I've now tracked my vaguely-remembered reference down. I found it in Jeremy Knight's article 'Britain's Other Martyrs: Julius, Aaron and Alban at Caerleon' in
Alban and St Albans: Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology, ed. Martin Henig and Phillip Lindley, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions xxiv, 2001. Jeremy suggests Alban's link with Caerleon may actually have derived
from the acquisition of some of his relics. Robert de Chandos's c 1113 grant of Christchurch near Caerleon to his abbey of Bec and its dependent priory at Goldcliff included the
ecclesiam Julii et Aaron. When the charter was confirmed by the future Henry II in 1143 the martyrium was described as
Ecclesiam Sanctorum Julii et Aaron atque Alban. Levison in 'St Alban and St Albans',
Antiquity 16 (1941) pointed out that St Alban's relics were translated in 1129, there were links between St Albans and Bec through Abbot Paul of St Albans and his cousin Lanfranc, and it was possible that a fragment of the relics became available.
Geoffrey of Monmouth then picked up on the story, when he described King Arthur wearing his crown at Whitsun in Caerleon. He said Caerleon had two great churches, a nunnery in honour of Julius and a house of regular canons dedicated to St Aaron, plus the third
metropolitan cathedral of Britain with a university at which the chair of theology was held by St Amphibalus. The Caerleon museum catalogue in 1909 listed a photograph of a statue of St Amphibalus and described him as a native of the town.
Jeremy always said we would have been better calling ourselves the University of Caerleon-upon-Usk. And was Amphibalus actually the first academic gown?
Maddy
Madeleine Gray PhD, FRHistS, FSA
Professor of Ecclesiastical History/Athro Hanes Eglwysig
School of Humanities and Social Sciences /Ysgol Ddyniaethau a Gwyddoniaethau Cymdeithasol
University of South Wales/Prifysgol De Cymru
Caerleon Campus/Campws Caerllion,
Newport/Casnewydd NP18 3QT Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
http://www.southwales.ac.uk
http://twitter.com/penrhyspilgrim
http://twitter.com/HeritageUSW
http://twitter.com/USWHistory
'Let the victors, when they come, When the forts of folly fall, Find thy body by the wall!'
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Maddy et al,
I don’t have notes or references to hand, but what I remember from my days in St Albans, “Amphibalus” = “The Man in the Cloak” is a later nickname for a perfectly real person whose actual name is not known. In the account of the conversion and martyrdom
of Saint Alban, the British protomartyr, an otherwise unnamed British Christian priest is given sanctuary at a time of anti-Christian persecution by the then pagan Alban. Impressed by the priest’s piety and the gospel he preaches, Alban is converted. When
the military arrive to arrest the priest, Alban changes clothes with him – presumably swaps his toga for the priest’s rough cloak, allowing the priest to escape. Alban is arrested tried and condemned to death. Initially he is to be thrown to the beasts in
the arena but manages to convince the judge he is a Roman citizen. He is therefore beheaded by the sword on the hill overlooking the city of Verulamium and a monastery is eventually erected over the site of his place of burial – a monastery dedicated to Saint
Alban and around which the modern city of St Albans has grown up. (The date when Alban was martyred is hotly disputed. My money is on the reign of the Emperor Septimus Severus - but that’s another story!) The Man in the Cloak (Amphibalus) was later captured,
martyred and his bones along with those of St Alban were revered in St A’s Abbey. They each had a splendid shrine which at the Reformation were smashed up and used to block an internal wall in the abbey to divide the monastic church in two, one part being
the new grammar school and the other part destined to serve as the parish church. In the 19th century the wall was demolished and a big 3D jigsaw puzzle was carried out by antiquarians to restore the two shrines. About 20 years ago, the shrine of St Alban
was carefully taken apart and reconstructed and is now very prominent in the Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban. The Victorian bodge-up of St Amphibalus’ shrine is still AFAIK in the north aisle but there have been plans to give it the modern archaeological
gold treatment as well. It will be that project that may have finally raised the cash.
The association of Alban and Amphibalus with Caerleon is a clerical error. The Ven Bede refers to A & A and two martyrs of Caerleon all in the same sentence which gave rise to the belief that all 4 belonged to the same location and the same period. Whether
the VB was being careless or whether the error was in his sources (I hope the latter!) is impossible to tell.
Brenda M. Cook
Independent Scholar
Member of the Fraternity of the Friends of St Albans Abbey.
From: [log in to unmask]" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">
Madeleine Gray
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2015 2:50 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] painted carvings
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The other thing is they seem to be reviving the cult of St Amphibalus - as well as the carvings I think I have read that they have funding to restore his reliquary.
As far as I know Amphibalus is a completely fictional saint whose name derives from a misreading of a manuscript. He also had some totally mythical connection with the University of Caerleon upon Usk - as our campus is now in line for demolition perhaps we
should be praying to him as well.
Maddy
Madeleine Gray PhD, FRHistS, FSA
Professor of Ecclesiastical History/Athro Hanes Eglwysig
School of Humanities and Social Sciences /Ysgol Ddyniaethau a Gwyddoniaethau Cymdeithasol
University of South Wales/Prifysgol De Cymru
Caerleon Campus/Campws Caerllion,
Newport/Casnewydd NP18 3QT Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
http://www.southwales.ac.uk
http://twitter.com/penrhyspilgrim
http://twitter.com/HeritageUSW
http://twitter.com/USWHistory
'Let the victors, when they come, When the forts of folly fall, Find thy body by the wall!'
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Really interesting! Thanks.
Laura
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to:
[log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to:
[log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
