View allAll Photos Tagged Inviolable
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
DEAR, BIG PRAY FOR GOD ,GOD GIVE US BEST IN UNIVERSE. 2:255 GOD - there is no deity save Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent Fount of All Being. Neither slumber overtakes Him, nor sleep. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth. Who is there that could intercede with Him, unless it be by His leave? He knows all that lies open before men and all that is hidden from them, [247] whereas they cannot attain to aught of His knowledge save that which He wills [them to attain]. His eternal power [248] overspreads the heavens and the earth, and their upholding wearies Him not. And he alone is truly exalted, tremendous.
Allahu la ilaha illa huwa alhayyu alqayyoomu la takhuthuhu sinatun wala nawmun lahu ma fee alssamawati wama fee alardi man tha allathee yashfaAAu AAindahu illa biithnihi yaAAlamu ma bayna aydeehim wama khalfahum wala yuheetoona bishayin min AAilmihi illa bima shaa wasiAAa kursiyyuhu alssamawati waalarda wala yaooduhu hifthuhuma wahuwa alAAaliyyu alAAatheemu
اللّهُ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلاَ نَوْمٌ لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ إِلاَّ بِإِذْنِهِ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلاَ يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلاَّ بِمَا شَاء وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ وَلاَ يَؤُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ (2:255)
Al-Imran (The Family of Imran)
3:49 and [will make him] an apostle unto the children of Israel .” [36] "I HAVE COME unto you with a message from your Sustainer. I shall create for you out of clay, as it were, the shape of [your] destiny, and then breathe into it, so that it might become [your] destiny by God's leave; [37] and I shall heal the blind and the leper, and bring the dead back to life by God's leave; [38] and I shall let you know what you may eat and what you should store up in your houses. [39] Behold, in all this there is indeed a message for you, if you are [truly] believers.
Warasoolan ila banee israeela annee qad jitukum biayatin min rabbikum annee akhluqu lakum mina altteeni kahayati alttayri faanfukhu feehi fayakoonu tayran biithni Allahi waobrio alakmaha waalabrasa waohyee almawta biithni Allahi waonabbiokum bima takuloona wama taddakhiroona fee buyootikum inna fee thalika laayatan lakum in kuntum mumineena
وَرَسُولاً إِلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنِّي قَدْ جِئْتُكُم بِآيَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُم مِّنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ فَأَنفُخُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَأُبْرِىءُ الأكْمَهَ والأَبْرَصَ وَأُحْيِـي الْمَوْتَى بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَأُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآيَةً لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ (3:49)
An-Nahl (The Bee)
16:102 Say: "Holy inspiration [128] has brought it down from thy Sustainer by stages, setting forth the truth, so that it might give firmness unto those who have attained to faith, and provide guidance and a glad tiding unto all who have surrendered themselves to God."
Qul nazzalahu roohu alqudusi min rabbika bialhaqqi liyuthabbita allatheena amanoo wahudan wabushra lilmuslimeena
قُلْ نَزَّلَهُ رُوحُ الْقُدُسِ مِن رَّبِّكَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيُثَبِّتَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَهُدًى وَبُشْرَى لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ (16:102)
Al-Nour (The Light)
24:35 God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is, as it were, [50] that of a niche containing a lamp; the lamp is [enclosed] in glass, the glass [shining] like a radiant star: [51] [a lamp] lit from a blessed tree - an olive-tree that is neither of the east nor of the west [52] the oil whereof [is so bright that it] would well-nigh give light [of itself] even though fire had not touched it: light upon light! [53] God guides unto His light him that wills [to be guided]; [54] and [to this end] God propounds parables unto men, since God [alone] has full knowledge of all things. [55]
