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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The situation on the ground is so farcical we're reduced to knockabout
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Page Sixty-Four of Forgeries
It was different in Bede's day
| At the age of seven, Bede was sent to the monastery of Monkwearmouth by his family to be educated by Benedict Biscop and later by Ceolfrith. Monkwearmouth's sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year |
I know what you're thinking. Can we trust the sources? No need for doubt on this occasion
| The dedication stone for the church has survived to the present day; it is dated 23 April 685 |
which is a tremendous relief because the archaeologists have been falling down on the job yet again and no archaeological evidence has been found at either place earlier than the twelfth century. It was probably thanks to these idle drones we didn't get the gig
| The twin Anglo-Saxon monastery was the UK nomination for World Heritage Site status 2011 |
But to be fair to them perhaps there was not much archaeology to be found
| The golden age of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow began to draw to a close in the late 8th century, as Northumbrian monasteries became vulnerable to Viking raids, with Monkwearmouth - Jarrow itself being attacked in 794 (the second target in England of the Vikings, after raids on Lindisfarne in 793). They were destroyed by the Danes about 860, and seem to have been finally abandoned in the late 9th century |
Technically the second and third targets in England of the Vikings since it is unlikely alien intruders would know they counted as one. But anyway, here ended the brief but glorious history of Jarrow, Wearmouth, Monkwearmouth and/or Jarrow-Monkwearmouth Except for an afterglow so extraordinary, they're making a film about it
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Places everybody, we're going for a take.
Camera One, on Herald, prepare for half shot, turn to camera, Herald. Nice and loud, cue Herald:
“Thusly the renowned twin foundation, pride of the northern lands, perished as if it ne’er had been. Two hundred years then passed in dolorous silenceâ€.
Good, hold that shot, we'll put in the dissolve post-production.
Camera Two, medium shot on Norman knights, keep those horses steady ... pan back to clergy ... that's nice, clergy, begin your walk through ... no, strut! you're lords of creation, remember ... someone talc that tonsure ... that's good ... and cut away
Camera Three, close up talking head ... where's the talking head, someone get the talking head ... okay, look straight at the camera, nice and natural, authoritative but not patronising ... and cue talking head:
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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When everything's wrong it sure is hard keeping the reader abreast of it all. Bearing in mind the only people guaranteed not to be readers are people who know all this stuff to begin with.
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Page Sixty-Five of Forgeries
| The Libellus de Exordio traces the continuity of Durham's history, and in particular William of Saint-Calais's expulsion of Durham's clerical community in 1083 in order to replace it with a group of Benedictine monks drawn from Wearmouth and Jarrow |
A nice bit of heritage history. Somebody has decided to re-use two long-abandoned sites, seven miles apart, in order to build two brand new monasteries and staff them with two brand new sets of monks. Get UNESCO back on the line
| William de St-Calais was a medieval Norman monk, abbot of Le Mans, who was nominated by King William of England as Bishop of Durham in 1080. During his term as bishop, St-Calais replaced the canons of his cathedral chapter with monks, and began the construction of Durham Cathedral |
The plotline though will never do for a docu-drama. We've got cathedrals being built when there is already a cathedral chapter there, we have whack-a-mole monasteries, we have gospel books hopping in and out of coffins, we have historians and archaeologists chasing their own tails.
We will need a script doctor for this one which I suppose means muggins. I would certainly start by getting rid of this William de St-Calais character. Never heard of him
| In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, he served as a commissioner for the Domesday Book. He was also a councillor and advisor to both King William I and his son, King William II, known as William Rufus. Following William Rufus' accession to the throne in 1087, St-Calais is considered by scholars to have been the new king's chief advisor |
Oh, that William de St-Calais. Second most important man in the country. Obviously I’ve heard of him, I just hadn't connected him with Durham. Bit of a feather in Durham’s cap I should say. But back to the story-line. In Norman power politics, there are snakes as well as ladders
| However, when the king's uncle, Odo of Bayeux, raised a rebellion against the king in 1088, St-Calais was implicated in the revolt. William Rufus laid siege to St-Calais in the bishop's stronghold of Durham, and later put him on trial for treason. A contemporary record of this trial, the De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi, is the earliest surviving detailed contemporary report of an English state-trial |
Another one for the Guinness Book of Records. What was the outcome?
