Templar Globe

The Vatican has banned the makers of a prequel to The Da Vinci Code from filming in its grounds or any church in Rome, describing the work as “an offence against God”.

Angels and Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be turned into a film, includes key episodes that take place in the Vatican and Rome’s churches. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that Brown had “turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith”.

“It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business,” he said, adding that Brown’s work “wounds common religious feelings”.

Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.”

The Vatican fiercely condemned The Da Vinci Code novel and its film version, which starred Tom Hanks as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Hanks is also starring in Angels and Demons, which like The Da Vinci Code, is directed by Ron Howard.

Published before The Da Vinci Code, which suggested that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children, Angels and Demons revolves around a plot by a sinister elite known as the Illuminati to install their candidate as Pope and blow up the Vatican. Crucial scenes are set in the Vatican and two Rome churches — Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. In both churches, cardinals are murdered and mutilated with mysterious marks and symbols. Father Antonio Truda, parish priest at Santa Maria del Popolo, said that there was no question of allowing scenes to be shot there. “It’s bad enough having to put up with tour guides explaining the scene to tourists,” he said.

The production team is set to recreate on a set in Hollywood the interiors of the Rome churches from which they are banned.

Vatican officials said they had been unable to prevent the film-makers from shooting exterior shots of St Peter’s and the surrounding medieval streets of the Borgo, with the permission of the borough council.

However, the film-makers are having to use the marble halls and staircases of the former royal palace at Caserta, near Naples, to double for Vatican interiors.

“When a film is about the saints or about stories regarding the Church’s artistic values, then we give permission without any doubts,” Father Fibbi told the TV listings magazine Sorrisi e Canzoni (Smiles and Songs). “But when it is a question of content which does not relate to traditional religious criteria, then our doors are closed.”

The Vatican asked the faithful to boycott the film of The Da Vinci Code.

AN EARLY Victorian cobbled street more than 150 years old has been unearthed by archaeologists investigating the site of a 12th Century Knights Templar mill at the 2012 London Olympics park.

The cobbled thoroughfare is to be ‘lifted up’ and preserved, then used in the huge park now being laid out as a legacy for East London.

Archaeologists believe the street unearthed 20ft below ground may be part of the original Temple Mills lane that was demolished in 1854 before being covered by thousands of tonnes of rubble over the last century-and-a-half.

The archaeologist Kieron Tyler said: “Looking below the amazingly preserved Victorian remains reveals an older mill structure and the exact form of the crucial industries in the Lea Valley down the centuries.”

His team of archaeologists from the Museum of London are carefully digging up the cobblestones and stockpiling them to be laid down in the new Olympics park.

Then they begin digging deeper to search for evidence of the original Knights Templar mill, known as Temple Mills, which started the industrialisation of the Lea Valley.

Olympics authority chief David Higgins said: “Clearing the massive site has given us the unique opportunity to look back into East London’s past before the area is transformed.

“Bringing back to life this cobbled street will be an important way of telling the fascinating story of the development of East London.”

The authority invited the archaeologists to look for evidence of prehistoric remains, from pre-Roman right through to Viking, Medieval and relatively recent industrial and military activities on the site.

Previous archaeological finds include a prehistoric settlement and the skeletons of four of its inhabitants, Roman artefacts and a complete 19 century boat used for hunting wild fowl on the River Lea. Second World War gun emplacements have also been unearthed.

The archaeological investigations are part of the work to clean up nearly two square miles of land to make way for the 2012 Games, much of it contaminated by its industrial past.

HISTORY TO TEMPLE MILLS

THE Knights Templar built a water mill at Temple Mills between 1185 and 1278. A second mill was built on the opposite side of the mill stream in 1308.

The mills passed to the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell after the suppression of the Templars, then eventually back to the Crown after the Dissolution of the Catholic Church and leased to Clement Goldsmith in 1593.

A gunpowder mill and a leather mill were added in the 16th century, with another added in 1627 to grind corn. Other mills followed in the 1630s for working leather and gunpowder.

mike.brooke@archant.co.uk

JOUSTING is making a welcome return to Berkeley Castle this summer.

In July the castle will play host to the Berkeley Skirmish, a new two-day event, which it is hoped will go someway to replace the popular Joust.

Last summer the two-weekend Joust event, which was in its seventh year, had to be cancelled because of the heavy flooding that affected the region.

advertisementThe Joust used to attract more than 10,000 people to the area and its cancellation was devastating for Berkeley and the company Grail Presents that organised it, which faced financial ruin as a consequence.

However, Chris Bruce and his wife Karen Hill from Cheshire-based company Plantagenet Events Ltd, are hoping the new Berkeley Skirmish will help boost tourism.

Mr Bruce said: “We used to get involved with the Joust and we know how good it was. This is going to be smaller than the Joust because we are only just starting out, but we hope it will grow.

“Last year was devastating for everyone, not just the show, but for Berkeley and the entire region.

“What we want to do is support each other and hopefully re-establish an event that was so popular and such a boost for the area and it will give Gloucestershire something positive to advertise.

“We are only a small company, we do not have the financial resources the Joust had, but the response we are already getting from people within the medieval re-enactment world is incredible, everyone wants to come back to Berkeley.”

The Berkeley Skirmish will include living history, 70 traders, battle re-enactments, archery and some jousting.

Tim Davies, marketing director for the Berkeley Estate, said: “The advantage of this company is that they have been involved with Berkeley before so they know how it was done and what is available.

“Losing the Joust was a big blow, not just to us at the castle but to the local area. The fact that we can establish a similar event is very, very pleasing and we are looking forward to it.”