Allahu nooru alssamawati waalardi mathalu noorihi kamishkatin feeha misbahun almisbahu fee zujajatin alzzujajatu kaannaha kawkabun durriyyun yooqadu min shajaratin mubarakatin zaytoonatin la sharqiyyatin wala gharbiyyatin yakadu zaytuha yudeeo walaw lam tamsashu narun noorun AAala noorin yahdee Allahu linoorihi man yashao wayadribu Allahu alamthala lilnnasi waAllahu bikulli shayin AAaleemun
اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ الْمِصْبَاحُ فِي زُجَاجَةٍ الزُّجَاجَةُ كَأَنَّهَا كَوْكَبٌ دُرِّيٌّ يُوقَدُ مِن شَجَرَةٍ مُّبَارَكَةٍ زَيْتُونِةٍ لَّا شَرْقِيَّةٍ وَلَا غَرْبِيَّةٍ يَكَادُ زَيْتُهَا يُضِيءُ وَلَوْ لَمْ تَمْسَسْهُ نَارٌ نُّورٌ عَلَى نُورٍ يَهْدِي اللَّهُ لِنُورِهِ مَن يَشَاء وَيَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ (24:35)
Al-Nour (The Light)
24:36 IN THE HOUSES [of worship] which God has allowed to be raised so that His name be remembered in them, [56] there [are such as] extol His limitless glory at morn and evening –
Fee buyootin athina Allahu an turfaAAa wayuthkara feeha ismuhu yusabbihu lahu feeha bialghuduwwi waalasali
فِي بُيُوتٍ أَذِنَ اللَّهُ أَن تُرْفَعَ وَيُذْكَرَ فِيهَا اسْمُهُ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ فِيهَا بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالْآصَالِ 48:27 Indeed, God has shown the truth in His Apostle’s true vision: [38] most certainly shall you enter the Inviolable House of Worship, if God so wills, in full security, with your heads shaved or your hair cut short, without any fear: [39] for He has [always] known that which you yourselves could not know. [40] And He has ordained [for you], besides this, a victory soon to come. [41]
Laqad sadaqa Allahu rasoolahu alrruya bialhaqqi latadkhulunna almasjida alharama in shaa Allahu amineena muhalliqeena ruoosakum wamuqassireena la takhafoona faAAalima ma lam taAAlamoo fajaAAala min dooni thalika fathan qareeban
لَقَدْ صَدَقَ اللَّهُ رَسُولَهُ الرُّؤْيَا بِالْحَقِّ لَتَدْخُلُنَّ الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ إِن شَاء اللَّهُ آمِنِينَ مُحَلِّقِينَ رُؤُوسَكُمْ وَمُقَصِّرِينَ لَا تَخَافُونَ فَعَلِمَ مَا لَمْ تَعْلَمُوا فَجَعَلَ مِن دُونِ ذَلِكَ فَتْحًا قَرِيبًا (48:27)
An-Najm (The Star)
53:25 despite the fact that [both] the life to come and this present [one] belong to God [alone]? [18]
Falillahi alakhiratu waaloola
فَلِلَّهِ الْآخِرَةُ وَالْأُولَى (53:25)
An-Najm (The Star)
53:26 For, however many angels there be in the heavens, their intercession can be of no least avail [to anyone] - except after God has given leave [to intercede] for whomever He wills and with whom He is well-pleased. [19]
Wakam min malakin fee alssamawati la tughnee shafaAAatuhum shayan illa min baAAdi an yathana Allahu liman yashao wayarda
وَكَم مِّن مَّلَكٍ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ لَا تُغْنِي شَفَاعَتُهُمْ شَيْئًا إِلَّا مِن بَعْدِ أَن يَأْذَنَ اللَّهُ لِمَن يَشَاء وَيَرْضَى (53:26)
Al-Qamar (The Moon)
54:35 as a blessing from Us: thus do We reward all who are grateful.
NiAAmatan min AAindina kathalika najzee man shakara
نِعْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِنَا كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي مَن شَكَرَ (54:35)
Al-Hadid (Iron)
57:28 O YOU who have attained to faith! [51] Remain conscious of God, and believe in His Apostle, [and] He will grant you doubly of His grace, and will light for you a light wherein you shall walk, and will forgive you [your past sins]: for God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo ittaqoo Allaha waaminoo birasoolihi yutikum kiflayni min rahmatihi wayajAAal lakum nooran tamshoona bihi wayaghfir lakum waAllahu ghafoorun raheemun
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَآمِنُوا بِرَسُولِهِ يُؤْتِكُمْ كِفْلَيْنِ مِن رَّحْمَتِهِ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ نُورًا تَمْشُونَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ (57:28)
Al-Hashr (The Gathering)
59:21 HAD WE bestowed this Qur’an from on high upon a mountain, thou wouldst indeed see it humbling itself, breaking asunder for awe of God. [26] And [all] such parables We propound unto men, so that they might [learn to] think.
