I would be most interested in literature on the burial of staves in
episcopal graves. Offhand, this would seem to be an un-surprising
thing to do; but is it? Are bishops commonly buried with croziers
(and what about abbots and abbesses)?
thanks,
meg
> Many medieval Christian burials are described as including "scripta," which
> probably means indulgences like the one that was discovered on the breast of
> the fourteenth-century Hainaudian knight Sir Walter de Mauny, founder of the
> London Charterhouse, when that site was excavated and his coffin discovered
> and opened in the 1950s. A similar document was found in the coffin of
> Cecily Neville, duchess of York, when that family's tombs in the collegiate
> church at Fotheringhay were ransacked during the Reformation.
> Even for the medieval aristocracy, I'd think that books might be another
> matter. They were not cheap items. I have read accounts of several
> episcopal tombs in England that have been opened in this century and none
> of them, as far as I can recollect, contained books, only pastoral staves
> and in some cases chalices not of the highest standard of manufacture--similar
> to the gilt-copper grave crowns that were commonly used in royal burials.
> John Parsons
Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
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