One of the reasons this has been sitting around for so long unattended is
that I don't have a reference for it other than the original at the British
Library (1 of 3 surviving copies) but I was sure one existed somewhere
with convenient explanations. Probably in German. So thank you for the
reference. I shall join the queue for Dickens' book on Monday evening!
I was rather sorry to see my query answered so fully because I thought some
of the other suggestions were wonderful - it never hurts to speculate.
Occam's Razor is only a heuristic tool. It doesn't always hold good. You
never know where you will end up with these things. I look forward to
finding out what Dickens made of Moyses yarde... (now there's a relic...)
many thanks
john a w lock
----- Original Message -----
From: Whitehead John <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: Relics to be identified ....
> Dear John and fellow list members,
> I think most of the answers can be found in the poem
> by Wilfrid Holme of Huntington(near York)which is
> similar to this text - I have not had the chance to
> check it - which is printed in A G Dickens' "Lollards
> and Protestants in the Diocese of York", together with
> notes of identification.
> As to your specific questions:
> Question 1:
> I think the "red Cowe" is a reference to the legend of
> the Dun Cow and the establishment of Durham Cathedral
> in 995 - the cow is depicted on the exterior of the
> Chapel of the Nine Altars.
> Question 2:
> Sainct Sithe is St Osyth, usually associated with
> essex, but there is a niche bearing her name in the
> church at Snaith in Yorkshire, which suggests a
> northern devotion to her, and the references in the
> verses point to a Yorkshire source. Sainct Tremans
> fast is that of St Trinian - also cited in an East
> Riding case by Dickens. 'St Anne of Buckstones wel'is
> the well at Buxton in Derbyshire which went from
> aRoman pagan votive shrine to being St Anne's Well,
> was defaced at the Reformation, and promptly became a
> place of resort as a spa watering place, being visited
> by Mary Queen of Scots when living in Derbyshire in
> the 1570s, and later gave rise to the development of
> Buxton as an eighteenth century spa town and resort.
> Question 3; This is just a suggestion- could this
> reference be to chrism and its supply from St Peter's,
> i.e. the Minster in York and from St John's Minster in
> Beverley - my memnory tells me that Southwell, another
> of the Archiepiscopal daughter churches, was the place
> whence chrism was collected for Nottinghamshire
> churches.
> Question 4:
> The interpretation in Dickens' notes as to the cult at
> Pontefract is that it refers in Holme's text to rye
> asthma, i.e. hay fever. Whether this originates with
> any reference to 'St Thomas of Pontefract'having
> suffered from this particular condition is unclear -
> so far as I remember this point is not considered by
> John Maddicott in his biography. Whether
> coincidentally or not, ergotomine (which I assume to
> be from the same source) is used in modern treatments
> of migraine (did Thomas of Lancaster also suffer from
> this, or is it atavistic therapy with the clothing
> relic of someone who had died by decapitation? )
> A theory ( I think of my own and not suggested in
> Dickens ) is that "sainct Cornelis horne" may be the
> Horn of Ulf, still preserved as a title deed in the
> Minster at York - I believe that Saint Cornelius is
> depicted in the east window of the Minster.
> The 'Boorne'of St Wilfred should also be a horn.
>
> --- John A W Lock <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >
> I've been sitting on this bit of Tudor polemic for
> > ages but it drifted into
> > conversation yesterday
> > so I thought I would get something done about it.
> > And where better?
> >
> > regards
> >
> > john aw lock
> >
> >
> >
>
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