Law anzalna hatha alqurana AAala jabalin laraaytahu khashiAAan mutasaddiAAan min khashyati Allahi watilka alamthalu nadribuha lilnnasi laAAallahum yatafakkaroona
لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَى جَبَلٍ لَّرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُّتَصَدِّعًا مِّنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ وَتِلْكَ الْأَمْثَالُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ (59:21)
Al-Hashr (The Gathering)
59:22 GOD IS HE save whom there is no deity: the One who knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being’s perception, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature’s senses or mind: [27] He, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.
Huwa Allahu allathee la ilaha illa huwa AAalimu alghaybi waalshshahadati huwa alrrahmanu alrraheemu
هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ هُوَ الرَّحْمَنُ الرَّحِيمُ (59:22)
Al-Hashr (The Gathering)
59:23 God is He save whom there is no deity: the Sovereign Supreme, the Holy, the One with whom all salvation rests, [28] the Giver of Faith, the One who determines what is true and false, [29] the Almighty, the One who subdues wrong and restores right, [30] the One to whom all greatness belongs! Utterly remote is God, in His limitless glory, from anything to which men may ascribe a share in His divinity!
Huwa Allahu allathee la ilaha illa huwa almaliku alquddoosu alssalamu almuminu almuhayminu alAAazeezu aljabbaru almutakabbiru subhana Allahi AAamma yushrikoona
هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ (59:23)
Al-Hashr (The Gathering)
59:24 He is God, the Creator, the Maker who shapes all forms and appearances! [31] His [alone] are the attributes of perfection. [32] All that is in the heavens and on earth extols His limitless glory: for He alone is almighty, truly wise!
Huwa Allahu alkhaliqu albario almusawwiru lahu alasmao alhusna yusabbihu lahu ma fee alssamawati waalardi wahuwa alAAazeezu alhakeemu
هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ لَهُ الْأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ (59:24)
Al-Muddaththir (The One Enveloped)
74:54 Nay, verily, this is an admonition –
Kalla innahu tathkiratun
كَلَّا إِنَّهُ تَذْكِرَةٌ (74:54)
Al-Muddaththir (The One Enveloped)
74:55 and whoever wills may take it to heart.
Faman shaa thakarahu
فَمَن شَاء ذَكَرَهُ (74:55)
Al-Muddaththir (The One Enveloped)
74:56 But they [who do not believe in the life to come] will not take it to heart unless God so wills: [30] [for] He is the Fount of all God-consciousness, and the Fount of all forgiveness.
Wama yathkuroona illa an yashaa Allahu huwa ahlu alttaqwa waahlu almaghfirati
وَمَا يَذْكُرُونَ إِلَّا أَن يَشَاء اللَّهُ هُوَ أَهْلُ التَّقْوَى وَأَهْلُ الْمَغْفِرَةِ (74:56)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:12 With thy Sustainer, on that Day, the journey's end will be!
Ila rabbika yawmaithin almustaqarru
إِلَى رَبِّكَ يَوْمَئِذٍ الْمُسْتَقَرُّ (75:12)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:13 Man will be apprised, on that Day, of what he has done and what he has left undone: [4]
Yunabbao alinsanu yawmaithin bima qaddama waakhkhara
يُنَبَّأُ الْإِنسَانُ يَوْمَئِذٍ بِمَا قَدَّمَ وَأَخَّرَ (75:13)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:14 nay, but man shall against himself be an eye-witness,
Bali alinsanu AAala nafsihi baseeratun
بَلِ الْإِنسَانُ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ بَصِيرَةٌ (75:14)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:15 even though he may veil himself in excuses. [5]
Walaw alqa maAAatheerahu
وَلَوْ أَلْقَى مَعَاذِيرَهُ (75:15)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:16 MOVE NOT thy tongue in haste, [repeating the words of the revelation:] [6]
La tuharrik bihi lisanaka litaAAjala bihi
لَا تُحَرِّكْ بِهِ لِسَانَكَ لِتَعْجَلَ بِهِ (75:16)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:17 for, behold, it is for Us to gather it [in thy heart,] and to cause it to be read [as it ought to be read]. [7]
Inna AAalayna jamAAahu waquranahu
إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا جَمْعَهُ وَقُرْآنَهُ 75:18 Thus, when We recite it, follow thou its wording [with all thy mind]: [8]
Faitha qaranahu faittabiAA quranahu
فَإِذَا قَرَأْنَاهُ فَاتَّبِعْ قُرْآنَهُ (75:18)
Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection)
75:19 and then, behold, it will be for Us to make its meaning clear. [9]
Thumma inna AAalayna bayanahu
ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا بَيَانَهُ (75:19)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:13 and when paradise is brought into view:
Waitha aljannatu ozlifat
وَإِذَا الْجَنَّةُ أُزْلِفَتْ (81:13)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:14 [on that Day] every human being will come to know what he has prepared [for himself].
