturbances at Bishop’s ( now Kings ) Lynn at the end of the 1450s and then in 1469 in the family’s unsuccessful attempts to frustrate the marriage of the younger Margery Paston and the family‘s bailiff Richard Calle. 

Before becoming Bishop of Norwich the Cornish born Lyhert had served since 1435 as Provost of Oriel College in Oxford. I have therefore, as an Orielensis and an historian of the late medieval church, a particular interest in him and his Oriel colleagues who became bishops in that era. I wrote a biographical account of Bishop Lyhert for The Oriel Record in the 1990s.  

The study of the surviving portions of the fabric in the Norwich Museum collection and in the V&A in London taken from the bishop’s tomb when it was located in 1899 has made possible both recreation of the design and the ability to produce new fabric. This will be used to make copes for use by the Canons, and thereby to recreate something of the liturgical spectacle of worship in the cathedral in the mid-fifteenth century. Other pieces will be used in the display in Norwich Castle.

The article can be seen at After 550 years, a fabric found in a Norwich bishop’s tomb is recreated

St Teresa of Ávila

Today is the feast of St Teresa of Ávila. She is a saint to whom I feel a strong attraction, Not just as a spiritual guide, but as an example of very down to earth, practical Christianity.

Spiritual writing and guide to prayer most notably The Interior Castle are justly famous, and full of insight. However, her more prosaic accounts of her life in her Autobiography which owes a considerable debt To Saint Augustine’s Confessions as an Account of her spiritual growth, and The Book of the Foundations which records her trials and tribulations, as well as her successes in establishing her reformed Carmelite houses, together with her Letters which reveal much of her life, and of her steely determination in creating the Discalced Carmelites. Reading these words reveals a distinct and engaging personality, And it is to encounter the practicalities and the inner life of a sixteenth century woman. They must have a wider interest than that just of the pious searcher after spiritual insight.

For those who i’m looking for an introduction to her life the Wikipedia account at Teresa of Ávila outlines her life and writings as well as her posthumous cult, relics and influence.

This year has seen a renewed study of her substantially incorrupt remains and their public veneration. This is covered in a video which also outlines her life and which can be seen at When a 400-Year-Old Tomb Opened and the Body Was Perfect

Teresa of Ávila, by Rubens. This is the portrait of Teresa that is probably the most true to her appearance. It is a copy of an original 1576 painting of her when she was 61.

Image: Wikipedia

St Teresa Pray for us

Fortified churches of Transylvania

One of the irritants in watching so many videos are the AI generated voice overs. It seems that those compilers who use them also succumb to an overblown literary style for the scripts they write. The combination is deeply irritating for the viewer.

A good example of this is the video I want to draw to the attention of readers. Notwithstanding what I have just written, and also allowing for the rushed diction of the narrator, take a few gulps of air, or a stiff drink, to steel yourself and watch what is otherwise a visually impressive account of a number of the remarkable fortified churches of Transylvania. For no very clear reason, certainly one that is not explained, the video begins with the fortified Valère basilica at Sion in Switzerland before travelling east to Transylvania for the other churches it considers.

What emerges, for all the technical criticism of the presentation that I have made, are a group of quite astonishing buildings - astonishing both in their architecture and decoration, and astonishing in their survival.

The video can be seen at Top 10 Catholic Strongholds You’ve Never Heard Of | Catholic Documentary

The Rite of Blessing Portable Altars

I chanced upon a video of Cardinal Raymond Burke blessing a number of portable altar stones. As the video says this is a rite rarely seen by the faithful. I had not witnessed it although I had  read a description of the ceremonial. Some years ago I did witness the rite of consecrating a fixed altar by the then Archbishop Nichols at the Oxford Chaplaincy, and the two ceremonies are, naturally, essentially the same, but with some obvious visual and ceremonial differences.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia has an entry about such movable altar stones at CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Portable Altar

Portable alter stones have a long history. The earliest example I have seen is from among the relics of St Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral and is, I assume,  one he travelled with as a bishop and may have had in his last days in his retreat on Inner Farne. An amazing survival and a precious link with a great and saintly figure from the seventh century.