The Berkeley Skirmish will be held at Berkeley Castle on Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27.

Plantagenet Events Ltd is in no way connected to Grail Presents, the company that ran the Joust.

By Liza-Jane Gillespie

The 2,500-year-old item was acquired by a rag and bone man who handed it on to his grandson, John Webber, believing it was made of brass.

As a child Mr Webber took pot-shots at the 5.5ins tall cup with his catapult because the two similar female faces on it reminded him of his schoolteacher.

Over the years he either stored it under his bed or in his loft with other “odds and ends”.

It was only when Mr Webber, 70, from Taunton, Somerset, moved house last year he remembered it and had it analysed.

He was amazed when experts dated the cup back to the Achaemenid empire, making it older than the Holy Grail.

Some estimates suggested that the rare cup would fetch hundreds of thousands when it came under the hammer at Dukes Auctioneers of Dorchester, Dorset.

But once the buyer’s premium was added the cup was bought by an unnamed purchaser for a total of £65,725.

Nevertheless, Mr Webber, who was at the auction with his 20-year-old daughter Kate and son George, 17, said he was delighted with the price and was planning a celebratory meal.

He said: “I am very pleased the cup has sold. We as a family have already decided we are going to split the money between us because, at my age, there is not much I need. I imagine my grandfather would be very pleased with the fact the cup is going back to Somerset.”

in: Telegraph

St George was adopted as patron saint of England by one of our great warrior kings, Richard, of whom Shakespeare wrote: “Richard who robbed the lion of his heart and fought the Holy wars in Palestine.”

Richard was one of the leaders of the third crusade, triggered by the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1189.

When Richard, against all the odds, defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191, a mysterious warrior wearing the crusading insignia of a red cross on a white surcoat, was seen at the forefront of the fighting.

The local soldiery proclaimed him to be their patron saint - St George, a Roman centurion born at Lydda, 20 miles from Jerusalem. He was known to be a great warrior but was executed in the 3rd century AD by order of the Roman emperor Diocletian for refusing to countenance the persecution of Christians.

Richard forthwith adopted him as our patron saint with his battle cry, “St George for England,” as opposed to his fellow crusader Philip’s cry of: “St Denis for France.” Richard also restored the Church of St George at Lydda, where the saint is buried. And although I cannot vouch for its existence today, the ruins were still there in 1945.

Richard also funded the Knights Templar Pilgrims’ Castle on the coast ten miles south of Haifa and, under the peace treaty he made with Saladin, arranged for pilgrims arriving there to be escorted to and from Jerusalem by the Templars.

As for St George never having set foot in England, Richard, although born in Oxford, spent only six months of his reign here.

It seems to me that George is an eminently suitable saint for England. Besides, what would the Union Jack look like without the cross of St George?

G Price, Valley Drive, Brighton

An American researcher has convinced Oxford University scientists to reconsider a test that had cast doubts on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin.

After carbon-14 testing on a fragment from the Shroud, an Oxford team announced in 1989 that the cloth was only about 600- 7000 years old. That result undermined claims that the cloth was used for Christ’s burial. The carbon dating also clashed with other studies that have tended to confirm beliefs that the Shroud dates back to the region of Palestine and the time of Christ.

Now John Jackson, a University of Colorado physicist who has become a leading authority on the Shroud, has persuaded the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit to undertake new studies, to determine whether the 1989 testing was flawed. Jackson theorizes that the fragment of the Shroud used in the earlier tests had been contaminated by smoke from a fire that damaged a portion of the Shroud. Carbon monoxide from smoke could easily produce a false result in carbon-14 dating, he reasons.

Christopher Ramsey, the head of the Oxford study group, said that he had agreed to reconsider the results of the earlier test because he recognized the need to reconcile the dating of the Shroud with other evidence suggesting that the cloth is much older than 600- 700 years.

Wearing a gray sports coat, necktie and business slacks, Andrew Linnell looked every bit the 21st century businessman that he is.

However, standing before a handful of people inside an auditorium in the Marlborough Public Library, the EMC competitive business consultant was poised to tackle a topic usually reserved for men of a different cloth: the history and development of the Christian church.

The 58-year-old Hudson resident indulged in one of his intellectual passions: the Crusades-era monk-warriors known as the Knights Templar.

In the third of a series of lectures, Linnell spoke about a specific facet of the much-mythologized group: Templar motifs represented in the art of the 15th century Florence.

To give his audience a point of reference, he first debriefed them on several hundred years of European and Middle Eastern history.

The information flew fast and furiously.

Linnell touched upon the Catholic Church’s violent opposition to views deemed to be heretical, such as gnosticism. He talked about the importance of church relics such as the Ark of the Covenant, the significance of zodiac signs in Templar history, the exile of the followers of Aristotle, the rise of Islam, and the fall of Persia. He discussed the sacking of Constantinople, which he said marked the beginning of the downfall of the Knights Templar.

He stopped briefly to field a question regarding the political ramifications of Charlemagne’s treatment of Muslims.

Ultimately it is the discrepancies between the church of centuries past and modern day Christian practices that fuel his curiosity and drives his research, he said. Linnell, who has a master’s degree in computer engineering from Michigan, at one time took a sabbatical for several months from his job to scratch his history itch at Emerson College in England.

“It can’t possibly be the same Christianity that spread so quickly throughout the world,” he said. “I’ve always been fascinated. I ask how is it that Christianity spread?”

The Knights Templar, said Linnell, played an important role in that globalization.

