Storytime - Of the three wise men of Gotham

I must confess, I selected today's story because of the town's name.

"A certain man who was living in a town called Gotham went to a fair four miles away to buy sheep. And as he came over a bridge he met one of his neighbours and told him where he was going. And the neighbour asked him which way he meant to bring them back. He said he would bring them over the same bridge.

'No,' said the other man, 'but you won't.'
'By God,' said he, 'but I will.'

The other again said he would not. And he again said he would bring them over in spite of him, and so they fell to words, and at last to blows, so that each one knocked the other badly about the head with his fists.

A third man came up to them, a miller, with a sack of meal upon a horse. He was a neighbour of theirs, and parted them, and asked them the cause of their quarrel, which they made clear to him, as you have heard. This third man, the miller, thought he would rebuke their foolishness with a familiar example, and took his sack of flour from his horse's back and opened it and poured all the flour in the sack over the bridge into the running river, so all the flour was lost. And he said as follows:

'By my truth, neighbours, because you fight about driving over the bridge sheep which haven't yet been bought, and you don't know where they are, it seems to me that there is as much sense in your heads as there is flour in my sack.'

This tales shows you that some men take it upon themselves to point out good sense to other men, while they are but fools themselves."


Notes

The notes for this story state that 'Gotham' should be pronounced 'Gottam'.

Shakespeare's Jest Book, A Hundred Mery Talys, ed. H. Oesterley (London: John Russel Smith: 1866), XXII

Printed in Medieval Comic Tales, ed. D. Brewer (Cambridge, Boydell & Brewer Press: 1973) p. 72

Indecision

Today's excerpt comes from the visitations register of Eudes Rigaud written by himself and his aides between 1248 and 1269 during his travels through Normandy. 

Originally of the Franciscan order, Eudes rose to become archbishop of Rouen in 1248 and his register provides valuable anecdotal evidence for the misdemeanours in ecclesiastical life and its problems. He was a spirited reformer was rigorous in enforcing the decisions of the third Lateran council in 1179 which, amongst other items, concerned the lifestyles of clerics. Although incredibly useful in providing an account of these institutions, and his experiences, it is important to remember that when he created the register is was probably intended more as an aide-de-memoir for Eudes. Today's snippet underlines how seriously a lack of religious conviction was taken:

18th April, 1266

"With God's grace we preached near the Mare-du-Parc, where the clergy and people of Rouen had collected after marching thither in a procession. Here we adjudged and condemned as an apostate and a heretic one who had converted from Judaism to the catholic faith. He had again reverted from the Catholic faith to Judaic depravity, and, once again baptised, had once more reverted to Judaism, being unwilling afterwards to be restored to the Catholic faith, although several times admonished to do so. He was burned by the bailiff."

Notes

Davies, A., 'The Holy Bureaucrat: Eudes Rigaud and Religious Reform in Thirteenth-century Normandy', (London: Cornell University Press ) p. 1; O'Sullivan, J., The Register of Eudes of Rouen,  (London: Columbia University Press, 1964) pp. XVIII, 618

Monthy Round-up

Medieval 'selfies'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-33098831

Oxford nunnery excavation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/01/medieval-oxford-nunnery-witches_n_7469386.html

Job hunting using social media:
http://www.nus.org.uk/en/advice/careers/how-to-use-social-media-for-job-hunting/

Digital age Magna Carta (British Library project)
http://www.medievalists.net/2015/06/10/what-would-the-magna-carta-look-like-if-it-were-written-for-the-digital-age/?utm_content=buffer4feca&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

In addition to the British Library's illuminated manuscripts catalogue, this is another useful catalogue for finding medieval images:
http://ica.themorgan.org/default

Sneak peak of the upcoming medieval lego book (including contributions from Reading's own History department!)
http://geekdad.com/2015/06/medieval-lego-book/

...and finally, who doesn't want a spot of dragon on lady sex to round off their Saturday:

(conception of Alexander by Nectanebus and Olympias - BL, MS Burney 169)

GCMS Summer Symposium

Having written the day up as a blog for the History's department's page, I thought I'd simply share the social media aspect of it with you here. For those of you that follow me on Twitter (@nunastic) I'll post a link the blog when it goes live.

Suffice to say, the day went really well and had a nicely celebratory feel to it, whilst being peppered with some really interesting research papers.

Sainthood - Saint Anthony of Padua

Before diving into today's medieval trivia, here's an event which if you're in the South of England may be of interest to you:

Buy tickets here: http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/

Onto some saintly-ness...Saint Anthony was born in Lisbon in 1195 and was an Austin Canon before becoming a Franciscan friar in 1220 after being impressed by the martyrdom of several friars in Morocco.

He was a great speaker and taught at several universities in addition to preaching. He eventually dedicated his life to preaching and remained in Padua until his death in 1231. He was canonised in 1232.

He is usually depicted wearing a Franciscan cowl and with bread, flame, heart, lily, book, and Jesus as a baby. He is invoked for finding lost things and women looking for husbands. He protects orphans, prisoners, shipwrecked persons, pregnant women, sterile women, sick children, glaziers and conscripts.

Notes

Image: "St Athony of Padua", by Benozzo Gozzoli, mid-fifteenth century, in Santa Maria d'Aracoeli Gallery, Rome, Italy

Giorgi, R. Saints, A year in faith and art (New York, Abrams: 2005) p. 352

Que the Benny Hill music

As I am currently in the throes of research for a paper for a conference on Peterborough abbey this summer, I'm coming across a lot of interesting accounts including this one.

In 1304, the coroner for the Peterborough area reported:

"On Thursday 30th January/6th August, 1304, a certain Robert Hod of Seytingdon and a certain Agnes of
Ardingthorn, at the time of Compline, broke the prison of Peterborough and placed themselves in the church of St Thomas the Martyr, at Peterborough. And the said Robert Hod acknowledged the breaking of the said prison and the commission of the theft of six pigs and other robberies; and the said Agnes of Hardingethorn
acknowledged the breaking of the said prison and the theft of six fleeces of wool, worth 2 shillings; for which
robberies and felonies, they abjured the realm of England before H[ugh] Daundely with [a jury formed from]
four nearby towns, namely, Wittering, Thornhaugh, Newark with Eastfield, Eye, Carton with Dogsthorpe; And the port of Dover was assigned to the said Robert Hod and the port of Portsmouth to the said Agnes. Chattels of Robert Hod: one tunic, worth 2 d; 1 hood worth 1 d; shoes worth 1 d. The township of Peterborough shall answer for those. Chattels of the said Agnes: none."

What's interesting is that this is the fourth incident I've come across of this happening at Peterborough and I've only really begun going through the documents.

This is a rough plan of the modern day Peterborough Cathedral's entry precinct. The medieval prison is now the building south of the gatehouse and as you can see, the chapel to which the prisoners claimed sanctuary was only a short walk away.

Upon reading this extract, I immediately envisaged a series of Benny Hill like chases as the gaoler attempted to corral his escapee prisoners.

Notes

Plan - Harriet Mahood, 2014

Extract from the coroner's roll for Nassaburgh, Northamptonshire, 1304, PRO/JUST 2/107, membrane 4A, verso, Latin; transcribed and translated into English by T. Halliday

Monthly Round-up

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