I first looked into this topic in connection with my research into the life of Bishop Richard Fleming. Following his consecration in Florence as a bishop by Pope Martin V in 1420 he obtained an indult for his brother Robert  and his wife to have a portable altar for domestic use. I am tempted to think that maybe one of Richard Fleming’s first episcopal actions was to consecrate such an altar stone for his brother and sister-in-law.

The video with Cardinal Burke can be seen at The Rare Catholic Ritual You’ve Never Seen Before

A new Grand Duke of Luxembourg

Thanks to YouTube I managed to catch most of the ceremonial and celebrations that marked the abdication of Grand Duke Henri and the accession of Grand Duke Guillaume V in Luxembourg last Friday.

The smaller scale of the capital, with the Grand Ducal Palace and the Chamber of Deputies side by side. and the crowds right in front of these locations conveys the intimacy and intertwining of public life in the Grand Duchy alongside that of its citizens. I imagine this is similar to the world of the smaller German states and their ruling families between 1871 and 1918.

The constitutional position of the Luxembourg monarchy is set out by Wikipedia at Monarchy of Luxembourg

For those who want to know more about the emergence of Luxembourg as an independent Grand Duchy in the nineteenth century Wikipedia has a number of relevant interlinked articles including Partitions of Luxembourg, which is especially relevant to the events of 1831-39 and the Luxembourg Crisis of the later 1860s, which led to the final recognition ot the Grand Duchy as sovereign and independent.

There is a good map from Brilliantmaps.com showing the original extent of the old Duchy of Luxembourg and the various territorial losses it has suffered in partitions since 1659 at The Partitions of Luxembourg

At the public events to mark the succession members of the Grand Ducal family and their guests could be seen wearing the insignia of at least two of the Luxembourg orders of chivalry

Most prominent was the golden riband with blue selvedges of the Gold Lion of House of Nassau. Created in 1858 by King-Grand Duke Willem/Guillaume III it is still under the joint sovereignty of the Dutch and Luxembourg monarchs. However whilst it is not the pre-eminent Dutch Order it is in Luxembourg. Wikipedia has a description of it together with illustrations at Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau

More junior members of the Grand Ducal House could be seen wearing the riband of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau. This was founded for the Duchy of Nassau by the last reigning Duke Adolphe, and revived by him as an Order for Luxembourg when he inherited the Grand Duchy in 1890. It is named after the only member of the dynasty to be elected as King of the Romans, the eponymous thirteenth century Adolphe of Nassau. The insignia of the Order are described and illustrated at Order of Adolphe of Nassau

I did not observe anyone wearing the riband of the other two Grand Ducal Orders, those of the

Oak Crown - described and illustrated at Order of the Oak Crown - or the more modern Order of Merit, which is covered in Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Something of the earlier history of the House of Nassau and its territories can be gleaned from Wikipedia at Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate and at Nassau Castle for the town and castle of Nassau.

The history of the family and its branches, notably those of Weilburg and of Orange, can be seen at House of Nassau

The history of the comital and later ducal territory of Nassau down to 1866 can be seen at County of Nassau and at Duchy of Nassau

The castle at Weilburg is described and illustrated at Schloss Weilburg

With prayers and every good wish for a long and happy reign for Grand Duke Guillaume V and Grand Duchess Stéphanie.

Visigothic Eagle brooches from Spain

Two early sixth century Visigothic brooches in the form of a pair of eagles are featured in an article from LiveScience.com. The cloisonné and jewelled brooches are dated to 501-533, and are now housed in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

They were discovered more than a century ago at Alovera in central Spain. There is more abou the site and a larger photograph of one of the brooches on Wikipedia at Alovera

The details of their discovery are unfortunately less well recorded than they might have been today, but they appear to have been worn as cloak fastenings by royal or aristocratic women. The eagle design appears to indicate the elite status of the wearer and the design might suggest a form of proto-heraldry.

The article can be seen at Eagle brooches: 1,500-year-old pins filled with dazzling gems and glass — and worn by powerful Visigoth women

Excavating Leicester city centre

Recent archaeological work in the historic urban centre of Leicester is outlined in an article from Artnet News. 

More evidence has been revealed about the Roman town which underlies the mediaeval and modern city. The work has also revealed evidence for the medieval market place and its associated municipal buildings, including a grim prison, and even indications of the post holes for medieval market stalls.

