Screens in ancient and medieval churches

The Liturgical Arts Journal has an article by Shawn Tribe which is a useful introduction to the symbolic and actual role of screens in churches from the late Roman era and their subsequent development in both East and West. Especially for those less familiar with this aspect of ecclesiology this is a useful introduction. For any reader it is a reminder of the importance of the concept of defining and delimitating sacred space within different, but related, traditions.

The illustrated article can be seen at On Balustrades (Cancelli), Rood Screens and Iconostases

One legacy of such features in not only churches but other Roman administrative buildings is the title of Chancellor as a legal or administrative post. The Chancellor was the scribe who sat behind the screen, within the inner part of the court, recording the decisions made.

To quote from Wikipedia “The original chancellors were the cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the audience.”

How not to report Royal events

In the modern world we are surrounded by online reporting of events great and small. Royal lives and events are not only examined and discussed in great detail but also subject to the scrutiny of self-styled “royal experts” and commentators. 

The transfer of royal authority in Denmark illustrates some of the failings of the journalistic world. What was not a coronation, and with not an actual crown in sight, was frequently, repeatedly, described as a coronation and the new King and Queen described as being crowned. The blindingly obvious never got through to the “experts”.

Denmark last had an actual coronation in 1840 - details on Wikipedia - but we were told by the “experts” that the practice ended four centuries ago… Five minutes in front of the computer would tell them the historical reality ….

We were also told that Queen Mary is the first Australian born Queen. She is the first reigning Queen born in Australia but not the first Australian to be married to a claimant. The mother of the claimant to the throne of Albania, the de jure King Leka II, was the Australian born Queen Susan. Wikipedia has a biography of her at Susan Cullen-Ward

Now if I can get these things right with a mixture of a tolerable memory, common sense and a bit of time in front of a computer screen why cannot state-of-the-art “experts” and commentators - who are presumably well paid and chosen to cover their topics?

Never mind “Put not your trust in Princes”, put not your trust in “experts”.

The Queen has abdicated, Long live The King!

Thanks to the multiplicity of internet television channels I was able to watch the events In Copenhagen last Sunday as Queen Margrethe II abdicated and King Frederik X succeeded her as the Danish monarch.

The size of the crowd for the new King’s formal proclamation and their evident enthusiasm for both Queen Margrethe and for King Frederik and Queen Mary, together with their children, illustrated the warmth of regard the Danes have for their Royal Family and the institution of the Monarchy.

The interest in this country and the wider Anglophone world is striking - more so than for the changes of sovereign in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain in 2013 and 2014. Much of that is no doubt due to social media interest in Queen Mary as being both a style icon and the fact that she is of Scottish descent and born and brought up in Australia. She is the first reigning Australian born monarch.*

The ceremonial of the transfer of regal authority was interesting in its minimalism. Indeed the transfer of the Crown was as automatic as in this country, with no hiatus. Other countries that do not have an actual coronation* do have formal oath taking ceremonies before the national legislature as in The Netherlands and Belgium in 2013, and in Spain in 2014. In the Amsterdam and Madrid ceremonies the crown and regalia was on display. Denmark however does not do things that way. The regalia remained at Rosenborg Castle and I assume the King’s oath to maintain the Constitution taken as an eighteen year old sufficed. It appears therefore a legacy of the absolute system introduced in 1660, the new monarch simply takes up where their predecessor left off.

The history of the Danish coronation rites and regalia both before and after 1660, and the modern post-1849 proclamation is outlined by Wikipedia at Coronation of the Danish monarch, at Danish Crown Regalia and at Coronation Chair of Denmark

I do regret that the tradition of holding a coronation ceased in Denmark after 1840. Its evolution after 1660 was typical of absolute monarchy at the time but a return to earlier practice would have been, to my mind, better than abandoning it altogether. It is only for funerals that the regalia is displayed.

I will conclude by praying for and wishing a long and happy retirement to Queen Margrethe II and a long and happy reign to King Frederik X and Queen Mary.

* I am reserving comments about some aspects of press coverage of these events for the next post.

Durandus on Epiphany

According to traditional usage we are still in the Epiphany Octave, so it is still appropriate to cast our minds back to the Feast itself.

The New Liturgical Movement has had two articles by Gregory Di Pippo about the commentary of the thirteenth century scholar bishop Guillaume Durandus on the celebration of Epiphany. The articles can be read at Durandus on the Epiphany (Part 1) and at Durandus on the Epiphany (Part 2)

Wikipedia has a short account of Durandus which serves as an introduction to his several works at Guillaume Durand

The Rationale is available in translation from Amazon or through bookshops. It became well known to scholars and to clergy in the nineteenth century as a major source for understanding and copying medieval practice. In the wake of the inter-way Liturgical Movement and of Vatican II it has been perhaps sadly less influential. It is good therefore to see it easily accessible in modern editions.