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| A contemporary record of this trial, the De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi, is the earliest surviving detailed contemporary report of an English state-trial |
The 'original' report of the trial is in a manuscript dated fourteenth-century (second half) by the Bodleian, MS Fairfax 6, named for Thomas Fairfax
| Thomas Fairfax (1612-71), the parliamentarian army officer, bequeathed twenty-eight manuscripts to the Bodleian in 1671. They had been in part acquired by his uncle Charles Fairfax, the antiquary. |
Perhaps not such an early record, hard to judge in the absence of a contemporary manuscript and Wiki says there were misgivings 'in the past' (19th century?)
| The introduction and conclusion summarise St-Calais' career before and after the trial. Although the authenticity of the main account has been challenged in the past, most historians consider it a contemporary record of the trial. Six manuscripts containing the work survive, and it was first printed in 1655, with other editions, including translations, appearing after that. |
| Another one for the Guinness Book of Records. |
This almost throw-away comment makes me wonder if you might want to do more with 'first', 'earliest', etc. claims. People often react favourably to lofty claims being debunked.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| This almost throw-away comment makes me wonder if you might want to do more with 'first', 'earliest', etc. claims. People often react favourably to lofty claims being debunked. |
True, but I'm going through a 'sensible phase'. In fact I intend seeing what an AI-formulated version might be like for my next opus.
You might like to try it out on Megalithic Empire to see if we tap into a whole new audience. It's only a matter of a few keystrokes and a read-through. We can have a Kindle version in play, for free (for us).
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| Thomas Levett (1594 – ca. 1655), was an Oxford-educated Lincoln's Inn barrister, judge of the Admiralty for the Northern Counties and High Sheriff of Rutland.[1] But Levett's chief accomplishment was as antiquarian, preserving a centuries-old chartulary kept by Cluniac monks at their Pontefract, Yorkshire abbey, and then turning it over to Yorkshire medieval scholar Roger Dodsworth for publication.[2] |
This seems a bit strange to Wiley, I mean he has achieved quite a bit, barrister, judge, high sheriiff...... do we really rate the antiquarian bit as number one in his list of achievements.
But wait, he was quite busy on other things as well.......
Thomas Levett's brother was John Levett, a well-known attorney at York.[11] Both brothers were large landowners and active in property sales in Yorkshire.[12]
The Cooke baronets bought much of their early estate from the Levett family, and the Copley baronets of Sprotborough also dealt extensively with the two brothers. Perhaps not surprisingly for two sibling barristers, the two Levetts often found themselves embroiled in lawsuits in connection with their property dealings. |
Cripes.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Fairfax was one of the two MP's 'for Yorkshire'. How you organise hustings for a place the size of Yorkshire I don't know but presumably it went to the local fixer. He's been mildly lionised for
(a) being the victorious general commanding the main parliamentary army but
(b) not being a ruffianly type like Oliver Cromwell though
(c) he's never impressed me.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Roger Dodsworth collaborated with Sir William Dugdale on 'a six-volume compendium of the manuscripts and cartularies held by the religious houses of England and Wales', the Monasticon Anglicanum, the first two volumes published between 1655 and 1661. The first edition of De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi was included in the 1655 publication
| .... It is a significant reference document as it provides within one source, now available online and often in English, the history and extracts of some of the more significant records of religious houses of the medieval period. The contents of some of the recorded manuscripts contain material which was subsequently lost or destroyed, thus making the collection important as the sole surviving transcription of lost documents. |
The Monasticon isn't considered entirely reliable by historians who pointed out Dugdale was unable to detect the outright forgeries of some of the great monastic houses, and the work is criticised for 'often including spurious deeds without comment'
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The 'early' Yorkshire entries seem to have been the province of Thomas Levett
| Dodsworth was aided in his study of early Yorkshire by Thomas Levett, a native of High Melton, Yorkshire and High Sheriff of Rutland, who came into possession of the Chartulary of St. John of Pontefract, a collection of early Yorkshire documents kept by monks at the Cluniac abbey. In 1626–27 Levett gave the documents to Dodsworth. How Levett came to possess them is unknown, but the Levetts had been prominent in Yorkshire for centuries, and had once controlled Roche Abbey. |
Never reassuring to be told manuscripts' provenance is unknown.
