Has Thomas Becket's treasured 'little book' been found?

[laylalex 7,284]

If you are interested in old books and literary mysteries like I am, this is a fascinating story. It's an old tale but the conclusion it comes to is definitely news. 

 

Quote

 

In the summer of 2014, Dr Christopher de Hamel, then librarian of one of the smallest Cambridge colleges, invited to lunch a Biblical scholar, Dr Eyal Poleg. Over coffee, de Hamel mentioned that he'd always thought it was odd that while any fragment of a saint's clothing had been regarded in the Middle Ages as a holy relic, saturated with the Holy Spirit and capable of working miracles, the saint's books were almost never regarded as such.

De Hamel says Poleg said he knew of a counterexample and, tapping on his laptop, called up a list made in 1321 of treasures held in Canterbury cathedral. In Latin he read out loud: "Item, a binding with the psalter of St Thomas, bound in silver gilt, decorated with jewels…"

As he heard these words, de Hamel says he had "one of those sudden heart-stopping shivers of recognition that make our lives as historians worthwhile". He'd read them before - in one of the manuscripts he looked after in the Parker library, a collection bequeathed to Corpus Christi College Cambridge by a former archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, in 1574.

The inventory surely had to be referring to the same book.

...

De Hamel and Poleg gazed at the 8in-by-6in manuscript "trembling with excitement", de Hamel writes in a short book published earlier this year, The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket. There was no jewelled Anglo Saxon silver-gilt binding - this would have been torn off and melted down during the Reformation, but here was a book, de Hamel now felt, that was surely a lost holy relic of the Middle Ages.

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55370722

[TBoneTX 45,267]

Oh, this is fascinating, si LL ma'am.  And it's almost 850 years to the day since Becket's martyrdom...

[TBoneTX 45,267]

Posted article ----> wikipedia on Becket ---> links within article ---> read about King Henry II et al. ---> read about all Popes (fascinating) ---> stayed up wayyyyy too late

 

Craziest Pope = Stephen VI

Most immoral Pope = John XII

3rd-longest-reigning Pope = John Paul II

Pope with coolest name = Hilarius

 

List of shortest-reigning Popes features some real short-timers (a matter of weeks or even days).

Edited December 27, 2020 by TBoneTX

[laylalex 7,284]

When you fall down the Anti-Pope Wikipedia hole, you know you've lost it. (I have been there.)

[TBoneTX 45,267]

Didn't read much about the anti-Popes.  One of them actually later became the real Pope.

 

John Paul II had an impressive reign -- very respectable Pope.

 

And John Paul I was the first not only to have two names, but to give himself a I without knowing whether there'd be another.

 

I remember when he died:  a newscaster said, "And already, the world needs another Pope."  Sad.

 

Something tells me that there won't be another Pope Hilarius.

[millefleur 5,046]

3 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Something tells me that there won't be another Pope Hilarius.

The Russian variant of the name sounds a lot better: Illarion. And believe it or not, the female version of this name is...Hillary!

 

https://www.behindthename.com/name/hilarion

[TBoneTX 45,267]

Find a Russian cardinal to elevate, and see if he agrees to Illarion.

[laylalex 7,284]

My favorite story about the popes is the Cadaver Synod: https://medium.com/@mwfraser/the-cadaver-synod-when-the-corpse-of-a-dead-pope-was-put-on-trial-and-executed-1c9f3b82b11f

Quote

 

The Cadaver Synod ranks as the most gruesome episode in the history of the Catholic Church. The Synodus Horrenda, as it’s known in Latin, was the ecclesiastical trial of a dead pope. The pontiff was put on trial not just in name, posthumously, his rotting corpse was dug up and dragged into an ecclesiastical court.

The event was so macabre that it’s difficult to believe it actually happened. No official record of the Cadaver Synod exists. It was so horrifying that the Vatican quietly expunged this shameful chapter from its own history. Too unspeakable to be known, it was a horrifying truth that the Church wanted suppressed.

The macabre event took place in the St. John Lateran basilica in Rome. The year was 897 AD. The chief prosecutor was the sitting pope, Stephen VI, elected pontiff a year earlier. The defendant was the late Pope Formosus, accused of crimes committed during his papacy. His putrefied cadaver was exhumed and hauled into court, where the body was propped up on a throne.

The name of the accused, Formosus, meant “good looking” in Latin. One can imagine, however, his ghoulish physical appearance while Pope Stephen fulminated at his corpse in an advanced state of decomposition. Pope Stephen shouted out the charges against the deceased pontiff: perjury, coveting the papacy, and violating Church canons.

Since Formosus was in no condition to speak for himself, a young deacon had been appointed to defend the corpse. Terrified, the novice cowered behind his dead client as Pope Stephen hurled abuse at the cadaver. At one point during the trial, an earthquake struck Rome, shaking the basilica and causing part of the structure to collapse. It must have seemed like a dark omen presaging the fall of the papacy itself.

 

Look, I love horror movies so it should be no surprise I love the story of the Cadaver Synod!

[TBoneTX 45,267]

I hadn't read that version of it, but it confirms my conclusion that Stephen VI was the most psycho Pope.

How any Pope thereafter could have taken the name Stephen is beyond me.

There was never another Pope Formosus...

6 minutes ago, laylalex said:

Formosus was in no condition to speak for himself

This is the understatement of the... of all time.

[TBoneTX 45,267]

More about Pope Formosus:

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06139b.htm

 

And Stephen VI was apparently strangled to death:

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14289d.htm

Edited December 28, 2020 by TBoneTX

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

and how about the 9th pope - Hyginus

sounds like he lived a clean life..........

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

and then there was the 83rd pope - Conon

[TBoneTX 45,267]

13 hours ago, Ban Hammer said:

Hyginus

Sounds like a term barely appropriate for VJ.

[TBoneTX 45,267]

And dig this, found today!

https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/30/trump-invokes-saint-thomas-becket-in-defense-of-religious-liberty/