“When they came into town, people could just feel their presence; they’d come out and gawk,” he said.

It was this group - a secret society often shrouded in mystery - that brought the idea of baptism as a form of initiation back from the Middle East, said Linnell.

“Cultural evolution always flows east to west,” he said.

The Templars, said Linnell, were also the first international bankers, making travel from Europe to the Middle East less dangerous and more fiscally prudent.

As the son of an astronomer, whose family included several ministers, Linnell said he has always been interested in the sometimes adversarial relationship of science and religion.

“There was always this great battle between science and religion growing up,” he said.

(Dan McDonald can be reached at 508-490-7475 or dmcdonal@cnc.com.)

In an unprecedented move an Englishman has been elected for the second time running as Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, the Roman Catholic order which traces its origins to the Crusades nearly a thousand years ago.

Fra Matthew Festing OBE, 58, an art expert and former army officer who leads the order in Britain as Grand Prior and is regarded as a forward looking reformer, was chosen today. The secret ballot took place today at a papal-style conclave in the Knights’ secluded headquarters on the Aventine Hill in Rome.

The Knight’s inner council, dressed in black robes embroidered with a white eight-pointed cross elected the new leader of the order of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, as the Knights are also known. The 79th Grand Master, with the title “His Most Eminent Highness”, takes over an organisation which is noted for its humanitarian work in conflict zones.

The order is also fighting a campaign to dispel the “myth” that it is rich, powerful and secretive. The election took only a few hours, seen as a sign of unanimity over reported plans to make the order more “open and transparent” and better known globally for its charitable and medical relief operations in 120 countries.

Grand Masters, like Popes, are elected for life. The move was announced after it had been approved by Pope Benedict XVI. It comes a month after the death of Fra’ Andrew Bertie, a former schoolmaster and descendant of the Stuart dynasty who was the first Englishman to lead the order and served as its Grand Master for nearly 20 years.

Under his leadership the order - which has the status of sovereign state, with its own passports and stamps - expanded its diplomatic relations from 49 to 100 countries. The order has 12,500 full members, of whom only 50 are “professed knights” who take monk-like vows of poverty, obedience and chastity.

The order said that the new Grand Master “affirms his resolve to continue the great work carried out by his predecessor”. It added: “Fra’ Matthew comes with a wide range of experience in Order affairs. He has been the Grand Prior of England since the Priory’s re-establishment in 1993, restored after an abeyance of 450 years. In this capacity, he has led missions of humanitarian aid to Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia after the recent disturbances in those countries, and with a large delegation from Britain he attends the Order’s annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with handicapped pilgrims.”

He was educated at Ampleforth and St John’s College Cambridge, where he read history. As a child he lived in Egypt and Singapore, where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was posted. He is also descended from Sir Adrian Fortescue, a Knight of Malta martyred in 1539.

Frà Matthew served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was appointed OBE by the Queen and served as Deputy Lieutenant in Northumberland. He joined the order in 1977, taking solemn religious vows in 1991.

A spokeswoman for the order said he was noted for his “very British sense of humour” as well as his passion for the decorative arts and encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of the Order.

Fra Matthew has promoted the teaching of Christianity in schools, observing that “We live during a strange period in history when children are taught “Comparative Religion” and leave school believing it does not matter what religion you profess …..No wonder many young people are astonished that anyone could possibly have been prepared to suffer and die for the faith”.

At one time the order, which is predominantly male, was drawn from European aristocratic families. This has led conspiracy theorists to paint it as a rich and powerful cabal given to arcane rituals.

However Albrecht von Boeselager, the Grand Hospitaller in charge of the order’s humanitarian arm, said this was “completely untrue”. Charges that the order was conducting a secret “New Crusade” in Muslim countries and had sent mercenaries to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan were also “absolutely without foundation”.

He added: “This kind of talk endangers our volunteers in the Muslim world. In Bethlehem we have a maternity hospital which delivers 3000 babies year, 80% of them Musulim. We are Catholic but neutral”.

Winfried Henckel von Donnersmarck, a member of the order’s Sovereign Council, said the order had 80,000 volunteers and spent £500 million a year helping the world’s poor. “The only mystery is one of history. Any organisation is going to have mysteries if it has a thousand years of history behind it ” he said.

He said women played a growing role, with Noreen Falcone recently becoming the first woman head of the order’s national association in the US.

On its website the order’s British chapter notes that there were English knights from the time of the First Crusade, with two priories established in the twelfth century , one for England, Wales and Scotland, and another for Ireland. The Grand Priory of England “received a great accession of wealth and property when the Templars were suppressed in 1312.”

The order was disolved by Henry VIII in 1540, when several prominent Knights of Malta were executed. The Grand Priory’s ecclesiastical seat is the Church of St. John of Jerusalem in St. John’s Wood in London. It is separate from the Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem in the British Realm, founded in 1888, but the two bodies signed a co-operation agreement in 1963.

Templar knights will be back in Hertford when a new pub opens on Monday, after a £3million revamp.

Herts-based pub chain JD Wetherspoon has spent the past 12 months converting the building in The Wash into the new-look pub, called The Six Templars.

The pub takes its name from the town’s strong connection with the Knights Templar, reputedly the custodians of the Holy Grail. When the order was forcibly disbanded in the early 1300s, a number were imprisoned in the nearby Hertford Castle.

But modern day Templar Ben Acheson, of Ware, wasn’t convinced about the combination of ‘Grail’ and ale. He told the Herald: “I’m not sure a restaurant or pub is the most appropriate acknowledgement. At least it’s an improvement on ‘Don’t mention the Temple’!”

