Tom Izbicki's addition to this string prompts me to
add something which occurred to me at its inception.
While not for a moment denegrating the lustral, holy,
or even numinous quality of certain wells/springs/sites,
I would suggest that the "simple" existence of a source
of clean, fresh water in environmentally dreadfully degraded
Late Roman/Medieval cities was a matter of some importance--and
power--in and of itself, miracles and salubrious mineral water aside.
As at Winchester, there is/was a "source" ("le puit des saints
forts", I believe it is called), and a place of pilgrimage,
in the crypt of the Cathedral of Chartres, which city itself
appears (to my geologically totally untrained eye) to be on
the site of a large ("surfacing") aquifer.
The systematic destruction of large parts of the old city to
make it safe for boutiques has revealed a *very* large number of
ancient wells.
In addition to which, there is, down the hill from the cathedral,
a wonderful little "source" in the Southeast corner of the "cloister"
of the former collegial church of St. Andre (flowing into the Eure
at the juncture with a pedestrian bridge);
and, a few kilometres away, at Leves, another at the important
Benedictine house of St. Mary "of Josaphat" (near the tomb of
John of Salisbury in the ruined transept).
My *guess* is that such examples could be multiplied by many
thousands, all over Europe (as well as, say, ancient and modern
India).
Perhaps someone on this learned list knows of some literature
which has directly addressed this question.
tom izbicki wrote:
>There is a spring or well under Winchester cathedral, but I am unsure
>whether it had any ritual past.
Best to all from here,
Christopher
Christopher Crockett
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Future curator of the
Centre des Etudes Chartraines
a home on the Web for Chartres-
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And Pres. & CEO of
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