AAalimat nafsun ma ahdarat
عَلِمَتْ نَفْسٌ مَّا أَحْضَرَتْ (81:14)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:15 BUT NAY! I call to witness the revolving stars,
Fala oqsimu bialkhunnasi
فَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِالْخُنَّسِ (81:15)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:16 the planets that run their course and set,
Aljawari alkunnasi
الْجَوَارِ الْكُنَّسِ (81:16)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:17 and the night as it darkly falls,
Waallayli itha AAasAAasa
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا عَسْعَسَ (81:17)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:18 and the morn as it softly breathes:
Waalssubhi itha tanaffasa
وَالصُّبْحِ إِذَا تَنَفَّسَ (81:18)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:19 behold, this [divine writ] is indeed the [inspired] word of a noble apostle, [5]
Innahu laqawlu rasoolin kareemin
إِنَّهُ لَقَوْلُ رَسُولٍ كَرِيمٍ (81:19)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:20 with strength endowed, secure with Him who in almightiness is enthroned [6]
Thee quwwatin AAinda thee alAAarshi makeenin
ذِي قُوَّةٍ عِندَ ذِي الْعَرْشِ مَكِينٍ (81:20)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:21 [the word] of one to be heeded, and worthy of trust!
MutaAAin thamma ameenin
مُطَاعٍ ثَمَّ أَمِينٍ (81:21)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:22 For, this fellow-man of yours is not a madman: [7]
Wama sahibukum bimajnoonin
وَمَا صَاحِبُكُم بِمَجْنُونٍ (81:22)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:23 he truly beheld [the angel - beheld] him on the clear horizon; [8]
Walaqad raahu bialofuqi almubeeni
وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ بِالْأُفُقِ الْمُبِينِ (81:23)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:24 and he is not one to begrudge others the knowledge [of whatever has been revealed to him] out of that which is beyond the reach of human Perception. [9]
Wama huwa AAala alghaybi bidaneenin
وَمَا هُوَ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ بِضَنِينٍ (81:24)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:25 Nor is this [message] the word of any satanic force accursed. [10]
Wama huwa biqawli shaytanin rajeemin
وَمَا هُوَ بِقَوْلِ شَيْطَانٍ رَجِيمٍ (81:25)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:26 Whither, then, will you go?
Faayna tathhaboona
فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ (81:26)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:27 This [message] is no less than a reminder to all mankind –
In huwa illa thikrun lilAAalameena
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرٌ لِّلْعَالَمِينَ (81:27)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:28 to everyone of you who wills to walk a straight way.
Liman shaa minkum an yastaqeema
لِمَن شَاء مِنكُمْ أَن يَسْتَقِيمَ (81:28)
At-Takwir (The Folding Up)
81:29 But you cannot will it unless God, the Sustainer of all the worlds, wills [to show you that way]. [11]
Wama tashaoona illa an yashaa Allahu rabbu alAAalameena
وَمَا تَشَاؤُونَ إِلَّا أَن يَشَاء اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ (81:29)
An-Nasr (The Help)
110:1 WHEN GOD'S SUCCOUR comes, and victory,
Itha jaa nasru Allahi waalfathu
إِذَا جَاء نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ 39:74 And they will exclaim: “All praise is due to God, who has made His promise to us come true, and has bestowed upon us this expanse [of bliss] as our portion, [76] so that we may dwell in paradise as we please!” And how excellent a reward will it be for those who laboured [in God’s way]!
Waqaloo alhamdu lillahi allathee sadaqana waAAdahu waawrathana alarda natabawwao mina aljannati haythu nashao faniAAma ajru alAAamileena
وَقَالُوا الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي صَدَقَنَا وَعْدَهُ وَأَوْرَثَنَا الْأَرْضَ نَتَبَوَّأُ مِنَ الْجَنَّةِ حَيْثُ نَشَاء فَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِلِينَ (39:74)
Az-Zumar (The Groups)
39:75 And thou wilt see the angels surrounding the throne of [God’s] almightiness, extolling their Sustainer’s glory and praise. [77] And judgment will have been passed in justice on all [who had lived and died], and the word will be spoken: [78] “All praise is due to God, the Sustainer of all the worlds!”
