4. singing the matins … Virgin Mary: The Office of Our Lady, introduced ‘gradually and sporadically’ in the twelfth century, first at Bury; see Knowles, The Monastic Order, p. 540; on monastic Marian offices, see Sally Elizabeth Roper, Medieval English Benedictine Liturgy: Studies in the Formation, Structure and Content of the Monastic Votive Office, c. 950–1540 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993), pp. 57, 71–2.
5. Helgheton: A town in Norfolk, near Loddon.
6. shepherd: Opilio, a classical and biblical term, as in Genesis 38:12: ‘evolutis autem multis diebus mortua est filia Suae uxor Iudae qui post luctum consolatione suscepta ascendebat ad tonsores ovium suarum ipse et Hiras opilio gregis Odollamita in Thamnas’; ‘And after many days were past, the daughter of Sue the wife of Juda died: and when he had taken comfort after his mourning, he went up to Thamnas, to the shearers of his sheep, he and Hiras the Odollamite the shepherd of his flock.’
7. Adam … our bishop’s steward: See English Episcopal Acta VI, p. xlix.
8. Va[letreius]: The parchment is torn here.
9. Godwin … mentioned before: See above, Book One, note 18, p. 207.
10. teasel: See above, Book One, note 28, p. 209.
11. He who does … what he desires: ‘qui non dat quod amat, non suscipit quod desiderat.’ This is a Latin proverb, current in the twelfth century; see Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi: Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung, ed. Hans Walther, Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina ii (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966), no. 91, p. 222.
12. Robert: This may refer to Robert, Archdeacon of Lincoln, who occurs between 1141/5 and 1169, and who succeeded William of Bayeux (see Book Six, note 20, p. 240); see Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae II, p. 25.
13. Whitwell: A village in Norfolk, a mile south-west of Reepham.
14. put him in shackles and imprisoned him: On the theme of imprisonment and liberation from shackles in miracle tales, see Megan Cassidy-Welch, Imprisonment in the Medieval Religious Imagination, c.1150–1400 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011), pp. 51–7. See also St Edmund of Bury’s help in such cases, Memorials of St Edmund’s Abbey I, pp. 187–9, 204–207, and that of St Gilbert of Sempringham in The Book of St Gilbert, pp. 277–9.
15. guards were … by sleep: An echo of Matthew 28:4: ‘prae timore autem eius exterriti sunt custodes et facti sunt velut mortui’; ‘And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men.’
16. delivered: The word parturivit is used also in the sense of ‘give birth’.
17. I had copied it out with my own hands: Monk-scribes copied books for shared or general usage, but here Thomas refers to a book he copied for personal use. Some scribes left colophons with autobiographical details, but this was rare before the fifteenth century; for some examples, see Richard Gameson, The Scribe Speaks? Colophons in Early English Manuscripts (Cambridge: University of Cambridge, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, 2002), pp. 17–18. I am most grateful to Nigel Morgan and Tessa Webber for their sage advice on this issue.
18. the church of St Michael: A church of St Michael existed on the plot used for the construction of Norwich Cathedral, at which time it was demolished. There were several churches dedicated to St Michael in Norwich: St Michael Conesford, St Michael Coslany, St Michael at Plea and St Michael Thorn (St Michael at Tombland had been demolished by c. 1100); see Atlas of Historic Towns II, ed. M. D. Lobel (London: Scolar Press, 1975), p. 24.
19. Hempstead: A village in Norfolk.
20. Needham: A village in Norfolk.
21. Flordon: A village in Norfolk.
22. the Thursday before Easter: Maundy Thursday.
23. Sebald, son of Brunstan: Sebald is recorded as a donor of land in Norwich to the Abbey of Saint Benet at Holme, when his nephew joined the community as a monk; see The Register of the Abbey of St Benet of Holme, ed. J. R. West, Norfolk Record Society (1932), no. 177, p. 99.
24. Grimston: A village in Norfolk.
25. The doctors … not at all: A possible echo of Mark 5:25–6, see Book Four, note 5 above.
26. Adam the Clerk: Adam of Yarmouth, Clerk of the Signet under Henry I, and later a justice itinerant; see Yarrow, Saints and their Communities, p. 160.