A Roman crucifixion from near Cambridge

Last night I watched on BBC 4 The Cambridgeshire Crucifixion which revealed the examination of a skeleton of a man who had died by crucifixion probably in the mid-third century. The skeleton was found in a Roman cemetary at Fenstanton near St Ives - so in terms of Anglo-Saxon and later counties, in Huntingdonshire rather than Cambridgeshire.

The programme can be watched on BBC iplayer. 

The skeleton is only the second definitely identified victim of crucifixion to have been found - the other was in Jerusalem - in the entire Roman Empire, and is the only one for which a facial reconstruction has been done.

The man was 5’7”tall, in his mid to late thirties and appears from genetic evidence to have been likely to have had brown hair and eyes. He appears to have been native to Britannia rather than coming from overseas.

The BBC News website reported in some detail in an illustrated report on the discovery of his remains in 2021. This can be seen at Roman crucifixion: First example in UK found in Cambridgeshire

The Mail Online has an illustrated article about the remains and the latest research at Face of man crucified by the Romans in Cambridgeshire reconstructed

The Roman context of Fenstanton as being on the road linking the military camps at Godmanchester and Cambridge and with a substantial villa is set out briefly in the Wikipedia entry for the village at Fenstanton

 

Medieval Beaumaris

The Past website has an interesting article from Current Archaeology about an excavation in the charming town of Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey.

Beaumaris is famous for its castle, which never was completed to its intended design but which still served as part of the network of Edwardian castles to control and defend North Wales.

However, unlike Conwy and Caernarfon, it would today appear not to have had town walls. So far as I recall there was no mention in guide books when I visited on annual holidays in the 1960s. The implication appeared to be that the town only had a ditch to act as a defence or delineator. However I now learn from this article, and can see, that on John Speed’s plan of the town on his 1610 map of Anglesey there was a town wall on at least two sides of the urban area. 

John Speed’s plan of 1610 of Beaumaris showing the castle, the town walls, and the town. Llanfaes is at the top.

Image: Wikipedia 

The walks were a creation of the early fifteenth century, long after building work on the castle had been abandoned, and built as a result of the Glyndŵr rising.

The town of Beaumaris remained important as  as a major port for links to Dublin before losing out to Holyhead in the early nineteenth century.  It appears to have been the place of arrival for the future King Henry V and his cousin Humphrey Earl of Buckingham, the son of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, from Ireland in 1399, that for the Duke of York in 1450 and for the Earl of Essex in his 1590s campaigns in Ireland. The castle served as the last recorded place of imprisonment from 1449-52 to of the disgraced Eleanor Cobham, the former wife of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester.

The recent excavation has also produced a lot of material about the much more recent social history of the town.

The article can be seen at If walls could talk: Tracing the lost defences of Beaumaris

Wikipedia has more about the medieval and later history of the castle, town and walls at Beaumaris Castle, at Beaumaris town walls, at Beaumaris, and at Llanfaes Friary

Llanfaes is the likely burial place of the Earl of Buckingham and the onetime Duchess of Gloucester.

Henry Symeonis

With a new academic Term looming and members of the University of Oxford returning to the city I think we can be confident that amongst them will not be Henry Symeonis. One reason for this is that he has been dead for well over seven hundred years, but even if he did turn up he would not be welcome.

The Special Correspondent has shared with me a very interesting article from the Archives and Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library blog about the curious case of Henry Symeonis and his unique ‘commemoration’ by the University of Oxford long after his death. The article can be read at The persistence of tradition: the curious case of Henry Symeonis

Thus, as I am not the first to point out, St John Henry Newman and the founding fathers of the Oxford Movement would all have taken this oath as much as any other Oxford MA, including inter alia John Wyclif, episcopal college founders such as Fleming, Chichele and Wainflete, Cardinals Wolsey and Pole, St Edmund Campion, Archbishop Laud, Christopher Wren, and Edmund Halley, before the requirement was removed in 1827. 

Dates for your diary?

Many of us tend, I imagine, around New Year to be marking up our diaries and calendars with dates and events to remember in the coming year. We might as we do that note to ourselves sombre anniversaries of deaths or days somehow perceived as unlucky, be they ancient or indeed modern ( like Friday the thirteenth ).

Medieval people had a long list of days which were deemed inauspicious, such as Fridays and sometimes Mondays - rather like the modern Greek refusal to begin a new venture on a Tuesday, the day when Constantinople fell in 1453 - and inauspicious dates. There were according to one fifteenth century list forty five of these in any one year. 

This research is summarised, with a list of these ominous dates, on the Medievalists.net website at In medieval times, there were ‘Perilous Days’

Don’t say you haven’t been warned….