8. Oculi mei: ‘Oculi mei semper ad dominum’; ‘My eyes are always on the Lord.’ This is the Introit for the third Sunday in Lent, but is also sung on Sundays throughout the year.
9. Isti sunt dies quos observare debetis: This is the First Nocturn, Responsory for Passion Sunday, the fifth Sunday in Lent. The full text is: ‘Isti sunt dies quos observare debetis temporibus suis quartadecima die ad vesperum pascha domini est et in quintadecima sollemnitatem celebrabitis altissimo domino’; ‘These are the days to be observed of you in their seasons. In the fourteenth day at even is the Lord’s Passover, and on the fifteenth day ye shall keep a Feast unto the Lord, the Moot High.’
10. doubting Thomas: See John 20:27–9: ‘deinde dicit Thomae infer digitum tuum huc et vide manus meas et adfer manum tuam et mitte in latus meum et noli esse incredulus sed fidelis respondit Thomas et dixit ei Dominus meus et Deus meus dicit ei Iesus quia vidisti me credidisti beati qui non viderunt et crediderunt’; ‘Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.’
11. chapter house: This was the space in which members of religious communities met for deliberation, as well as for confession and to be punished for infringements of monastic rules. On the location of the chapterhouse see Fernie, An Architectural History of Norwich Cathedral, p. 158, and Gilchrist, Norwich Cathedral Close, pp. 109–10. On choirboys in monasteries, see Susan Boynton, ‘Boy Singers in Medieval Monasteries and Cathedrals’, in Young Choristers, 650–1700, ed. Susan Boynton and Eric Rice (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2008), pp. 37–48, and ‘The Liturgical Role of Children in Monastic Customaries from the Central Middle Ages’, Studia Liturgica 28 (1998), pp. 194–209.
12. speech is permitted: On silence in monasteries, see Paul F. Gehl, ‘Competens silentium: Varieties of Monastic Silence in the Medieval West’, Viator 18 (1987), pp. 125–60, esp. pp. 134–43. Benedictine monasteries did not require total silence, but rather regulated the ‘desire to utter words that were harmful to the disciplined development of the individual monk’, Scott G. Bruce, Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition c. 900–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 13.
13. pious theft: These pious thefts were usually performed by religious institutions; see Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, rev. edn, 1990), esp. pp. 56–86.
14. will be recounted in what follows: See below, pp. 114–15.
15. the exalted … will be exalted: Thomas is here paraphrasing Luke 14:11: ‘quia omnis qui se exaltat humiliabitur et qui se humiliat exaltabitur’; ‘Because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.’
16. Friend, rise up: This is a paraphrase based on Luke 14:8–10.
17. I have seen … etc.: See Psalm 36:35–6:‘vidi impium superexaltatum et elevatum sicut cedros Libani et transivi et ecce non erat’; I have seen the wicked highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus. And I passed by, and lo, he was not.’
18. Be you humbled … the time of visitation: See 1 Peter 5:6: ‘Humiliamini igitur sub potenti manu Dei, ut vos exaltet in tempore visitationis’; ‘Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation.’
19. He hath put down … exalted the humble: See Luke 1:52: ‘Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles’; ‘He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.’
20. Wednesday after Palm Sunday … the ides of April: Thomas, usually meticulous in his handling of dates, is wrong here, as Wednesday after Palm Sunday 1150 fell on 12 April.
21. the one on which … was celebrated: That is, Easter, 16 April 1150.
22. William the Sheriff: See Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters I, ed. Philippa Brown (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1985), pp. 7–17, and the discussion in the Note on the Text above, p. lvi.
23. Peter Peverell: See Biographical Register, p. 549. Peverell entered the Cathedral Priory thanks to an endowment made to the priory by his brother Sir Matthew Peverell, Lord of Great Melton, Norfolk Record Office DCN 44/80/1 and Register V, fol. 45v.
24. as will be revealed later: See below, pp. 139–40.
25. Geoffrey of March: A Geoffrey of March occurs in the resolution of a dispute over some land and a mill, settled at Westminster on 15 June 1203; see Feet of Fines for the County of Norfolk for the Reign of King John, 1201–1215, For the County of Suffolk for the Reign of King John, 1199–1214, ed. Barbara Dodwell, Pipe Roll Society Publications 70, new ser. 32 (London: Pipe Roll Society, 1958), no. 31, p. 15.