He added: “You’re probably aware that the name of the pub was changed to The (Six) Templars from the Five Bishops because somebody within the Temple pointed out to Wetherspoons that the Templar heritage was much more relevant.

“But personally I question the wisdom. A library or church perhaps would have been more fitting.”

Pub manager Christina Venables, of Cheshunt, said: “I’m looking forward to welcoming customers into The Six Templars.

“I am confident that they will be impressed with the transformation of the building and that the pub will be a good addition to the town’s social scene.”

The pub will open from 9am to midnight Sundays to Thursdays, and 9am to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Rock-and-Rollers and hippies have long had a soft spot for the decorative appeal of William Morris’s Gothic Revival, with its fair-haired maidens in flowing robes and its air of medieval mysticism. So it is not surprising that when Paul Reeves decided in 1973 to break out of designing avant-garde clothes for David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and The Who, he started selling Arts-and-Crafts furniture to some of the most famous musicians of the day, including George Harrison and Roger Daltrey.

Mr Reeves has organised a week-long selling exhibition and an auction at Sotheby’s next month. They will show just what a good eye he has, and how crucial he has been in encouraging furniture collectors to buy British design from the Gothic Revival onwards, a turning point in western architecture and interior design. About 120 items from Mr Reeves’s personal collection will be for sale at fixed prices. Another 120 pieces from other collectors—many of whom originally bought them from Mr Reeves—will be sold at auction.

Many of the period’s best works found their way to America. Mr Reeves helped collectors and museums alike—including the Getty brothers, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Wolfonsian-Florida International University Museum in Miami Beach—build substantial collections of fine 19th- and 20th-century British design, centred around such luminaries as A.W.N. Pugin, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Ernest Race and William Morris.

Mr Reeves initially faced a small market, but as this work has become more popular, prices have risen dramatically. A magnificent Anglo-Japanese sideboard by Edward William Godwin, an architect and designer who built houses for Oscar Wilde and James Whistler, sold last year for nearly £1m ($1.9m) to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Next month’s sale features a number of Godwin pieces, including an ebonised hanging bookcase, estimated at £60,000-80,000, and an ebonised chair, estimated at £10,000-12,000. But the star piece will undoubtedly be “The Quest for the Holy Grail: The Achievement” (pictured), a 25-foot (7.7-metre) tapestry based on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Designed by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, a leading pre-Raphaelite artist, and woven by William Morris, it represents one of the two artists’ principal collaborations.

William Knox D’Arcy, an Australian mining engineer, commissioned the tapestry in 1890. It was the most important piece in a set of six hangings made for the dining room of his grand house, Stanmore Hall, on the outskirts of London.

It has only been sold twice: once in 1920 after D’Arcy died, when the whole set was sold to the Duke of Westminster, and again in 1978, when the current duke sold three of the hangings, thus breaking up the set. On that occasion, Mr Reeves bought “The Achievement” and one of the other pieces for Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist. The third hanging, which is much smaller than “The Achievement”, was sold again at Christie’s in 2004 for nearly £390,000.

“The Achievement”, which Mr Page is selling because it is too big to fit into his new home, is expected to fetch more than £1m. Nothing like that price has ever been paid for a Burne-Jones tapestry, but there are many reasons why this piece will be eagerly fought over. “The Quest for the Holy Grail” was woven in several editions, one as late as the 1920s.

But only the original set, of which this is the most important piece, retains the lovely details of Burne-Jones’s faces and hands. In the later editions, the shading is far more generic, giving the tapestries a blander look. Even the carpet of flowers in the foreground, which had been traced for the weavers’ guidance by Morris’s assistant, J.H. Dearle, is virtually unrecognisable.

Burne-Jones resented Dearle’s floral foregrounds, complaining that they cluttered up his designs. No one, however, could deny their botanical accuracy. In 1895, soon after the tapestries were completed, D’Arcy’s gardener, a man by the wonderful name of W. Tidy, studied Dearle’s flowers and was able to identify every one: daffodil, saponaira, campanula, dianthus, foxglove, hawkweed, tulip, convolvulus, snowdrop, lychnis, winter aconite, celandine and poppy. Such intricate details make this particular work a glory of its kind.

“The Best of British: Design from the 19th and 20th Centuries” will be on view at Sotheby’s from March 14th. The auction is on March 20th.

in The Economist

The Priory of Slovenia will be conducting a seminar for members and an Investiture ceremony in the Castle of Turjak this coming February the 24th.

Recently the Prior of Slovenia, Fr+ Marin Zen, has lead a pilgrimage of the Templars to the Marian Sanctuary of Medugorge where they celebrated mass and chanted the “Non Nobis” in a spontaneous choir that filled the celebration with a true sense of mystic elevation.

 The Magisterial Council will announce very soon the dates and agenda of the next two International Meetings and General Assemblies, to take place in Madrid, Spain in early April and Lubljana, Slovenia, in early June. Members of the Council will be present, but both meetings are to be attended by all Priors and opened to the participation of all regular members of the Order of all ranks.

Photo: Fr+ Marin Zen, Prior General of Slovenia

Thomas is as much to say as abisme or double, or trenched and hewn, he was an abisme profound in humility, as it appeared in the hair that he wore, and in washing of the feet of the poor people, double in prelation that was in word and in ensample, and hewn and trenched in his passion. S. Thomas the martyr was son to Gilbert Beckett, a burgess of the city of London, and was born in the place where as now standeth the church called S. Thomas of Acre. And this Gilbert was a good devout man, and took the cross upon him, and went on pilgrimage into the Holy Land, and had a servant with his knees. And on a Trinity Sunday received he his dignity, and there was at that time the king with many a great lord and sixteen bishops. And from thence was sent the abbot of Evesham to the pope with other clerks for the pall which he gave and brought to him, and he full meekly received it. And under his habit he ware the habit of a monk, and so was he under within forth a monk, and outward a clerk, and did great abstinence making his body lean and his soul fat. And he used to be well served at his table, and took but little refection thereof, and lived holily in giving good ensample.