Dodsworth was reportedly granted access to the Cotton Library though there appears to be no information about which manuscripts he copied so again their provenance isn't known
| At various times in his life he was able to study the records in the library of Sir Robert Cotton, in Skipton Castle and in the Tower of London. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Dodsworth
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Only a total bounder would steal and sell tracts of land by forging cartularies, thereby slyly taking advantage of the mass dispacement of people that occurred during the civil war.....
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Good spot. I'll leave this one to Hatty. [She was called 'the bounder' on account of her multiple marriages and divorces.]
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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We're getting into 'only for nerds' territory
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Page Sixty-Six of Forgeries
| Imprisoned briefly, St-Calais was allowed to go into exile after his castle at Durham was surrendered to the king. He went to Normandy, where he became a leading advisor to Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, the elder brother of William Rufus. By 1091, St-Calais had returned to England and regained royal favour |
It all sounds disturbingly familiar but here is the part that interests us
| During his bishopric, St-Calais stocked the cathedral library with books, especially canon law texts |
Not just canon law texts
| The Libellus de exordio, a historical work of marked literary character composed and compiled in the early 12th-century, relates the history of bishopric and church of Durham and its predecessors at Lindisfarne and Chester-le-Street (Cunecacestre) |
All very well but what connects Durham, Lindisfarne and points in between?
| What historical continuity the Libellus finds comes from the constant presence of the community's patron, Saint Cuthbert. The miracles worked in Cuthbert's name during the late Anglo-Saxon period were particularly flamboyant, and the Libellus contains engaging accounts of some of these, including the miracle of the three waves (when Cuthbert turned a portion of the Irish Sea into blood in order to prevent his followers from taking his relics out of England, see Libellus ii.11), the foundation of Durham (when Cuthbert's body, being moved across England on a cart, refused to be moved, signalling his desire to remain at Durham, see Libellus iii.1), and several picturesque deaths visited upon the enemies of Cuthbert's devotees |
Good enough for me but carping non-believers might demand some ‘forensics’. Everyone's a CSI expert. Would a body satisfy you?
| According to the Libellus's preface, the work was carried out on the orders of the monastic leadership of Durham Priory; probably it was Prior Turgot himself who commissioned it. The latest datable contemporary event mentioned in the core of the text (albeit obliquely) is the opening of the tomb of St Cuthbert for his removal into the new cathedral of Durham, 29 August 1104 |
and that body is still in Durham Cathedral, so there. Alongside Bede as a matter of fact so it was a good thing somebody jotted down all the stuff about Lindisfarne, Jarrow and Monkwearmouth or we could easily have gone wrong.
On a technical note, Bede is a ‘Venerable’, not a full-blown saint, so there is no point in asking for a DNA test on his remains – they are long gone – but
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I had to decide how much grisly detail to go into but decided readers of revisionist books about early medieval gospel books could take a fair amount.
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Page Sixty-Seven of Forgeries
Cuthbert is not just a saint, he is a top saint, with an uncorrupted body, so if you are a Catholic pathologist there could be prospects there.
Before you start demanding an exhumation order though – and good luck facing down the wrath of the cuddyduckers – bear in mind that when they opened the coffin in 1104 the body was clutching Cuthbert's Gospel so it could scarcely be anybody else. It would probably be more useful getting an exhumation order for brain cells at the British Library.
* * *
We turn with relief to the actual book – its detailed provenance and relationship to the Laws of Entropy. At present it is in good shape...
| Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to survive, and both the 94 vellum folios and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book of this age |
...considering its trials and tribulations. We know how it started life because it was
| intended to be placed in St Cuthbert’s coffin when his remains were placed behind the altar at Lindisfarne in 698, or in the next few decades |
St Cuthbert died, according to Bede, in 687 and was buried on Lindisfarne. Being only fifty-three and having led an active outdoor life as a hermit, he was probably in pretty good shape.
