How could we possibly miss out dear old Amphibalus? Here is what
we propose to say in the Book of Days:
Amphibalus, the fugitive priest who took refuge with St Alban;
the name, which means `cloak' and alludes to the priestly
vestment that Alban donned in his stead, was invented in 1136 by
Geoffrey of Monmouth, who found the word in an account of a
dynast in Devon who according to Gildas (c.540) had just
committed an atrocity in church `under a holy abbot's cloak' (sub
sancti abbatis amphibalo). Notwithstanding this unprepossessing
origin, within half a century Amphibalus had become a substantial
figure: his bones were discovered at St Albans on the Friday
before the patron's day and solemnly translated to the church, so
Matthew Paris relates, `in the 886th year from his passion', on
Saturday, 25 June 1177 (though since the entire tale is
registered under the year 1178 one might have expected 24 June
1178); a monk named William, commissioned by Abbot Simon to write
the new saint's life, responded with a stirring tale that he
claimed to have translated from a book in English itself
transcribed (according to its author) in the nick of time from a
collapsing wall. We are informed that Amphibalus, having fled to
Wales, reconstituted the bodies of 999 martyrs before being
stoned to death; the pagans fell out amongst themselves, which
allowed a Christian to steal his corpse in frustration of the
magistrate's vow to take him dead or alive. Later writers made
him a citizen of Caerleon, on the Roman road to Wales, where the
martyrs Aaron and Julius had suffered, or the burgomaster of
Cambridge; a priory was dedicated to him at Redbourn near St
Albans. The similarity of his name to _amphibolus_, `ambiguous',
will not have escaped the sophisticated William, whose learning
and piety were not incompatible with humour; Matthew Paris, in
writing his own life of St Alban, trumped his dilapidated wall
with an ancient book, in beautiful roman script but written in
`British' (i.e. Welsh), or as he later says in `English', which
only an aged priest called Unwona (meaning `Unusual') could
decipher--and translate with total accuracy--before it crumbled
into dust.
Bonnie Blackburn (with Leofranc Holford-Strevens, and thanks to
David Howlett for much of the detail)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bonnie Blackburn
67 St Bernard's Road
Oxford OX2 6EJ
tel. 01865 552808 fax 01865 512237
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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