medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Correction: Peter in Chains is August 1st. Apologies
Gordon Plumb
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From: Gordon Plumb <[log in to unmask]>
To: MEDIEVAL-RELIGION <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 21:29
Subject: [M-R] July 31st St Neot and St Peter in Chains
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
St
Neot July 31st
St Neot, St Neot, Cornwall,
nVII:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4004747315
Glass of c1530
showing the story of St Neot. Neot was a monk and hermit who gave his name to St
Neot, Cornwall and St Neots, Cambridgeshire (formerly Hunts). He joined the
Glastonbury community early in his life and moved from there to a spot near
Bodmin Moor as a hermit, and there he founded a small monastery. He was buried
in the church where, later, his relics were enshrined on the north side of the
sanctuary.
In 972-7 Earl Leofric founded a monastery at Eynesbury (Cambs)
with monks from Thorney abbey. These monks obtained by gift or theft the greater
part of the relics of Neot from the Cornish shrine. That is what the accepted
medieval version of Neot's life says, but G. McNeil Rushforth in his article on
the St Neot's glass says "It is a far cry from Huntingdonshire to Cornwall, and
it seems more probable that there were two distinct saints - a Saxon Neot,
perhaps founder of St Neot's Priory in Huntingdonshire where he was buried, and
a Celtic or Cornish Neot (whose real name may have bbeen Aniet or Niet), founder
of a monastery or college which existed till the Norman Conquest. About the end
of the eleventh century the Norman Abbey of Bec acquired a cell at Cowick, near
Exeter, and it is suggested that here the monks may have heard of the Cornish
St. Neot and the stories about him. In an uncritical age it was not to difficult
to identify the two Neots and then to suppose that the body of the saint had
been brought to Huntingdonshire from Cornwall".
The town of Eynesbury was
then called St Neots. The priory was refounded c1086 from Bec in Normandy.
Anselm declared that its relics were authentic and complete except for an arm
left in Cornwall. Anselm gave to Bec a relic of Neot's cheekbone, presumably
from the shrine at Eynesbury.
Neot is claimed to be of royal blood - either
the East Anglian or Wessex dynasties. According to the Oxford Dictionary of
Saints he was so small that he needed a stool to stand on when saying mass! The
life written at Bec, one of three Latin lives (plus one Old English life)
related incidents borrowed from the lives of Irish saints - including that of
stags being yoked to the plough to take the place of oxen stolen by robbers.
This Bec life is the source of this window at St Neot, donated by the young men
of the parish in ?1528 (the date is missing in records of the glass before
restoration).
The window was subjected to considerable restoration by J P
Hedgeland in the later 1820's who, according to one writer "supplied
deficiencies in a manner so perfectly like the former, as not to be
distinguishable from it"! Hedgeland did plates of the restored windows in a book
published in 1830..
Here are details of the panels of the window and an
indication of their subject matter
Panel 3a, Neot abdicates in favour of his
brother, on whose head he places the
crown:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005552034
Panel 3b, Neot
becomes a monk at
Glastonbury:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005556022
Panel 3c,
Neot saves a doe from a
hunter:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005559926
Panel 3d,
Neot finds three fish in his
well:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005563722
Panel 2a, Neot
bids his attendant bring him the fish for his
meal:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4004770351
Panbel 2b,
Neot's attendant takes two fish from the well, grilling one and boiling the
other:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4004775003
Panel 2c,
attendant brings Neot two fish fo9r his daily meal:
Panel 2d, attendant
takes two fish he has cooked back to well and throws them in as ordered by Neot,
and they are restored to
life:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4004782583
Panel 1a, theft
of Neot's oxen:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005516810
Panel
1b, deer replace the oxen in
ploughing:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005520780
Panel 1c,
The thieves restore the stolen
oxen:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4004762685
Panel 1d, Neot
at Rome receiving the Pope's blessing.
Here is my photograph of the Hedgeland
plate of the restored St Neot window, photographed from my copy of the
book:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4005680068
The glass of St
Neot is discussed, other than in the 1830 book by Hedgeland by:
G[ordon]
McN[eil] Rushforth, The Windows of the Church of St Neot Cornwall. Transactions
of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural And Archaeological Society, Vol. XV, 1937.
Later separately reprinted innthe same year as a 43pp. pamphlet
Mattingley,
Joanna, "Stories in the Glass - Reconstructing the St Neot Pre-Reformation
Glazing Scheme, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, New Series II,
Volume III, Parts 3 and 4, 2000, pp. 9-55.
31st July is also the Feast of
St Peter in Chains
A couple of images from the window in Angers Cathedral Bay
107:
Peter thrown into
prison:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/16058735990
Peter
released by an angel (with chains still on
wrist):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/16244271791
Gordon
Plumb
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