Worcester Cathedral Research Articles

An Overlooked Construction Manual for the Quadrans Vetustissimus

Abstract This article presents an edition and brief analysis of the previously overlooked text De compositione quadrae, which is transmitted as part of a scientific miscellany assembled at Worcester Cathedral Priory no later than 1140. De compositione quadrae offers hitherto unavailable information on the construction of the so-called quadrans vetustissimus, a version of the universal horary quadrant circulating in Latin Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is particularly noteworthy for its description of a graphical method of inscribing the months of the Julian calendar on the quadrant’s cursor, which successfully approximates the sine function that determines the change of solar declination in the course of a year.

EXILED TO HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, SUTTON COLDFIELD, WARWICKSHIRE: THE REFUGEE MARIAN CHOIR STALLS FROM WORCESTER CATHEDRAL

The reign of Mary i (24 July 1553–17 November 1558) is widely seen as a disaster for both the woman herself and her devout faith. It can be argued that she did more than anyone to make England a Protestant nation. When we seek to find any trace of her patronage of the arts or of major building projects, we find that little survives. Eamon Duffy called such traces the ‘disjecta membra’. Yet each piece, each surprising survival, demonstrates an awareness of the latest fashions, embracing a forward-looking form of Renaissance arts rather than a backward-looking, conservative Gothic. To discover and emphatically assign a major new piece of work to this catalogue of relics is justifiably a cause of celebration. In 2011, Charles Tracy FSA re-assessed the Marian choir stalls now in Holy Trinity church, Sutton Coldfield (in Warwickshire), rightly calling them the ‘refugee choir stalls from Worcester’, for it was from Worcester cathedral that this magnificent suite was evicted in a fit of Victorian vandalism. In this article, the author demonstrates that these choir stalls were created through the patronage of Mary i, and their makers evoked in their creation ideas and fashions that emanated from Hans Holbein and Sebastiano Serlio, to create what is a unique set of work.

The Last Monks of Worcester Cathedral Priory

This paper traces the history of the Benedictine community of St Mary’s Cathedral Priory, Worcester, from 1534 until its surrender in 1540, with the aim of determining the number and identity of the monks of Worcester at the time of the dissolution. No deed of surrender survives for the priory that would record the names of the monks, and it is argued here that previous studies have underestimated the size of the conventual community during its final days. Using pension lists as well as a hitherto unstudied document preserved in Bishop Bell’s Liber Visitationis, a more accurate figure for the convent can be offered and the fortunes of many of the monks in the years after the dissolution determined.

Latin, Old English and documentary practice at Worcester from Wærferth to Oswald

AbstractThis article analyses the uses of Latin and Old English in the charters of Worcester cathedral, which represents one of the largest and most linguistically interesting of the surviving Anglo-Saxon archives. Specifically focused on the period encompassing the episcopates of Wærferth and Oswald (c. 870 to 992), this survey examines a time of intense administrative activity at Worcester, contemporaneous with significant transformations in the political and cultural life of Anglo-Saxon England more generally. In doing so, this article argues that when writing in either Latin or the vernacular, charter draftsmen responded to a number of variables; language choice did not simply reflect varying levels of literacy. Furthermore, the frequent cases of code-switching found in tenth-century Worcester documents mark this community out as exceptional, suggesting that attitudes towards the interaction between the two languages could vary considerably between institutions.

The Midland Economy and Society, 1314-1348: Insights from Changes in the Landscape

The economic and social trends in the period between the famine of 1315–17 and the plague epidemic of 1348–50 are difficult to understand. This article uses changes in the landscape to broaden the scope of the inquiry into the economic trajectory of those years. Worcester Cathedral Priory had expanded the size and number of tenant holdings by allocating pieces of demesne land just before the famine. In 1336–40 tenants were granted land taken from the waste or from the demesne, in many cases explicitly to build new houses The new holdings can be traced on the ground, and their landscape context identified. The attempt to grow rent income to protect the monastery from the effects of recession was short lived, though the new settlements did not immediately fail. Similar ventures can be found on other estates. The well-documented organisation of new settlements has implications for the role of medieval lords in landscape planning.

Defining a Public Body: When Does Section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 Apply?