After this, many times the king went over into Normandy, and in his absence always S. Thomas had the rule of his son and of the realm, which was governed so well that the king could him great thanks, and then abode long in this realm. And when so was that the king did any thing against the franchise and liberties of holy church, S. Thomas would ever withstand it to his power. And on a time when the sees of London and of Winchester were vacant and void, the king kept them both long in his hand for to have the profits of them; wherefore S. Thomas was heavy, and came to the king and desired him to give those two bishopricks to some virtuous men. And anon the king granted to him his desire and ordained one master Roger, bishop of Winchester, and the Earl of Gloucester’s son, bishop of London, named Sir Robert. And anon after S. Thomas hallowed the abbey of Reading, which the first Henry founded. And that same year he translated S. Edward, king and confessor at Westminster, where he was laid in a rich shrine. And in some short time after, by the enticement of the devil, fell great debate, variance, and strife, between the king and S. Thomas, and the king sent for all the bishops to appear tofore him at Westminster at a certain day, at which day they assembled tofore him, whom he welcomed, and after said to them how that the archbishop would destroy his law, and not suffer him to enjoy such things as his predecessors had used tofore him. Whereto S. Thomas answered that he never intended to do thing that should displease the king as far as it touched not the franchise and liberties of holy church.

Then the king rehearsed how he would not suffer clerks that were thieves to have the execution of the law; to which S. Thomas said, that he ought not to execute them, but they longeth to the correction of holy church, and other divers points; to which S. Thomas would not agree. To the which the king said: Now I see well that thou wouldest foredo the laws of this land which have been used in the days of my predecessors, but it shall not lie in thy power, and so the king being wroth departed. Then the bishops all counselled S. Thomas to follow the king’s intent, or else the land should be in great trouble; and in like wise the lords temporal that were his friends counselled him the same, and S. Thomas said: I take God to record it was never mine intent to displease the king, or to take any thing that longeth to his right or honour. And then the lords were glad and brought him to the king to Oxenford, and the king deigned not to speak to him. And then the king called all the lords spiritual and temporal tofore him, and said he would have all the laws of his forefathers there new confirmed, and there they were confirmed by all the lords spiritual and temporal. And after this the king charged them for to come to him to Clarendon to his parliament at a certain day assigned, on pain to run in his indignation, and at that time so departed.

And this parliament was holden at Clarendon, the eleventh year of the king’s reign, and the year of our Lord eleven hundred and sixty-four. At this parliament were many lords which all were against S. Thomas. And then the king sitting in his parliament,in the presence of all his lords, demanded them if they would abide and keep the laws that had been used in his forefathers’ days. Then S. Thomas spake for the part of holy church, and said: All old laws that be good and rightful, and not against our mother holy church, I grant with good will to keep them. And then the king said that he would not leave one point of his law, and waxed wroth with S. Thomas. And then certain bishops required S. Thomas to obey to the king’s desire and will, and S. Thomas desired respite to know the laws, and then to give him an answer. And when he understood them all, to some he consented, but many he denied and would never be agreeable to them, wherefore the king was wroth and said he would hold and keep them like as his predecessors had done before him, and would not minish one point of them. Then S. Thomas said to the king with full great sorrow and heavy cheer, Now, my most dear lord and gracious king, have pity on us of holy church, your bedemen, and give to us respite for a certain time.

 And thus departed each man. And S. Thomas went to Winchester, and there prayed our Lord devoutly for holy church, and to give him aid and strength for to defend it, for utterly he determined to abide by the liberties and franchise, and fell down on his knees and said, full sore weeping: O good Lord, I acknowledge that I have offended, and for mine offence and trespass this trouble cometh to holy church, I purpose, good Lord, to go to Rome for to be assoiled of mine offences; and departed towards Canterbury. And anon the king sent his officers to his manors and despoiled them, because he would not obey the king’s statutes. And the king commanded to seize all his lands and goods into his hands, and then his servants departed from him, and he went to the seaside for to have gone over sea, but the wind was against him, and so thrice he took his ship and might not pass. And then he knew that it was not our Lord’s will that he should yet depart, and returned secretly to Canterbury, of whose coming his meiny made great joy. And on the morn came the king’s officers for to seize all his goods, for the noise was that S. Thomas had fled the land; wherefore they had despoiled all his manors and seized them into the king’s hand. And when they came they found him at Canterbury, whereof they were sore abashed, and returned to the king informing him that he was yet at Canterbury, and anon after S. Thomas came to the king to Woodstock for to pray him to be better disposed towards holy church.