Lindisfarne may be cold and damp but it is sandy and well-drained so eleven years in Lindisfarne soil will not have done Cuthbert’s body appreciable harm. In 698 he is moved inside, out of the elements, and although we have no information about the building (that's the one they can't find) we can reasonably assume the body will be in goodish condition in 698, or ‘a few decades later’, when Cuthbert's Gospel joins Cuthbert inside the coffin.
There is no talk of reliquaries so it was presumably placed reverently in Cuthbert's all but intact hands. Or by his side. Underneath his head. Let's not get into details because we have, at this point in proceedings, a fairly full description of the package as a whole:
1 coffin -- wood, temporarily stone, wood
1 body -- reasonable condition
94 folios -- calfskin, brand new, top quality
1 binding -- cowhide, brand new, top quality | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It wasn't like ordering a book from Amazon unless they're using Royal Mail to deliver it.
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Page Sixty-Eight of Forgeries
For the next hundred and seventy-five years the ‘package’ remains in this moderately preservative condition. A coffin inside a rudimentary structure facing out to the North Sea would not be best practice today but it could have been a lot worse. Then it got a lot worse
| In 793 Lindisfarne was devastated by the first serious Viking raid in England, but Cuthbert's shrine seems to have escaped damage |
They may have looked inside the coffin but Cuthbert's Gospel has no fancy jewelling on the cover so it was evidently in no danger from the smash-and-grab brigade. However, according to reports, more serious threats were looming
| In 875 the Danish leader Halfdene (Halfdan Ragnarsson), who shared with his brother Ivar the Boneless the leadership of the Great Heathern Army that had conquered much of the south of England, moved north to spend the winter there, as a prelude to settlement and further conquest. Eardulf, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, decided the monastery must be abandoned, and orderly preparations were made for the whole community, including lay people and children, to evacuate |
Not forgetting ‘the package’, their most prized possession. It was not designed for carrying so some modifications were in order and, thanks to our sources, we know what they were
| It was possibly at this point that a shelf or inner cover was inserted some way under the lid of Cuthbert's coffin, supported on three wooden bars across the width, and probably with two iron rings fixed to it for lifting it off |
No update though about the condition of the now two hundred year old Cuthbert but liquefying cadavers may be a good medium for preserving calfskin and cowhide. We just haven't done the tests. But with the Danes peering over the horizon, whither coffin, body, book?
| They set off inland and spent the first months at an unknown location in west Cumberland, near the River Derwent, probably in the modern Lake District. Eardulf tried to hire a ship on the west coast to take them to Ireland |
No luck. Nothing for it but to return to more familiar surroundings
| Then they left the more remote west side of the country and returned to the east, finding a resting-place at Craike near Easington, County Durham... | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The nonsense goes on. I never really solved the problem of making sure the reader understood who was getting the boot here. I didn't want them to think I was criticising twelfth century episcopal entrepreneurs (more strength to their elbow), only twenty-first century academics for taking it seriously (and spending nine million pounds of taxpayers' money because of it).
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Page Sixty-Nine of Forgeries
But they had to be foxy about it
| ...close to the coast, well south of Lindisfarne, but also sufficiently far north of the new Viking kingdom being established at York |
and how nicely they had judged the political situation
| Over the next century the Vikings of York and the north became gradually Christianized, and Cuthbert's shrine became a focus of devotion among them also |
This is good to hear but let us hope the devotion did not extend to opening the coffin too often because that could only accelerate the chemistry pertaining to body liquids, calfskin and cowhide. But at this point the organic brew catches a break, stability is at hand
| The community established close relations with Guthred (d. 895), Halfdene's successor as king, and received land from him at Chester-le-Street. In 883 they moved the few miles there, where they stayed over a century, building St Cuthbert’s Church, where Cuthbert's shrine was placed |
Never put stability and Vikings in the same sentence
| In 995 a new Danish invasion led the community to flee some fifty miles south to Ripon, again taking the coffin with them. After three or four months it was felt safe to return, and the party had nearly reached Chester-le-Street when.... |
Go on, have a guess :