On 17 March 2016, the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court handed down judgment in the case of TH v Worcester Cathedral [2016] EWHC 117 (Admin).1 The case involved an application for judicial review and a discussion of whether the defendants should be classed as public bodies for the purposes of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998. The claimant, TH, was a bell ringer at Worcester Cathedral as a member of the Guild of Bell Ringers of Worcester Cathedral. The first defendant (the Chapter of Worcester Cathedral) had revoked his permission to participate in the Guild and the second defendant (the Bishop of Worcester in his Corporate Capacity) had invited him to sign a safeguarding agreement placing conditions upon him participating in bell ringing activities elsewhere in the Diocese of Worcester.2 These decisions were taken as a result of allegations that the claimant had ‘behaved inappropriately with children and young people’, although it was emphasized that no criminal conduct was involved.3 This behaviour was said to involve ‘intimidating and threatening behaviour, and a failure to follow safeguarding guidance provided to him, including being alone with young bell ringers having been told not to’ as well as his use of social media.4

TH v Chapter of Worcester Cathedral & anor

TH v Chapter of Worcester Cathedral & anor

Purple Staining of Archaeological Human Bone: An Investigation of Probable Cause and Implications for Other Tissues and Artifacts

Excavations in the 1990s at the medieval Chapter House of Worcester Cathedral, UK, revealed medieval human skeletal remains, some of which exhibited a distinctive purple coloration. The nature of the colored bone was investigated using solvents for stain extraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), plane polarized (PPL) and cross-polarized (XPL) light microscopy, and auto fluorescence (AF) microscopy. Normal bone from the cemetery was used as a control. The color does not arise from a stain soluble in normal organic solvents. EDX and XRD analysis showed no significant difference between purple and normal bone. XRF analysis shows the presence of trace levels of iron, manganese, zinc, and copper in the affected material. This exhibited a pink color in acid phase and a blue color in alkaline phase. These two states were reversible. The alkaline phase gradually changed irreversibly to yellow over time. These data suggest that the coloration is consistent with the presence of high levels of purple acid phosphatase (PAP) enzyme. The presence of trace amounts of iron, manganese, zinc, and copper suggests a plant or fungal origin for the putative PAP, possibly a member of theAspergillus ficuumspecies.

What type of tremor did the medieval 'Tremulous Hand of Worcester' have?

Scholars have recognized for some time that a prolific 13th century scribe had a tremor. He has become known as ‘the Tremulous Hand of Worcester’, or simply ‘the Tremulous Hand’, ‘hand’ being a metonym for ‘scribe’. He is important as the only widely-known medieval writer with a tremor, and for his unusual interest in translating documents written centuries earlier. This is the first time his writing has been investigated from a joint neurological and historical perspective. Certain or possible evidence of the writing of this man—likely a monk at Worcester Cathedral Priory—appears in at least 20 books (Franzen, 1991 p. 1). As he never wrote about his tremor, or dated his work, the only sources of information for this study are the handwriting itself and limited clues in its subject matter. The central question is: ‘what type of tremor did he have?’. We discuss evidence for essential tremor as the diagnosis by tracing the tremor through a series of handwriting samples, charting progression in tremor severity from ‘fine’ to ‘fine–moderate’ and as a correlate, present handwriting from a modern-day individual with essential tremor using a calligraphy pen. We scrutinize literary scholar Christine Franzen’s seminal monograph, reveal new information she has shared with us in personal correspondence, and offer the first analysis of essential tremor in a medieval context. To our knowledge, this is the first time medieval handwriting has been analysed by a neurologist with a specialist interest in movement disorders. Finally, we examine the lifestyle of a scribe in relation to the symptoms of essential tremor, making special consideration of alcohol consumption. Old English was the earliest form of English, spanning approximately the 6th to 12th centuries, which had been superseded by Middle English by this scribe’s lifetime. Thus, he translated older books into either Middle English or French, …

Books: A Tour Of Bones: Facing Fear and Looking For Life

A Tour of Bones: Facing Fear and Looking for Life Denise Inge Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, HB, 224pp, £15.29, 978-1472913074 This remarkable book addresses our fears of confronting our mortality. Denise Inge moved to a house adjacent to Worcester cathedral which had a medieval charnel house in the cellar. At first frightened of the bones beneath her feet, she embarked on a tour of four charnel houses in Europe to confront these fears. This book was near completion when Inge discovered she had developed advanced cancer. She died on Easter Day, …