27. Peter Peverell: See Book Three, note 22 above.
28. Thomas the precentor: Served c. 1146–72; see Biographical Register, p. 564. On the role of the monastic cantor, see Margot E. Fassler, ‘The Office of the Cantor in Early Western Monastic Rules and Customaries: A Preliminary Investigation’, Early Music History 5 (1985), pp. 29–51; esp. pp. 42–51.
29. pious boy … mother’s sufferings: William’s piety may echo the classical concept of pietas as a devotion prevailing between parents and children, and exemplified by Aeneas’ actions in saving his father from Troy. See Aeneid I, line 305, Opera, p. 112. On this theme see Nicholas Moseley, ‘Pius Aeneas’, Classical Journal 20 (1924–5), pp. 387–400.
30. treasure of the highest king: I have not been able to identify this citation.
31. brave … bravely: Thomas intended this repetition for effect, virilis and virilius.
32. Of the Spring: De fonte.
33. entrails: The word renes means ‘kidneys’, but its use was much influenced by its biblical and ecclesiastical usage to mean ‘inner parts’.
34. second book: Actually, in Book Three, p. 96 above.
35. tired by the chase we call a halt: See Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, trans. J. E. King (London: Heinemann Ltd, 1966), 3.15.33, pp. 266–7: ‘abstrahit ab acerbis cogitationibus, hebetem facit aciem ad miserias contemplandas: a quibus cum cecinit receptui’; ‘[Reason] withdraws the soul from morose reflections, blunts its keenness in dwelling upon wretchedness, and sounding a retreat from such thoughts.’
BOOK SIX
1. restoration of sight … the insane: Echoing Matthew 11:5: ‘caeci vident claudi ambulant leprosi mundantur surdi audiunt mortui resurgunt pauperes evangelizantur’; ‘The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them.’ John of Salisbury also used this list with reference to the miracles of St Thomas Becket: ‘In the place where Thomas suffered, and where he lay the night through, before the high altar, awaiting burial, and where he was buried at last, the palsied are cured, the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk, folk suffering from fevers are cured, the lepers are cleansed,’ The Letters of John of Salisbury II, Letter 305, pp. 736–7.
2. Reginald of Warenne: On Reginald [Rainald II] see Domesday Descendants, pp. 776–8.
3. returned home … restored to health: One of Reginald’s daughters may have become a nun of Carrow. Was the daughter who received the cure inspired to join the religious life?
4. St Michael, Conisford, in Norwich: See Atlas of Historic Towns II, pp. 8–10.
5. Belaugh: A village in Norfolk, on the River Bure.
6. there, there: This repetition of illuc may be a scribal error or may be intended to suggest the tenor of the insane woman’s speech.
7. they bound her arms … feet with her belt: They used the veil and the belt to restrain her.
8. two half-days and one night: ‘duobus semis diebus et una nocte continuo’, that is, twenty-four hours/over two days.
9. Haughley: A village in Suffolk.
10. Lothingland: At the time, an island on the Broads, near Mutford.
11. parish of St Edmund: A chapel of St Edmund is later attested as dependent on the church of St Margaret in Lynn; see The Making of King’s Lynn: A Documentary Survey, ed. Dorothy M. Owen, Records of Social and Economic History, new series 9 (London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1984), no. 121, p. 132.
12. Philip de Bella Arbore: I have been unable to identify Philip. The archbishop mentioned later would have been Hillin von Fallemanien (1152–69).
13. Furies: Furies commonly appear in medieval literature and are often invoked as a rhe
torical means of ‘elevating’ the text (as is the case here), rather than as active characters. They appear by the twelfth century in manuscripts, such as the First and Second Vatican Mythographers. They were best known (sometimes as Harpies) through the Aeneid; see Ronald E. Pepin, The Vatican Mythographers (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008), pp. 54, 108. I am grateful to Paul Strohm and Rita Copeland for their illuminating comments.
14. dire wrath does not see right: This ‘proverb’ does not appear in the register of medieval proverbs, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii ac recentioris aevi, 3 vols., ed. Paul Gerhard Schmidt (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982–6).
