A lesson in anger management from twelfth century Peteborough:
Peterborough abbey burnt down for a second time in 1116 (the first time it had been burnt by raiding Danes)
"For, on the same day, the abbot [John de Seez, 1114-25] had cursed the monastery, for he had become very angry, and in wrath, he rashly commended it the devil. Moreover, in the morning, the brethren entered the refectory so as to set right the tables, and it displeased him; and he cursed them and immediately went out to the court at Castor. Again, a servant in the bakery, while he was lighting a fire and it would not burn quickly, said in anger “Come, devil, and blow on the fire', and at once the fire blazed, and it reached the roof, and ran through all the domestic offices to the town."
As a reminder of just how catastrophic fires were to churches, here is an image of a fire in 2000 that burnt the church of All Saints in Wet Dulwich.
Notes:
Image from All Saints, West Dulwich in 2000:
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/churchfire/churchfire.htm
The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a monk of Peterborough, (ed.) W. Mellows (London: Oxford University Press, 1949) p. 97, translated by T. Halliday, Select Manuscripts relating to the Abbey and Cathedral of Peterborough: Transcriptions, Translations, and Notes, (Unpublished, held at Peterborough HER and Cathedral Library, 2009-2010) Entry no. 3013
Peterborough abbey burnt down for a second time in 1116 (the first time it had been burnt by raiding Danes)
"For, on the same day, the abbot [John de Seez, 1114-25] had cursed the monastery, for he had become very angry, and in wrath, he rashly commended it the devil. Moreover, in the morning, the brethren entered the refectory so as to set right the tables, and it displeased him; and he cursed them and immediately went out to the court at Castor. Again, a servant in the bakery, while he was lighting a fire and it would not burn quickly, said in anger “Come, devil, and blow on the fire', and at once the fire blazed, and it reached the roof, and ran through all the domestic offices to the town."
As a reminder of just how catastrophic fires were to churches, here is an image of a fire in 2000 that burnt the church of All Saints in Wet Dulwich.
Notes:
Image from All Saints, West Dulwich in 2000:
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/churchfire/churchfire.htm
The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a monk of Peterborough, (ed.) W. Mellows (London: Oxford University Press, 1949) p. 97, translated by T. Halliday, Select Manuscripts relating to the Abbey and Cathedral of Peterborough: Transcriptions, Translations, and Notes, (Unpublished, held at Peterborough HER and Cathedral Library, 2009-2010) Entry no. 3013
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