The Cronica de Anglia in London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius C.VIII, fols. 6V-21V: Another Product of John of Worcester’s History Workshop

This article comprises a study and edition of the Cronica de Anglia, a significant but neglected history of England from AD 162 to 1125 whose importance lies chiefly in its connections to other accounts of the period. Though it is uniquely preserved in a late twelfth-century manuscript from Rievaulx Abbey, close reading confirms that it was composed between 1125 and 1137, not in the north of England but in the West Midlands, almost certainly at Worcester Cathedral Priory. If it is not the work of the priory’s foremost historian, John of Worcester (d. after 1143), then it was almost certainly produced under his direction. Not only are its contents closely related to his Chronica chronicarum and Chronicula, they also shed new light on John’s interests and the ways in which he and his helpers compiled and edited their histories. Turning to another purpose materials used in John’s other works, Cronica de Anglia arranges them in order to speak to questions about the relative antiquity and status of the kingdom’s bishoprics, churches and monasteries—a concern not otherwise prominent in John’s corpus. This chronicle also sheds precious light on the immediate reception of William of Malmesbury’s histories of the English, especially the first edition of Gesta pontificum Anglorum. Carefully suppressing dangerous nuances in William’s reportage, Cronica de Anglia betrays John’s anxiety to avoid becoming entangled in Malmesbury’s campaign against the king’s chief minster, Bishop Roger of Salisbury (1102–39). The article concludes with the first complete edition of the text.

TheCronica de Angliain London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius C.VIII, fols. 6v–21v: Another Product of John of Worcester's History Workshop

This article comprises a study and edition of theCronica de Anglia, a significant but neglected history of England from AD 162 to 1125 whose importance lies chiefly in its connections to other accounts of the period. Though it is uniquely preserved in a late twelfth-century manuscript from Rievaulx Abbey, close reading confirms that it was composed between 1125 and 1137, not in the north of England but in the West Midlands, almost certainly at Worcester Cathedral Priory. If it is not the work of the priory's foremost historian, John of Worcester (d. after 1143), then it was almost certainly produced under his direction. Not only are its contents closely related to hisChronica chronicarumandChronicula, they also shed new light on John's interests and the ways in which he and his helpers compiled and edited their histories. Turning to another purpose materials used in John's other works,Cronica de Angliaarranges them in order to speak to questions about the relative antiquity and status of the kingdom's bishoprics, churches, and monasteries — a concern not otherwise prominent in this corpus. This chronicle also sheds precious light on the immediate reception of William of Malmesbury's histories of the English, especially the first edition ofGesta pontificum Anglorum. Carefully suppressing dangerous nuances in William's reportage,Cronica de Angliabetrays John's anxiety to avoid becoming entangled in Malmesbury's campaign against the king's chief minister, Bishop Roger of Salisbury (1102–39). The article concludes with the first complete edition of the text.

Waste not, want not: the sustainability of medieval manuscripts

Manuscript books – as the material incarnations of medieval literature – present intriguing avenues of inquiry into the nature of literature and sustainability. This discussion is structured to address the animal origins of the manuscript, and then to move from the heart of the physical book outwards, from examples of reinforcing strips, via other parchment reuses, finishing with wrappers. Manuscript case studies of each of these phenomena are drawn from medieval collections held in Oxford, Cambridge and Worcester Cathedral. This article debates concepts of “sustainability”, reading two senses of sustainability in the production and treatment of books in the fifteenth century. Throughout this discussion, manuscript books are found to exist in a “dynamic ecology of use and reuse”. Therefore, the evidence considered in this article suggests that books and book materials were indeed subject to widespread “waste not, want not” attitudes.