15. Eugenius: Eugene III was pope from 1145 to 1153.
16. exile and pilgrimage … holy place repaired: The chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075–c. 1142) makes a suggestive association between penitents, prisoners and pilgrims in his denunciation of the fashions spread by the court in the time of William Rufus (c. 1056–1100); see The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis IV, ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), pp. 188–9: ‘Olim penitentes et capti ac peregrini usualiter intonsi erant, longasque barbas gestabant, indicioque tali penitentiam seu captionem uel peregrinationem spectantibus pretendebant’; ‘Up to now penitents and prisoners and pilgrims have normally been unshaven, with long beards, and in this way have publicly proclaimed their condition of penance or captivity or pilgrimage.’
17. shrine of St Brendan: At Clonfert, a village in County Galway, Ireland.
18. vagabonds: Girovagi were wandering monks, referred to by St John Cassian (c. 360–435) and in the Rule of St Benedict, see Christopher Brooke, The Rise and Fall of the Medieval Monastery (London: Folio Society, 2006), p. 268, n.5.
19. Reepham: A village in Lincolnshire in the deaconry of Lawress, archdeaconry of Stow; see The Valuation of Norwich, ed. W. E. Lunt (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926), p. 251.
20. William, Archdeacon of Lincoln: William of Bayeux, Archdeacon of Stow, occurs c. 1133 and c. 1147; see Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae II, pp. 24–5.
21. Bury St Edmunds: Known here by the Anglo-Saxon place name Bedrichesworth, which was still used in the twelfth century; see W. W. Skeat, The Place-Names of Suffolk, Publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 46 (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 8, 116–18.
22. God’s wisdom is a great deep: Psalm 35:7: ‘iustitia tua sicut montes Dei iudicia tua abyssus multa homines et iumenta salvabis Domine’; ‘Thy justice is as the mountains of God, thy judgements are a great deep. Men and beasts thou wilt preserve, O Lord.’
23. How incomprehensible … unsearchable his ways: Romans 11:33: ‘o altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei quam inconprehensibilia sunt iudicia eius et investigabiles viae eius’; ‘O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgements, and how unsearchable his ways!’
24. Langham: A village in Norfolk.
25. Wortham: A village in Suffolk.
26. Robert of Wales: Note another person from Wales, as Thomas may have been.
27. Brandney: Brandeneia in the Latin, but no such place name exists. Perhaps a corruption of Brand End in Lincolnshire.
28. Gainsborough: A town in Lincolnshire on the River Trent.
29. under custody … for a long time: On captivity, see Jean Dunbabin, Captivity and Imprisonment in Medieval Europe, c. 1000–1300 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), esp. pp. 32–97.
30. Pope Adrian: The only Englishman to have held this office, Adrian was pope from 1154 to 1159.
31. Mildenhall: A market town in Suffolk.
32. Harvey the Baker: Harvey is also mentioned above, p. 127.
33. Blythburgh: A village in Suffolk.
34. wild with mounting anger … his numerous strokes: This may echo Virgil, Aeneid, XII, ll. 713–14: ‘dat gemitus tellus; tum crebros ensibus ictus congeminant, fors et uirtus miscentur in unum’; ‘Earth groans and their frequent sword blows double; chance and courage mingle into one,’ The Aeneid of Virgil, p. 328.
35. Swafield: A village in Norfolk.
36. She was gripped … profited her not at all: 1 Cor. 13:3: ‘et si distribuero in cibos pauperum omnes facultates meas et si tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam caritatem autem non habuero nihil mihi prodest’; ‘And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.’
37. Aylsham: A market town in Norfolk, on the River Bure.
38. gladly take possession of the welcoming sound of the seashore: The whole scene, especially this phrase, ‘litoris optati grata potiuntur arena’, is inspired by the Aeneid I: ‘ac magno telluris amore egressi optata potiuntur Troes harena et sale tabentis artus in litore ponunt’, Opera, ibid., lines 171–3, p. 108; ‘The Trojans, longing so to touch the land, now disembark to gain the wished-for sands. They stretch their salt-soaked limbs along the beach,’ The Aeneid of Virgil, p. 7, lines 240–2.
39. Wymondham: A market town in Norfolk.
40. Charlton: There are a number of parishes south of Norwich whose names include ‘Carleton’.
41. everyone was asleep: Like the Roman soldiers who were miraculously awestruck at Christ’s tomb, as if dead; see Matthew 28:4, 13.
