medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sunday, January 27, 2008, at 3:04 pm, christopher crockett wrote:
> > A menhir stands next to the building (presumably symbolizing the Church's
> victory over pagan idolatry):
>
> whence commeth this speculation?
>
> > http://www.impenderevero.com/lem1.html
>
> says:
>
> "VIII. Datations radiesthésiques.
>
> Elévation : -8000 A.C. Enterré au IX e s., exhumé au XVII e s."
>
> which, if correct, means that it was buried during the Dark Ages and
> dug up at
> the aube of the Age of Enlightenment.
I'm not sure that that is correct. According to the not entirely authoritative account at
http://www.uquebec.ca/~uss1010/orgues/france/lemans.html\
this menhir had always been in the vicinity of the church on this site as had also been a dolmen that was removed in 1778.
According to the account at the foot of the page of this French-language Wikipedia account:
http://tinyurl.com/2tqqgg
the menhir replaced the dolmen in 1778.
There appears to be a legend (early modern?; I didn't find any reference to it in Letald's Vita) that Julian erected his first church in an area of pre-Christian worship and that the presence of the menhir is a memorial to that succession. One finds various versions of this in popular literature on Le Mans. The statement at the foot of this page, indicating that the menhir once bore a cross at its top, is fairly typical:
http://www.ahamadache.123.fr/dolmens.html
Its assertion that a menhir topped with a cross figures on early medieval coinage from the cathedral is not something that I wish to spend time to evaluate.
Best again,
John Dillon
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