And then said the king to him in scorn: May not we two dwell both in this land? Art thou so sturdy and hard of heart? To whom S. Thomas answered: Sire, that was never my thought, but I would fain please you, and do all that you desire so that ye hurt not the liberties of holy church, for them will I maintain while I live, ever to my power. With which words the king was sore moved, and swore that he would have them kept, and especial if a clerk were a thief he should be judged and executed by the king’s law, and by no spiritual law, and said he would never suffer a clerk to be his master in his own land, and charged S. Thomas to appear before him at Northampton, and to bring all the bishops of this land with him, and so departed. S. Thomas besought God of help and succour, for the bishops which ought to be with him were most against him. After this S. Thomas went to Northampton where the king had then his great council in the castle with all his lords, and when he came tofore the king he said: I am come to obey your commandment, but before this time was never bishop of Canterbury thus entreated, for I am head of the Church of England, and am to you, Sir King, your ghostly father, and it was never God’s law that the son should destroy his father which hath charge of his soul. And by your striving have you made all the bishops that should abide by the right of the church to be against holy church and me, and ye know well that I may not fight, but am ready to suffer death rather than I should consent to lose the right of holy church.

 Then said the king, Thou speakest as a proud clerk, but I shall abate thy pride ere I leave thee, for I must reckon with thee. Thou understandest well that thou wert my chancellor many years, and once I lent to thee £500 which thou never yet hast repaid, which I will that thou pay me again or else incontinent thou shalt go to prison. And then S. Thomas answered: Ye gave me that £500, and it is not fitting to demand that which ye have given. Notwithstanding he found surety for the said £500 and departed for that day. And after this, the next day the king demanded £30,000 that he had surmised on him to have stolen, he being chancellor, whereupon he desired day to answer; at which time he said that when he was archbishop he set him free therein without any claim or debt before good record, wherefore he ought not to answer unto that demand. And the bishops desired S. Thomas to obey the king but in no wise he would not agree to such things as should touch against the liberties of the church. And then they came to the king, and forsook S. Thomas, and agreed to all the king’s desire, and the proper servants of S. Thomas fled from him and forsook him, and then poor people came and accompanied him. And on the night came to him two lords and told to him that the king’s meiny had emprised to slay him. And the next night after he departed in the habit of a brother of Sempringham, and so chevissed that he went over sea.

And in the meanwhile certain bishops went to Rome for to complain on him to the pope, and the king sent letters to the king of France not to receive him. And the King Louis said that, though a man were banished and had committed there trespasses, yet should he be free in France. And so after when this holy S. Thomas came, he received him well, and gave him licence to abide there and do what he would. In this meanwhile the king of England sent certain lords into the pope complaining on the Archbishop Thomas, which made grievous complaints, which when the pope had heard said, he would give none answer till that he had heard the Archbishop Thomas speak, which would hastily come thither. But they would not abide his coming, but departed without speeding of their intents, and came into England again. And anon after, S Thomas came to Rome on S. Mark’s day at afternoon, and when his caterer should have bought fish for his dinner because it was fasting day, he could get none for no money, and came and told to his lord S. Thomas so, and he bade him buy such as he could get, and then he bought flesh and made it ready for their dinner. And S. Thomas was served with a capon roasted, and his meiny with boiled meat. And so it was that the pope heard that he was come, and sent a cardinal to welcome him, and he found him at his dinner eating flesh, which anon returned and told to the pope how he was not so perfect a man as he had supposed, for contrary to the rule of the church he eateth this day flesh.

The pope would not believe him, but sent another cardinal which for more evidence took the leg of the capon in his kerchief and affirmed the same, and opened his kerchief tofore the pope, and he found the leg turned into a fish called a carp. And when the pope saw it, he said, they were not true men to say such things of this good bishop. They said faithfully that it was flesh that he ate. After this S. Thomas came to the pope and did his reverence and obedience, whom the pope welcomed, and after communication he demanded him what meat he had eaten, and he said: Flesh as ye have heard tofore, because he could find no fish and very need compelled him thereto. Then the pope understood of the miracle that the capon’s leg was turned into a carp, and of his goodness granted to him and to all them of the diocese of Canterbury licence to eat flesh ever after on S. Mark’s day when it falleth on a fish day, and pardon withal, which is kept and accustomed unto this day. And then S. Thomas informed the pope how the king of England would have him consent to divers articles against the liberties of holy church, and what wrongs he did to the same, and that for to die he would never consent to them. And when the pope had heard him he wept for pity, and thanked God that he had such a bishop under him that had so well defended the liberties of holy church, and anon wrote out letters and bulls commanding all the bishops of Christendom to keep and observe the same.

And then S. Thomas offered to the pope his bishopric up into the pope’s hand, and his mitre with the cross and ring, and the pope commanded him to keep it still, and said he knew no man more able than he was. And after S. Thomas said mass tofore the pope in a white chasuble; and after mass he said to the pope that he knew by revelation that he should suffer death for the right of holy church, and when it should fall that chasuble should be turned from white into red. And after he departed from the pope and came down into France unto the abbey of Pontigny, and there he had knowledge that when the lords spiritual and temporal which had been at Rome were come home and had told the king that they might in no wise have their intent, that the king was greatly wroth, and anon banished all the kinsmen that were longing to S. Thomas that they should incontinent void his land, and made them swear that they should go to him and tell to him that for his sake they were exiled, and so they went over sea to him at Pontigny and he being there was full sorry for them.

And after there was a great chapter in England of the monks of Citeaux and there the king desired them to write to Pontigny that they should no longer keep ne sustain Thomas the Archbishop, for if they did, he would destroy them of that order being in England. And, for fear thereof they wrote so over to Pontigny that he must depart thence with his kinsmen, and so he did, and was then full heavy, and remitted his cause to God. And anon after, the king of France sent to him that he should abide where it pleased him, and dwell in his realm and he would pay for the costs of him and his kinsmen. And he departed and went to Sens, and the abbot brought him on the way. And S. Thomas told him how he knew by a vision that he should suffer death and martyrdom for the right of the church, and prayed him to keep it secret during his life. After this the king of England came into France, and there told the king how S. Thomas would destroy his realm, and then there told how he would foredo such laws as his elders had used tofore him, wherefore S. Thomas was sent for, and they were brought together. And the king of France laboured sore for to set them at accord, but it would not be, for that one would not minish his laws and accustoms, and S. Thomas would not grant that he should do England against S. Thomas, and was wroth with him and commanded him to void his realm with all his kinsmen. And then S. Thomas wist not whither to go; but comforted his kinsmen as well as he might, and purposed to have gone in to Provence for to have begged his bread.