42. Simon de Nodariis: See Book Two, notes 59 and 61 above, pp. 225–6.
43. Robert Gresley: The illustrious man may be Robert Grelley, who died c. 1154, and who left a son, Albert; see Domesday Descendants, p. 998.
44. a falcon: On falconry in Anglo-Norman England, see Three Anglo-Norman Treatises on Falconry, ed. Tony Hunt (Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 2009).
BOOK SEVEN
1. The chapters of the seventh book begin: There are in fact more chapters in this book than appear in Thomas’s list of chapters.
2. we will still … rule of moderation: In the sense of 2 Corinthians 10:13: ‘nos autem non in inmensum gloriabimur sed secundum mensuram regulae quam mensus est nobis Deus mensuram pertingendi usque ad vos’; ‘But we will not glory beyond our measure; but according to the measure of the rule, which God hath measured to us, a measure to reach even unto you.’
3. Reimbert: This knight must have served Walter de Lucy, who was abbot of Battle Abbey between 1139 and 1171; see The Heads of Religious Houses I, p. 29. Reinbert (with an ‘n’) is a common name among the family of vassals of the Count of Eu, neighbouring Battle Abbey’s lands; a forefather at the Norman Conquest was Reinbert, the count’s steward; see Eleanor Searle, Lordship and Community: Battle Abbey and Its Banlieu, 1066–1538 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974), pp. 51–5.
4. Haddiscoe: A village in Norfolk.
5. Crachesford: A family of this name lived in Tuttington in the Hundred of South Erpingham in the early thirteenth century; see Francis Blomefield, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk VI (London: William Miller, 1807), p. 349.
6. Roger de Scales: A Roger des Scales occurs in a Norfolk fine imposed at Westminster on 1 July 1203, in connection with half a knight’s fee; see Feet of Fines, no. 416, pp. 198–9.
7. Thornage: A village in Norfolk, within the bishop’s lordship.
8. disease they call cancer: a canceri; on breast cancer in early modern Europe, see Marjo Kaartinen, Breast Cancer in the Eighteenth Century (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2013).
9. Belaugh: A village in Norfolk, not far from Horsham St Faith and Newton St Faith. Horsham Priory was a cell – an affiliated institution – of Conques Abbey in southern France; it was a local focus for the cult of Saint Faith; see Medieval Religious Houses, p. 68; Sheriff William confirmed his parents’ foundation of this house; see Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters I, p. 16.
10. Saint Faith: On the cult of Saint Faith (Foy), see The Book of Sainte Foy, and the Song of Sainte Foy, trans. Pamela Sheingorn and Robert L. A. Clark (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995). In Norfolk the cult was promoted at Horsham St F
aith, founded by the family of John de Chesney, sheriff at the time of William’s death; see above, Book One, note 43, p. 211.
11. Repps: A parish near Cromer; there are North and South Repps.
12. Lindsey: A district in today’s north Lincolnshire.
13. William, our dean of Norwich: See p. 32 above.
14. Bondo Hoc: This is a distinctly Scandinavian name: Bondi, turned in Latin into Bondo; see John Insley, Scandinavian Personal Names in Norfolk: A Survey Based on Medieval Records and Place-Names (Uppsala: Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy, 1994), pp. 98–107.
15. podagra: Gout, a rheumatic, arthritic complaint.
16. Taverham: A village in Norfolk.
17. Rockland: I take Rochesburch to mean Rocklands, a cluster of villages in Norfolk.
18. civeria: A hand-barrow, litter or stretcher (cf. the French word civière). Travelling such a distance is remarkable, even in a fine vehicle such as this. But people did travel in search of cures; on pilgrimage itineraries, see Ronald C. Finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs in Medieval England (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1977), especially chapter 3.
19. Hadeston: A hamlet of Bunwell, a parish in Norfolk.
20. Thetford: A town in Norfolk.
21. Norway: Scandinavian merchants enjoyed privileges in London, but also traded from other ports and in East Anglia; see The Making of King’s Lynn: A Documentary Survey, ed. Dorothy M. Owen, Records of Social and Economic History, new series 9 (London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1984), p. 42. Norway was a source of luxury goods from the wild, such as furs, hawks and falcons, and timber too; see M. M. Postan, The Medieval Economy and Society: An Economic History of Britain in the Middle Ages (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972), p. 189.
The Life and Passion of William of Norwich (Penguin Classics) Page 32