26. the Geraldine brothers: Warin and Henry FitzGerald were Chamberlains to Henry II between 1153 and 1170. See Recueil des actes de Henri II, roi d’Angleterre et duc de Normandie, ed. Léopold Delisle (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1909), pp. 382, 468–9.
27. she could not … be cured by doctors: There may be an echo here of Luke 8:43: ‘et mulier quaedam erat in fluxu sanguinis ab annis duodecim quae in medicos erogaverat omnem substantiam suam nec ab ullo potuit curari’; ‘And there was a certain woman having an issue of blood twelve years, who had bestowed all her substance on physicians, and could not be healed by any.’
28. Richard, then sub-prior of Norwich: On Richard de Ferrariis, see Biographical Register, p. 550, and below, note 38.
29. the candle was made … as a votive offering: See a similar case of making a candle to the sufferer’s measure and taking it to the shrine in the hope of a cure, in The Book of St Gilbert, ed. Raymonde Foreville and Gillian Keir (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), pp. civ–cv.
30. sight gradually dimmed: Cecutientibus (literally, ‘his eyes became blind’) is a word rarely used in classical or medieval Latin.
31. Lady Mabel of Bec: The daughter of Walter de Bec, who prospered under the patronage of the de Warennes. Lady Mabel held a knight’s fee in Norfolk – from her father – as her dowry, and issued a charter in 1149. On the family, and especially Lady Mabel, see Paul A. Fox, ‘A Study of Kinship and Patronage: The Rise of the House of Bek’, Medieval Prosopography 24 (2003), pp. 171–93; esp. pp. 177, 181; for the family tree, see p. 175, and Elisabeth van Houts, ‘The Warenne View of the Past, 1066–1203’, Anglo-Norman Studies 26 (2004), pp. 103–21.
32. they scraped the stone … power of divine grace: This case is discussed in Carole Rawcliffe, ‘Curing Bodies and Healing Souls: Pilgrimage and the Sick in Medieval East Anglia’, in Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan, ed. Colin Morris and Peter Roberts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 108–40; at p. 121.
33. Richard of Lynn: Noted in Biographical Register, p. 537, this is the sole reference to him. Monks of Norwich provided pastoral care for the urban parish in Lynn; see English Episcopal Acta VI, p. 14.
34. devil in the shape of a pig: Most occurrences of pigs in hagiographical accounts of the period are associated with virtue and with the identification of holy places; see Hilary Powell, ‘Walking and Talking with the Animals: The Role of Fauna in Anglo-Latin Saints’ Lives’, in Animal Diversities, ed. Gerhard Jaritz and Alice Choyke (Krems: Medium Aevum Quotidianum, 2005), pp. 89–106; esp. pp. 94–102.
35. envies the success … snares at their heels: This echoes Genesis 3:15: ‘inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius’; ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.’
36. I love candles … the candles you have: See note 28 above.
37. stored in his book cupboard: Books which were not in regular liturgical use were usually kept in the cloister. They were also ke
pt in recesses in cloister walls, like those built in Norwich Cathedral Priory in the early fourteenth century. Free-standing and lockable cupboards were also used and are known from the late eleventh century; see Richard Gameson, ‘The Medieval Library (to c. 1450)’, in The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, Volume I: To 1640, ed. Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Webber (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 13–50; esp. pp. 18–20.
38. Richard de Ferrariis: Richard (of Ferrers) died some time between 1158 and the early 1160s; see The Heads of Religious Houses I, p. 252, and Biographical Register, pp. 508–509.
39. Denis the Chamberlain: Denis, the monks’ chamberlain, is also mentioned below, note 46.
40. how William … headache, deafness and poor sight: James and Jessopp preferred to leave ‘this unsavoury case’ untranslated in Jessopp and James, p. 146.
41. William: See Biographical Register, p. 572.
42. Brichtiue: There is no hospital of this name in the list of religious houses in Norwich, in David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses of England and Wales (London: Longman, 1971), pp. 328–9, 381–2.
43. afflicted by leprosy: ‘tanquam elephantino perculsa’; the term elephantiasis was occasionally used in this period in England to describe leprosy; see Carole Rawcliffe, Leprosy in Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), pp. 76–7.
