A priest of very ill repute

Ely Cathedral

The Liber Eliensis is an historical account of the Isle of Ely written/compiled by a late twelfth century monk using a combination of Ely’s archives along with its chronicle.

This extract comes from the third book which covers Ely’s ascent to bishop’s seat until the martyrdom of Archbishop Becket and illustrates the human love of scandal. 

It begins with a man called Gervase who becomes a parish priest in order “to exact worldly profit and the mammon of wickedness. For the wickedness of that man arose seemingly from his fat; it transferred itself into the sensibility of his heart; he thought and spoke evil; he spoke wickedness on high”

As you can see, the monastic author is none too keen on this chap Gervase. Gervase is so bad that he even abolishes various the religious feasts of lady saints in the parish and the author laments that this meant that these female saints’ names would be forgotten. As a result, God raises his “right hand to avenge the aforesaid sainted ladies by punishing their abominable enemy”.

Within a week, with an unrepentant heart, Gervase is attending a banquet and eats and drinks a great

deal before becoming “enslaved to unchastity and drunkenness”. After a week of this, and in a “state of semi-consciousness, he vomited up food as yet undigested” and “He made everyone laugh by not knowing how to keep to a straight path”.

Undeterred, Gervase makes his way to the altar of his church and dresses in his holy vestments “and stood ready in all his priestly array until the introit of the mass, when, fittingly, in accordance with his deserts, as a result of the lord’s punishment in vengeance of His lady saints, before the eyes of the whole congregation, there came upon him a state of helplessness and shame. For, up above, because of nausea, he  vomited profusely from the mouth, and down below, he emitted excrement from his privy orifice with a loud noise and let it fall to the ground!”

It ends alright for Gervase however. His congregation take pity on him and carry him away and remove his soiled clothing before he makes public confession and repents for his sins. 

Notes

Liber Eliensis, a history of the Isle of Ely from the seventh century to the twelfth, trans. by J. Fairweather (Woodbridge, Boydell Press: 2005) Book III, 121, pp. 458-460