And as he was going, the king of France sent for him again, and when he came he cried him mercy and said he had offended God and him, and bade him abide in his realm where he would, and he would pay for the dispenses of him and his kin. And in the meanwhile the king of England ordained his son king, and made him to be crowned by the Archbishop of York, and other bishops, which was against the statutes of the land, for the Archbishop of Canterbury should have consented and also have crowned him, wherefore S. Thomas gat a bull for to do accurse them that so did against him, and also on them that occupied the goods longing to him. And yet after this the king laboured so much that he accorded the king of England and S. Thomas which accord endured not long, for the king varied from it afterward. But S. Thomas, upon this accord, came home to Canterbury, where he was received worshipfully, and sent for them that had trespassed against him, and by the authority of the pope’s bull openly denounced them accursed unto the time they come to amendment. And when they knew this they came to him and would have made him to assoil them by force; and sent word over to the king how he had done, whereof the king was much wroth and said: If he had men in his land that loved him they would not suffer such a traitor in his land alive.

And forthwith four knights took their counsel together and thought they would do to the king a pleasure, and emprised to slay S. Thomas, and suddenly departed and took their shipping towards England. And when the king knew of their departing he was sorry and sent after them, but they were on the sea and departed ere the messengers came, wherefore the king was heavy and sorry.

These be the names of the four knights: Sir Reginald Fitzurse, Sir Hugh de Morville, Sir William de Tracy, Sir Richard le Breton. On Christmas day S. Thomas made a sermon at Canterbury in his own church, and weeping, prayed the people to pray for him, for he knew well his time was nigh, and there executed the sentence on them that were against the right of holy church. And that same day as the king sat at meat all the bread that he handled waxed anon mouldy and hoar, that no man might eat of it, and the bread that they touched not was fair and good for to eat.

And these four knights aforesaid came to Canterbury on the Tuesday in Christmas week about Evensong time, and came to S. Thomas and said that the king commanded him to make amends for the wrongs that he had done, and also that he should assoil all them that he had accursed anon, or else they should slay him. Then said Thomas: All that I ought to do by right, that will I with a good will do, but as to the sentence that is executed I may not undo, but that they will submit them to the correction of holy church, for it was done by our holy father the pope and not by me. Then said Sir Reginald: But if thou assoil the king and all other standing in the curse, it shall cost thee thy life. And S. Thomas said: Thou knowest well enough that the king and I were accorded on Mary Magdalene day, and that this curse should go forth on them that had offended the church.

Then one of the knights smote him as he kneeled before the altar on the head. And one Sir Edward Grim, that was his crossier put forth his arm with the cross to bear off the stroke, and the stroke smote the cross asunder and his arm almost off, wherefore he fled for fear, and so did all the monks, that were that time at compline. And then smote each at him, that they smote off a great piece of the skull of his head, that his brain fell on the pavement. And so they slew and martyred him, and were so cruel that one of them brake the point of his sword against the pavement. And thus this holy and blessed Archbishop S. Thomas suffered death in his own church for the right of all holy church. And when he was dead they stirred his brain, and after went in to his chamber and took away his goods, and his horse out of his stable, and took away his bulls and writings, and delivered them to Sir Robert Broke to bear into France to the king. And as they searched his chamber they found in a chest two shirts of hair made full of great knots, and then they said: Certainly he was a good man; and coming down into the churchward they began to dread and fear that the ground would not have borne them, and were marvellously aghast, but they supposed that the earth would have swallowed them all quick. And then they knew that they had done amiss. And anon it was known all about, how that he was martyred, and anon after took this holy body, and unclothed him, and found bishop’s clothing above, and the habit of a monk under. And next his flesh he wore hard hair, full of knots, which was his shirt. And his breech was of the same, and the knots slicked fast within the skin, and all his body full of worms; he suffered great pain. And he was thus martyred the year of our Lord one thousand one hundred and seventy-one, and was fifty-three years old. And soon after tidings came to the king how he was slain, wherefore the king took great sorrow, and sent to Rome for his absolution.

Now after that S. Thomas departed from the pope, the pope would daily look upon the white chasuble that S. Thomas had said mass in, and the same day that he was martyred he saw it turned into red, whereby he knew well that that same day he suffered martyrdom for the right of holy church, and commanded a mass of requiem solemnly to be sung for his soul. And when the quire began to sing requiem, an angel on high above began the office of a martyr: Letabitur justus, and then all the quire followed singing forth the mass of the office of a martyr. And the pope thanked God that it pleased him to show such miracles for his holy martyr, at whose tomb by the merits and prayers of this holy martyr our blessed Lord hath showed many miracles. The blind have recovered their sight, the dumb their speech, the deaf their hearing, the lame their limbs, and the dead their life. If I should here express all the miracles that it hath pleased God to show for this holy saint it should contain a whole volume, therefore at this time, I pass over unto the feast of his translation, where I propose with the grace of God to recite some of them. Then let us pray to this glorious martyr to be our advocate, that by his petition we may come to everlasting bliss. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

Saint Thomas Becket, 1118–70, English martyr, archbishop of Canterbury, b. London. He is called St. Thomas of Canterbury and occasionally St. Thomas of London.