44. Ormesby: A parish in Norfolk: Ormesby St Margaret with Scratby.
45. Yarmouth: The seaport for Norwich, itself a river port. Norwich Cathedral became closely linked to the town after Bishop Losinga built the church of St Nicholas and installed monks there to provide pastoral care; see The First Register of Norwich Cathedral Priory, ed. H. W. Saunders (Norwich: Norfolk Record Society, 1939), fol. 3d33.
46. Denis: Denis is also mentioned above, note 39.
47. Goscelin le Gros: Goscelinus Grossus appears as a witness to two charters issued by Bishop Everard; see The Charters of Norwich Cathedral Priory I, ed. Barbara Dodwell, Pipe Roll Society, new ser. 40 (London: Pipe Roll Society, 1974), no. 116 [of ?1141–3], p. 64 and no. 117 [1139–43], pp. 65–6. On charter no. 117 Goscelin le Gros appears alongside another witness, Simon de Nodariis, mentioned above, p. 64.
48. Eustace the Moneyer: On moneyers in this period, see Martin Allen, Mints and Money in Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 6–9, 94–6, and Ian Stewart, ‘The English and Norman Mints’, in A New History of the Royal Mint, ed. C. E. Challis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 68–75. On surviving coins struck by Eustace, see Martin Allen, ‘The Mints and Moneyers of England and Wales, 1066–1158’, British Numismatic Journal 82 (2012), pp. 54–120; at p. 113. A coin struck by Eustace during Stephen’s reign (1135–54) has survived and is currently held at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, CM.1148–2001 (see p. lxiv above).
49. gout: The word gutta is perplexing. It perplexed Jessopp, too; see CUL Add 7481 J56 (11 April 1894) and J58 (24 April 1894).
50. Katherine: St Katherine was a very popular medieval martyr, alongside the Virgin Mary and St Mary Magdalene. On her cult in England in the twelfth century, see Katherine J. Lewis, The Cult of St Katherine of Alexandria in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2000), esp. pp. 52–9.
51. Bartholomew of Creake: Bartholomew de Crec was named after North Creake, a village in the north-west of Norfolk. He lived in the late 1130s and was the descendant of Turstin fitz Guy, who held lands in Norfolk from Hugh Bigod; see K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066–1166, II. Pipe Rolls to Cartae Baronum (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2002), p. 415. A grant by Bartholomew of Creake is mentioned some time between 1171 and 1174 in a charter by Bishop Turbe; see English Episcopal Acta VI, p. 56.
52. Tudenham: North Tuddenham, a village in Norfolk.
53. Wighton: A village in Norfolk.
BOOK FOUR
1. Ralph the Moneyer: See Book Three, note 48 above.
2. How the martyr … mother and son: The words ‘and cured a mother and son’ are omitted in Jessopp and James, p. 165.
3. made his death … of the Lord: See Psalm 115:6: ‘pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors sanctorum eius’; ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’
4. to the honour of the Holy Trinity: Norwich Cathedral was dedicated to the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, so the prayers were offered to the Trinity and not to William of Norwich.
5. She had been suffering … little or no good: An echo of Mark 5:25–6: ‘et mulier quae erat in profluvio sanguinis annis duodecim et fuerat multa perpessa a conpluribus medicis et erogaverat omnia sua nec quicquam profecerat sed magis deterius habebat’; ‘And a woman who was under an issue of blood twelve years and had suffered many things from many physicians; and had spent all that she had, and was nothing the better, but rather worse’; and Luke 8:43: ‘et mulier quaedam erat in fluxu sanguinis ab annis duodecim quae in medicos erogaverat omnem substantiam suam nec ab ullo potuit curari’; ‘And there was a certain woman having an issue of blood twelve years, who had bestowed all her substance on physicians, and could not be healed by any.’
6. Postwick: A village in Norfolk.
7. In those days: An echo of Luke 2:1: ‘factum est autem in diebus illis exiit edictum a Caesare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis’; ‘And it came to pass, that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled.’