The Medieval Art, Architecture and History of Bristol Cathedral: An Enigma Explored Edited by Jon Cannon and Beth Williamson (review)

Medieval Art, Architecture and History of Cathedral: An Enigma Explored. Edited by Jon Cannon and Beth Williamson. [Bristol Studies in Medieval Cultures.] (Rochester, NY: Boydell 8c Brewer. 2011. Pp. xviii, 350. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-84383-680-3.)The ten essays in this beautifully produced book evolve from a conference held at Cathedral (the medieval St. Augustine's Abbey) in September 2008. approach is interdisciplinary and provides important new insights on the topic, not least in the last essays in the volume that address The Monastic Community in the Late Middle Ages; The Conversion of St Augustine's, Bristol, to a Cathedral; and Secreta mea mihi: Wall Paintings from the Old Deanery of Cathedral. Yet not everything is covered; ideally, the book should be read alongside 1Almost the Richest City: in the Middle Ages, ed. Laurence Keen (Leeds, 1997). Beth Williamson and Jon Cannon articulate the enigma in the introduction, and Williamson returns with some new observations and questions in the epilogue. Roger Leech examines the early-medieval landscape setting of St. Augustine's, whereas John McNeill in The Romanesque Fabric provides the most complete study of the twelfth-century work to date. He presents unequivocal evidence for a high rib vault in the south transept and concludes that the presbytery must have been vaulted. He associates aspects of design variety with the work of Roger, bishop of Salisbury (1102-39), and Henry of Blois, abbot of Glastonbury (1126- 71) and bishop of Winchester (1129-71). Such analogues could have been taken further. For instance, the Romanesque nave aisle vault responds, with their paired half shafts to carry the transverse arch flanked by recessed nook shafts for the diagonal ribs, are paralleled in the chancels of the churches of St. John and St. Mary, Devizes (Wiltshire). Both of these may be products of Bishop Roger's patronage. Discussion of the place of the work in the so-called West School would have been welcome, with reference to such works as Worcester Cathedral chapter house for the segmental backs to the dado arcades, a feature also recorded at St. Philip and St. James, Bristol. Ideally, the influence of St. Augustine's on the nave doorways at Llandaff Cathedral and aspects of local parish churches should have been included. In Sarah Jane Foot's essay, she explores Marian symbolism of the Elder Lady Chapel and the documentation associated with it.A large part of the volume is devoted to Christopher Wilson's examination of the eastern arm of St. Augustine's. Wilson's essay is better read after the contributions by Paul Crossley and Jon Cannon. Crossley's Bristol Cathedral and Nikolaus Pevsner: Sondergotik in the West Country provides a concise historiography of the place of the eastern arm of St. Augustine's, Bristol, in the context of European architecture. In Berkeley Patronage and the Fourteenth-Century Choir, Cannon presents a carefully researched and even-handed assessment of the documentation associated with the building. …

Early Evidence for the Cult of Anne in Twelfth-Century England

Despite scholarly attention on its later medieval popularity, the feast of Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, first appeared in the West in twelfth-century England. The earliest surviving liturgical texts for the feast were composed in the 1130s by Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster, for Worcester Cathedral. They attest to the novelty of the celebration and the process by which a saintly identity was constructed for Anne, an apocryphal figure. To understand why Anne began to be celebrated at this time and how her liturgy was crafted, this article explores Osbert's texts in their devotional context. A lively monastic cult of the Virgin Mary in England provides an important backdrop to the emergence of the celebration of Anne. Debates about the Anglo-Saxon feast of Mary's Conception were especially influential, and a comparison between the liturgical texts for the feast of the Conception and the feast of Anne yields striking parallels. This suggests that the liturgy for Anne both drew on and supported the contentious feast of the Conception. At the same time, Anne was presented as a monastic role model, a virtuous and chaste woman with special appeal for nuns. The history and identity of Anne were therefore deeply embedded in trends of monastic devotion to Mary as Anne was shaped into a deserving mother of her illustrious offspring but also as a worthy saint in her own right.

Early Evidence for the Cult of Anne in Twelfth-Century England

Despite scholarly attention on its later medieval popularity, the feast of Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, first appeared in the West in twelfth-century England. The earliest surviving liturgical texts for the feast were composed in the 1130s by Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster, for Worcester Cathedral. They attest to the novelty of the celebration and the process by which a saintly identity was constructed for Anne, an apocryphal figure. To understand why Anne began to be celebrated at this time and how her liturgy was crafted, this article explores Osbert’s texts in their devotional context. A lively monastic cult of the Virgin Mary in England provides an important backdrop to the emergence of the celebration of Anne. Debates about the Anglo-Saxon feast of Mary’s Conception were especially influential, and a comparison between the liturgical texts for the feast of the Conception and the feast of Anne yields striking parallels. This suggests that the liturgy for Anne both drew on and supported the contentious feast of the Conception. At the same time, Anne was presented as a monastic role model, a virtuous and chaste woman with special appeal for nuns. The history and identity of Anne were therefore deeply embedded in trends of monastic devotion to Mary as Anne was shaped into a deserving mother of her illustrious offspring but also as a worthy saint in her own right.