A. The Danes caught up and slaughtered the lot of them?
B. Christianised Danes fought a pitched battle with the pagan Danes, Cuthbert was saved?
C. They stopped for a breather and then resumed their journey to Chester-le-Street?
D. They stopped for a breather and built Durham Cathedral?
| ....their wagon became definitively stuck close to Durham, then a place with cultivated fields, but hardly a settlement, perhaps just an isolated farm. It was thought that Cuthbert was expressing a wish to settle where he was, and the community obeyed. A new stone church—the so-called White Church—was built, the predecessor of the present Durham Cathedral |
He's coming home, he's coming home, Cuthbert's coming home. Not literally, Durham seems to have been one of the few places in the north of England Cuthbert did not visit, dead or alive, but suffice it to say ‘Cuthbert had found his home’. Or I suppose technically ‘Cuthbert had founded his home’. Anyway,
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I was a bit surprised myself to find the chapter ending so soon (I was enjoying it). I shall plough on tomorrow with the next chapter because I am finding the exercise both therapeutic and useful. SFY
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Page Seventy of Forgeries
coffin/body/gospel book had finally reached their last resting place and for a century or more reposed undisturbed until in 1104 some curious soul lifted up the lid, felt around a bit and plucked out the gospel book.
Not a nice job to ask of anyone but straightforward enough because, although the body was five hundred years old and possibly a bit squidgy round the edges, Cuthbert's Gospel was, to use the classic phrase of the book trade, as well as the British Library:
Worth nine million pounds of anybody's money. Your money, taxpayers’ money. Not my money, I'm a writer, I don't pay tax. O Lord, bring forth that day.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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We have by now left the critique of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts and widened the attack.
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Page Seventy-One of Forgeries
Chapter 5: The Durham Factory
Those who study the past have an ingrained fondness for things ‘from the east’. This is not because of unconscious sun-worship on the part of practitioners in theology, history, archaeology, anthropology et al but because all these disciplines were founded by, and are still dominated by, people clustered at one end of the world's largest landmass. The western end. (Including its western extension in the next landmass).
In their pioneering days, academic disciplines needed to frame hypotheses about how things got going but the theoreticians were faced with a problem. At that stage of human knowledge, it was not known how things did get going but there was a need for making assumptions to get the academic disciplines going.
In such circumstances it is best to frame hypotheses that propose it all happened ‘long ago’ and ‘far away’. Inevitably, if the world is being looked at from a western perspective, this means ‘to the east’ (occasionally, as with Out of Africa, ‘to the south’).
So far, so good. Then bad. Academics are very good at filling in details of pre-existing theories but very bad at challenging pre-existing theories, so these from-the-east hypotheses rapidly got filled in with a wealth of compelling detail. It quickly appeared to all concerned that these ‘founding hypotheses’ were exceptionally well supported. They were certainly well filled in. “The evidence is overwhelming,†as they often put it.
Since academic subjects are transmitted generation to generation by people who have passed their exams lecturing people who want to pass their exams, these founding hypotheses tended not to change generation to generation. As academia is held to be the highest intellectual authority in the world, nobody else was much disposed to take issue. But this is all strictly ivory tower; the world makes different arrangements for the important stuff.
The academic discipline of History is based on the study of contemporary documents so history has to begin with the invention of contemporary documents a.k.a. writing. This is held to have taken place ‘in the east’ – specifically along the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East – as were other notable advances in human activity such as agriculture, metallurgy and organised religion.
East to west, there to here, them to us. That is the general picture. But at some stage it had to stop. With all the intellectual heavyweights clustered at the western end, there must have come a point when the tide turned and everything started going west to east, here to there, us to them.
It follows when this happened is one of the most momentous events in the whole history of the world. Worth getting right. And illustrated gospel books are at the heart of the matter. In fact, forged illustrated gospel books are at the heart of the matter. They triggered the change! You won’t believe this, you ought not to believe it, but you might believe it when we get to the last chapter.
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