8. William: William de Chesney, the brother of John de Chesney (see Book One, note 43, above), became sheriff after his brother’s death, probably in 1146; see Green, English Sheriffs to 1154, p. 62; see also Simon Yarrow, Saints and their Communities: Miracle Stories in Twelfth-Century England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006), pp. 145–6.
9. Richard, Dean of Bedingham: He acted as attorney in the royal court (curia regis) in 1194. See Jessopp and James, p. xxxvi.
10. out of fear … of St Andrew: On the development of the law of sanctuary, see Kevin Meek, ‘Giving Place unto Wrath: The Practice of Ecclesiastical Sanctuary in Medieval England, 1000–1277’, PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Cambridge, 2003. Churches and churchyards were most often recognized as places of sanctuary, but even a roadside cross could be claimed as such (see pp. 3–38). I am most grateful to Martin Brett for introducing me to this interesting dissertation.
11. And also my shoe … for the time being: It is impossible to establish how news of it reached Wimborne Minster in Dorset, but a list of its ‘Reliques of Saints’ (in an unidentified Latin manuscript still extant in the nineteenth century) included ‘One of the shoes of St William of … wich’; see John Hutchins, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd edn, ed. W. Shipp and J. W. Hodson (London: J. B. Nichols & Sons, 1868; repr. East Ardsley: E. P. Publishing, 1973), p. 225. I am grateful to Julian Luxford, who brought this item to my attention.
12. Prior Richard: See Biographical Register, p. 551.
13. casket: The word is scrinium, a ‘box’ or ‘casket’, and when it contains relics it becomes a ‘reliquary’.
14. William: The sacrist; See above, p. 93.
15. not to take … about to receive: On this episode, see Bartlett, Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?, p. 350.
16. thanks to … blessed martyr: See above, pp. 51–2.
17. she was making … Saint James and Saint Gilles: On English pilgrims to Compostela, see D. W. Lomax, ‘The First English Pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela’, in Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. H. C. Davis, ed. H. Mayr-Harting and R. I. Moore (London: Hambledon Press, 1985), pp. 165–75; and on pilgrimage to Saint-Gilles in the eleventh century, see L. Musset, ‘Recherches sur les pèlerins et les pèlerinages en Normandie jusqu’à la Première Croisade’, Annales de Normandie 12 (1962), pp. 127–50, at pp. 138–9; for a tale of pilgrimage to Saint-Gilles, see the account in Memorials of St Edmund’s Abbey I, ed. Thomas Arnold, Rol
ls Series (London: HMSO, 1890), p. 178. I am most grateful to Susan Raich for discussions in which she shared her expertise on travel and seafaring in the twelfth century.
18. Norman Sea: Seas were often called after those who lived on the land along their shores, hence, the mare Normannicum. In a late twelfth-century text on sea piloting (De viis maris, attributed to Roger of Howden) the sea crossed from England to Brittany was called the ‘mare Britanicum’ and that by Kent the ‘mare Kentium’; see P. Gautier Dalché, Du Yorkshire à l’Inde: Une ‘géographie’ urbaine et maritime de la fin du XIIe siècle (Roger de Howden?) (Geneva: Droz, 2005), pp. 178, 181.
19. to produce … who were thirsty: There is an echo here of Numbers 20:11: ‘cumque elevasset Moses manum percutiens virga bis silicem egressae sunt aquae largissimae ita ut et populus biberet et iumenta’; ‘And when Moses had lifted up his hand, and struck the rock twice with the rod, there came forth water in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle drank.’
20. Hastedun: This may be the village of Hasketon in Suffolk.
21. Tivetshall: A village in Norfolk.
22. Richard of Bedingham … mention above: See note 9, above.
23. Eustace the Moneyer: See Book Three, note 48 above.
BOOK FIVE
1. the community of monks … such a multitude: On the challenges presented to monastic communities by the gathering pilgrims and bystanders, see Bartlett, Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?, pp. 261–3.
2. Giulfus: See Biographical Register, pp. 514–15.
3. at midday … resting in the dormitory: See David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn, 1966), pp. 714–15. From the tenth-century summer dinner took place at noon, afternoon rest between 1–2.30 p.m., followed by none; see also The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed. and trans. David Knowles and revised by Christopher N. L. Brooke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), pp. xx–xxv.
The Life and Passion of William of Norwich (Penguin Classics) Page 31