Last week I attended the 50th annual conference of the CRS in Liverpool – my third conference and the first at which I have delivered one of the papers. Since Joy was there, among others, I was able to glean some interesting new insights about Bury. The Abbot of Douai informed me that there are six volumes of Dom Benet Weldon’s memorials in his monastery’s library that include a story attributed to one Hitchcock, presumably a Benedictine, who records that in 1670 the Jesuits discovered a casket in the Abbey ruins in Bury that contained the bones of St. Edmund. The rumour that St. Edmund (or some of him) never really got to Toulouse and might have been secreted at the Reformation is a persistent one, and perhaps owes something to this story. At any rate, the monks reacted immediately by claiming the bones, on the grounds that the Bull Plantata of 1633 gave them jurisdiction over all pre-Reformation houses of their order. Exactly what the Jesuits were doing digging around in Bury in 1670 is unclear – and it may be that the whole story was invented by the Benedictines in an attempt to secure the Abbey when it was offered to them in 1685…I shall certainly have to go to Douai to investigate the original document.
A further story was imparted to me by Joy…apparently when Westminster Cathedral was being built, in about 1903, one of the clergy sent to Rome for suitable English relics to be included in the high altar. Somewhere in the vaults of the Vatican a box was found marked ‘St. Edmund’ and some of its contents shipped to Westminster. However, the Society of Antiquaries hearing of this, they decided to question the authenticity of the relics and they were taken out of the high altar pending further investigation – whether such an investigation ever happened is not clear, but at some point in the 1940s Fr. Houghton, the parish priest at Bury, secured a tooth from this collection that was last seen in the early 1990s. The plot thickens…
The highlight of the conference was undoubtedly Gabriel’s paper on the Country Party and its relations with Catholics and Jacobites in the period 1717-1755. Although it was only a taster, the lecture was of the sort where I felt like standing up and clapping loudly at the end as if it was an American revivalist meeting – and I felt ‘my heart strangely warmed’ as I listened – it was that strange combination of hearing one’s suspicions confirmed and having one’s preconceptions squashed. No doubt it will take me some time to absorb the full impact of Gabriel’s findings but there are intriguing indeed.
Another highlight was the Abbot of Downside’s after dinner speech, in which he pointed out that 1607 and 1807 were both immensely important dates in history, and then deftly sidestepped the foundation of Jamestown and the Abolition of Slavery by pointing to the re-foundation of the English Benedictine Congregation by Sigebert Buckley (who, just by being called Sigebert, must merit a mention) in 1607 and the death of Henry IX, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church in 1807.
We also visited Scarisbrick Hall which taught me that Pugin’s Gothic is not suitable for domestic architecture…however, St. Elizabeth’s Scarisbrick was pleasant enough, emblazoned all over with the arms of St. Edmund’s, Douai and even featuring a stained glass window of St. Edmund – a rare sight indeed in the north of England.
4 Comments
August 3, 2007 at 5:47 pm
The mystery of the possible whereabouts of the remains of St Edmund is a fascinating one. Will be interested to hear what you make of the Douai document when you go to see it.
And the box in the Vatican too – it’s all like a crazy mystery story! I kind of like to believe that the body of St Edmund is somewhere on home ground, and that it never left (and the stories of transportation to London and other places are not true).
Have you ever been to the actual place near Bury where St Edmund was believed to have been martyred? I am not sure exactly where it is – I know it’s the field named “Hellesden” – but would love to go on a pilgrimage some time.
August 3, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Ruby – I too have a hunch that St. Edmund may never have left; how else does one explain the many blessings now enjoyed by Bury?
The thesis put forward (in 1981, I think) that St. Edmund was martyred at Bradfield St. George is now accepted by most scholars. It used to be Hoxne that claimed the title, on the basis of false etymology, but the unearthing of an old map that referred to a ‘Hellesdon Wood’ (the ‘Haeglisdune’ of the martyrdom narrative?) near Bradfield seems to have scotched the mystery. Generally speaking, field names have a great deal of otherwise forgotten information to tell us. However, I couldn’t tell you exactly which wood near Bradfield St. George is Hellesdon wood! To my shame, I have not yet made the pilgrimage.
August 5, 2007 at 3:55 am
I hesitate to contribute to such erudition, but cannot help appreciating your optimistic comment on Bury’s “blessings”. Such a change from the town being “ruined”.
August 5, 2007 at 4:06 am
PS I have tagged you – see my and Ruby’s blogs for details of your obligations.