The article can be seen at 'Vile' Dungeon Discovered Under U.K. Market Square | Artnet News

New evidence from the Shroud of Turin?

The Zenit website recently had a report about further research into the image on the cloth and suggesting that the front teeth of the lower jaw are visible in a way consistent with the effect of a burst of energy.

The main argument from that is that what is depicted on the cloth are indeed the effects of a release of radiant energy at the moment of Resurrection.

The article can be seen at Discovery in Turin's Shroud confirms burst of radiant energy at Resurrection

The Archbishop of Canterbury designate

The announcement yesterday of the nomination of Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury caught the headlines amongst so much else. I was a little surprised, having thought that the Anglican powers-that-be would perhaps wait until the next appointment to Canterbury or York to advance a woman.

It is now over twenty years since I left the Church of England, and then from a strongly Anglo-Catholic position. Such an appointment no longer concerns me directly. 

However the Church of England is part of our constitution and national establishment, and that fact is appreciated by people who are Catholics in full peace and communion. 

I still have Anglican friends and am aware of an Anglican tradition that cannot be happy with this appointment and what it implies, and who, dare I say it, are running out of sand in which to bury their heads like ostriches.

Dame Sarah’s views are mixed on issues where faith and contemporary social issues meet. She has, perhaps as a former nurse, been steadfast in her opposition to the Assisted Dying Bill. Less reassuring are comments she has made, which are both worrying, as well as gnomic, on abortion  and same-sex blessings.

The media stress  is on her being the first woman to be nominated to the Primacy of All England - no-one has yet found a transgender predecessor. During the discussions about the Church of England legislating for ‘Women Bishops’ I remember the suggestion being made that the two Archbishoprics might be reserved for men as a concession to unity and the idea of ‘male headship’ if and when women were allowed to become ‘bishops’. That has clearly gone by the board. 

Those who speak of and fear the ‘Feminisation’ of Christianity in our society may well see their anxieties realised as the public face of the national Church becomes ‘Mother’ in God, not Father.

For Anglicanism as a whole I cannot see it going well, as has already been indicated, with Evangelicals focussed on the issue of male headship, nor with Global South Anglicans who are often of that Evangelical tradition. Another nail or two, or five or ten in the coffin of the Anglican Communion.

Ecumenical relationships may not suffer with the Lutheran churches that already have women ‘bishops’. Judging by some of the positive ‘mood music’ responses about her appointment coming out from some in Rome relations with the Holy See will doubtless continue at a polite level of meetings, but I imagine joint services at one of the Roman basilicas will be less likely. For the Orthodox there will probably be a much more substantial and suitable barrier, so a trip to the Phanar is not very likely.

In addition to those issues there is the dismal inheritance of the Church of England. The Welby years and Covid have done nothing for church attendance, many parishes feel they are being discriminated against in favour of headline grabbing initiatives to give away the Church Commissioners money, and the continuing issues around clerical and lay abuse of individuals within the Church.

This, of course, brings us back to Justin Welby. Without doubt this incompetent, self-satisfied, bullying little man has been, with the sole exception of the appalling heretic Thomas Cranmer, the worst ever Archbishop of Canterbury. That is no mean, or desirable, achievement. He is the first amongst more than a hundred predeceases  to have to resign for utter incompetence. Even the pluralist Stigand in the eleventh century was at least a patron of the arts.

Justin Welby pushed through the appointment of women bishops, finally destroying residual Anglican claims to any degree of Catholicity, turned a blind eye to abuse by his Evangelical friends, yet obstinately traduced the reputation of one of the most distinguished bishops of the twentieth century ( and there have not been many of them ) blithely went along with closing all churches in Covid - his Easter Holy Communuin celebrated on his kitchen table being the highlight, and which I know, caused one friend to swim the Tiber, and his involvement in the liturgical shambles that was the King’s Coronation.

Dame Sarah has been passed a bitter chalice, but hopefully cannot do worse. Hopefully.