Note: The Templar Charola (round church) in the Templar Castle in Tomar was dedicated to him.

Like the unicorn, the white stag (or hart) is the stuff of legends. Its origins lie deep within the ancient Celts and pre-Indo-European cultures. When a rare white stag was spotted, it was always the sign the otherworld was near for man or kingdom.
The white hart also appears when someone is transgressing a taboo, as it does in the Holy Grail legends. The knights of King Arthur often encountered the white hart on their quest for the fabled lost Grail.

Unfortunately, the last white stag in Britain was shot by poachers in October 2007 on the border between Devon and Cornwall. It was found headless. Miraculously, another of these very rare creatures has just been sighted and photographed in the Highlands, but its location is being kept secret for obvious reasons.

What does the advent of yet another white hart portend for Britain and Scotland? Is there bad news to come – recession, falling house prices, or Tony Blair becoming president of Europe? Are we trespassing where we have no business – Iraq and Afghanistan?

Or is it a sign that Scotland is being led to an unexpected victory in the Six Nations? Time will tell. But as the poet Ezra Pound wrote:

When the white hart breaks his cover

And the white wind breaks the morn.

‘Tis the white stag, Fame, we’re a-hunting,

Bid the world’s hounds come to horn!

in The Scotsman

Headlines may scream about stoning and hand-chopping, but the main question about sharia law in any western country is whether Islamic courts should judge Muslims in cases such as divorce, inheritance or business.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams caused uproar by suggesting British law adopt some sharia law. Critics decried the idea as barbaric, citing the gruesome punishments meted out in strict Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia.

The archbishop clearly stated in his speech on Thursday that he ruled out such punishments and only wanted some aspects of Muslim personal law, as a way to accommodate Muslims who felt torn between their Islamic and British identities.

But “the devil is in the detail,” as the saying goes.

Sharia law is not a single written code — there are four schools of interpretation for Sunnis, one for Shi’ites and disagreements within them. Men can enjoy more rights than women, a stand that clashes with western concepts of equality.

“Even in a city like Bradford, you have four different schools of sharia law, so which are you going to accept?” Baroness Haleh Afshar, a law professor, told the BBC.

Sharia is a legal code based on the Koran, the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad and centuries of Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh. It is meant to help Muslims in daily life know what Islam says they can, cannot, should or should not do.

The vast bulk of cases handled by sharia courts — both in Muslim and western countries — judge whether marriage, divorce, inheritance and business cases adhere to Islamic precepts.

Williams suggested that verdicts in such cases be accepted as legal, as long as they do not contradict British civil law and sharia does not become “some kind of parallel jurisdiction.”

SUPERFLUOUS JURISDICTION?

Many routine sharia verdicts would be ruled out under these conditions or be irrelevant to the civil law system, whose demands the defendants would have to comply with anyway.

In a divorce, for example, a couple must end its marriage in a civil court regardless of any other rules its faith imposes. If believers have stricter rules, such as a bar on remarriage in church for divorced Catholics, that is their private matter.

“What Dr Williams is talking about in practical terms is either superfluous … or it runs the risk of compromising his other key principles,” Simon Barrow, director of the British religious think-tank Ekklesia, argued in an analysis.

The principles of equality and individual rights would rule out many sharia verdicts common in Muslim countries.

In many traditional sharia courts, a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man and a daughter has a right to only half the inheritance that a son gets. In child custody cases, men and Muslims usually have priority over women and non-Muslims.

ORTHODOX JEWISH PRECEDENT

While the storm gathered around Williams, several Muslim leaders have thanked him and urged a cooler examination of his proposals, without making clear how they would work.

“His recommendation is confined to the civil system of sharia law and that only in accordance with English law and agreeable to established notions of human rights,” said Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Williams noted Orthodox Jewish rabbinical courts in Britain can already have their verdicts recognised by law. But they must comply with British law and can be overturned by a civil court.

Britain requires Orthodox Jews to dissolve a marriage in a “Beth Din” court before they can get a civil divorce. This was to stop husbands from blocking a religious divorce, which means wives cannot remarry in a synagogue.

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor, Reuters, Paris

An ancient Lincolnshire pathway believed to have been used by the Knights Templar is at the centre of a community row.

Residents living along the path have been accused of turning away horses and verbally abusing people trying to use the bridleway, believed to be 1,000 years old.

Now county councillors have been asked to step in and secure public access to the lane, between Eagle Barnsdale, near Swinderby, and the A46 south of Lincoln.

A ‘private road - access only’ sign has been erected at the entrance to the lane, which runs between Tunman Farm off Southern Lane and the ancient Fosse Way.

In a letter to Lincolnshire County Council, parish members have complained that those trying to walk or ride down it have been “experiencing aggression and hostility”.

Ernie Cater (74), who lives at Tunman Farm, said that research carried-out on behalf of the villagers had proven that the route was used by the Knights Templar - an order of soldier-monks founded in 1118.

Shirley Nicholson of Tunman Cottage admits her family put up the sign but strongly denied that horseriders and walkers were being intimidated or turned away.

“My late husband put the sign up to stop vehicles coming down here because it was damaging the path and we are responsible for maintaining it,” she said.

Her daughter Eileen Northcott, who also lives on the bridleway, said: “We’ve never stopped or been aggressive to horseriders or walkers. These allegations just aren’t true.”