Attending the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at a Rural Cathedral: an Empirical Study in Religious Orientation and Motivational Style

This study explores the religious orientation and motivation of people who attended the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Worcester Cathedral in December 2009 in order to assess the distinctive pastoral opportunities provided by such services within a rural diocese. Religious motivation was assessed by the New Indices of Religious Orientation, which distinguish between intrinsic, extrinsic and quest orientations. Older people were seen to score more highly on the intrinsic scale and increased frequency of churchgoing was positively associated with scores on both the intrinsic and quest scales. The Carol Service congregation was seen to favour quest orientation above the other two. Compared with its Sunday counterparts, intrinsic religiosity was much lower here and was focused on integrating faith and life rather than on personal prayer. Conclusions are drawn for cathedrals and others wishing to reach out to those with a quest orientation and further research is suggested to extend the study to the parish church setting.

Religious Orientation and Attitudes towards Gay Marriage and Homosexual Bishops

The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between religious orientation and attitudes towards two contentious issues about human sexuality in the Church of England, by studying the broad range of people found attending an Anglican cathedral carol service. A sample of 381 individuals who attended a carol service at Worcester cathedral in December 2009 thoroughly completed the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO). The scales were found to be reliable for the sample. The same participants responded to two statements relating to their attitudes towards gay marriage and the appointment of homosexual men as bishops. Both men and older people are found to report higher levels of negative attitudes towards both issues. Strong positive correlations are found between intrinsic religious orientation and negative attitudes towards gay marriage and gay bishops; these remain after controlling for age and sex. After further controlling for intrinsic and extrinsic orientation, it is found that quest orientation is positively associated with favourable views towards both issues. Areas for further research are identified.

Gregorian Chant. By David Hiley.

Building on his mastery of Gregorian scholarship, as demonstrated in his handbook Western Plainchant (Oxford, 1993), and his uncommonly good musical sense, Hiley's account of Gregorian chant in this book provides the general reader with not just an introduction but a thorough understanding of the chant repertory. In addition to reassuring the general reader about the relevance of the history of the repertory to its current performance, Hiley's account should be helpful to fellow academic scholars and to those struggling with the administration of music in the Roman Catholic community. Hiley's book is well ordered in plan and transparent in its execution. First he gives a good account of the social and architectural context in the high Middle Ages, using Worcester Cathedral as a specific locus, followed by the liturgical context of Mass and Office, then a systematic survey of the central chant repertory, with longer or shorter notices on each item, with good examples. Then comes an account in historical order of the destiny of Gregorian chant from its earliest times down to the twentieth century. It is good to find medieval music theory and musical notation closely coordinated with musical style and performance. The most important aspect of Hiley's account, however, is his even-handed, eminently judicious review and summary of the several contentious issues that have so vexed the topic since earliest times. Hiley's presentation of these issues, which I find admirable, prompts me to make the more detailed observations that follow.

Evesham Abbey: The Romanesque Church

The first great Romanesque church begun in Worcester diocese was apparently at Evesham. Abbot Walter (1078–1104) seems to have agreed the whole plan and he built the east arm, crypt, crossing, and transept. His design was probably based on Lanfranc's churches at Caen and Canterbury, with enhancements from St Augustine's, Canterbury, that included, for the first time in western England, columnar piers and an 'extensive' crypt. The three-apsed plan seems to have been measured with a rod of twelve manupedes and with proportions based on the square root of two. Walter intended a nave with compound piers, but columnar piers were substituted before it was built. Abbot Reynold (1130–49) seems to have started the nave and it was finished by Abbot Adam (1161–89). Evidence adduced for a nave 'giant order' turns out to be illusory. The crossing-tower was completed under Abbot Roger Norreis (1190–1213). There seem to have been no high vaults. Romanesque Evesham appears to have forfeited architectural influence in the region as soon as Worcester cathedral was begun, but may have contributed ideas to the east arm of Durham cathedral.