The Restoration of the English Catholic Hierarchy in 1850

Michaelmas Day was the 175th anniversary of the restoration of the English and Welsh territorial Hierarchy and their dioceses by Bl. Pope Pius IX in 1850. This was in the bull Universalis Ecclesiae  This was to be followed by the re-establishment of the Scottish Hierarchy in 1878.

There is an account of the Papal action, and the response to it on the part of the more violent Protestant tradition in England from Wikipedia at Universalis Ecclesiae.

With this bull the Pope restored a national diocesan system - albeit with new territorial designations - that had ceased to exist with the deaths in prison at Wisbech Castle of Bishop Thomas Watson of Lincoln in 1584 and that in exile in Rome of Bishop Thomas Goldwell of St Asaph in 1585.

The original arrangement of the Archbishopric of Westminster with twelve suffragens, the dioceses based on the old Districts and Vicars acting on behalf of the Pope, has now evolved into one with five archdioceses and a total of twenty dioceses.

Unlike the quite considerable celebrations in 1950 to mark the centenary there has been little this year to mark the anniversary. However the Archdiocese of Westminster has produced a video with some account of the events of 1850 and an interview with Cardinal Nichols which can be seen at Restoration of the Hierarchy: 175 years of the Diocese of Westminster

Laus Deo 

Further thoughts on the origins of ‘Feudalism’

Earlier this month I linked in two posts to articles from Medievalists.net by Daniel Bachrach in which he explored the debate about the origins of “Feudalism”, and indeed whether it ever existed as historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries believed it had.  These two posts can be seen at Another nail in the coffin of the F word and  at Training the Carolingian army

Medievalists.net has published a third article by Bachrach which summarises a critique of key arguments in Georges Duby’s well known - and often cited - development of a Three Orders or Estates model for eleventh century society.

The article can be read at Knighthood Before the Crusades: Bishop Gerard of Cambrai’s Vision of Medieval Society

More for Michaelmas

Following on from my post yesterday for Michaelmas here are two pieces from websites which were published yesterday.

The New Liturgical Movement had republished another excellent article from 2018 by Gregory DiPippo about the history of the feast and with some fine illustrations, including Roger van der Weyden’s famous depiction of the Archangel from 1446-52. Unlike most later medieval images of St Michael, such as those by Crivelli I cited yesterday which show an armed figure with sword and scales, here the Archangel weighs souls dressed in cope, stole and alb.

The article can be seen at The Feast of St Michael and All Angels.

The Liturgical Arts Journal had a lavishly illustrated account by J.P. Sonnen of St Michael’s Abbey at Farnborough which was founded by the Empress Eugenie as a sepulchre and memorial for her husband the Emperor Napoleon III, for their only child the Prince Imperial, and for herself. The monastic church is a vision of late French Flamboyant architecture in rural - or suburban - Home Counties England. 

That article can be seen at St. Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, England

St Michael the Archangel

Today is Michaelmas, the principal feast of St Michael the Archangel.

The Catholic Online website says that St Michael has four main responsibilities or offices, as we know from scripture and Christian tradition.

The first is to combat Satan.

The second is to escort the faithful to heaven at their hour of death.

The third is to be a champion of all Christians, and of the Church itself.

The fourth is to call men from life on Earth to their heavenly judgment.

He is also the patron of banking, grocers, the police and the armed forces. I assume the first two came about through his attribute of the scales of judgement, and the third as being a heavenly defender of law and order, with the fourth as a further instance of his being a defender of the community of the faithful as leader of the Heavenly Host against the Enemy.

Wikipedia has a lengthy, and well illustrated account of his cult in Judaism as well as the different branches of Christianity and other faiths at Michael (archangel)

I wanted to include an image of the painting of St Michael the Archangel by Carlo Crivelli and dated to circa 1476 and now in the National Gallery. However none of the images of it on the internet would actually copy and paste. This is all part of an irritating trend in copyright over the last year or so - very frustrating. So I shall have to refer readers to the illustrated article about the panel, which comes from an altarpiece, and with expandable images, on the National Gallery website at Carlo Crivelli | Saint Michael | NG788.11 | National Gallery, London

The painting is also discussed on the Kultura website at Saint Michael - Carlo Crivelli

Crivelli produced several images of Saint Michael in his very distinctively detailed and meticulously posed style.

St Michael the Archangel Pray for us