Watara almalaikata haffeena min hawli alAAarshi yusabbihoona bihamdi rabbihim waqudiya baynahum bialhaqqi waqeela alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena
وَتَرَى الْمَلَائِكَةَ حَافِّينَ مِنْ حَوْلِ الْعَرْشِ يُسَبِّحُونَ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِمْ وَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُم بِالْحَقِّ وَقِيلَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ 1:1 In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace: [1]
Bismi Allahi alrrahmani alrraheemi
بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ (1:1)
1:2 All praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds, [2]
Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena
الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (1:2)
1:3 The Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace,
Alrrahmani alrraheemi
الرَّحْمـنِ الرَّحِيمِ (1:3)
1:4 Lord of the Day of Judgment!
Maliki yawmi alddeeni
مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ (1:4)
1:5 Thee alone do we worship; and unto Thee alone do we turn for aid.
Iyyaka naAAbudu waiyyaka nastaAAeenu
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ (1:5)
1:6 Guide us the straight way.
Ihdina alssirata almustaqeema
اهدِنَــــا الصِّرَاطَ المُستَقِيمَ (1:6)
1:7 The way of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings, [3] not of those who have been condemned [by Thee], nor of those who go astray! [4]
Sirata allatheena anAAamta AAalayhim ghayri almaghdoobi AAalayhim wala alddalleena
صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّينَ 114:1 SAY: "I seek refuge with the Sustainer of men,
Qul aAAoothu birabbi alnnasi
قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ (114:1)
114:2 "the Sovereign of men,
Maliki alnnasi
مَلِكِ النَّاسِ (114:2)
114:3 "the God of men,
Ilahi alnnasi
إِلَهِ النَّاسِ (114:3)
114:4 "from the evil of the whispering, elusive tempter
Min sharri alwaswasi alkhannasi
مِن شَرِّ الْوَسْوَاسِ الْخَنَّاسِ (114:4)
114:5 "who whispers in the hearts of men [1]
Allathee yuwaswisu fee sudoori alnnasi
الَّذِي يُوَسْوِسُ فِي صُدُورِ النَّاسِ (114:5)
114:6 "from all [temptation to evil by] invisible forces as well as men," [2]
Mina aljinnati wa alnnasi.n.m,.m
مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَ النَّاسِ
On behalf of a some model, at the request of the IMG model agency, AFD groups immediately cease and refrain from any unauthorized use and sale of the name, image and likeness of the model, which is an intrusion into inviolability, discredit, humiliation, embarrassment and possibly irreparable harm to the commercial interests of the model.
Inviolability of ancient Indian legend mountain
Beyond his country will eventually be evaporation
People today think that the top is the sublimation of life
As for me
Stop memories left behind
Continuing my journey
古印地安傳說 山神不可侵犯
逾越他的國度 終將被蒸發
今人卻認為 登頂是生命昇華
至於我
駐足後 留下回憶
繼續我的旅程
Look into the distance from a high place, South of mabolasishan North and mountains
馬博拉斯山北眺南三段群峰
From: www.artic.edu/artexplorer/search.php?tab=2&resource=376:
An examination of van Gogh's powerful portrait of the local postman's wife.
In December 1888, shortly before suffering the breakdown that precipitated Paul Gauguin's departure from Arles, Vincent van Gogh began a portrait of Madame Roulin, the wife of a "Socratic" local postman—the artist's own characterization—with whom he had become friends. Van Gogh completed the first of an eventual five versions of the portrait in January 1889, during his recuperation (the Art Institute's painting is the second in the series). His letters reveal that by then the work had acquired multiple connotations for him. He told one correspondent that he had named it La Berceuse, which means both "lullaby" and "woman rocking a cradle," wondering playfully whether the color did not sing a lullaby of its own. He suggested to Gauguin that its visual music would comfort lonely Icelandic fishermen at sea, and noted how wonderful it would be "to achieve in painting what the music of Berlioz and Wagner has already done." And he advised his brother Theo to place it between two of his sunflower paintings to form a kind of triptych, a "decoration" suitable "for the end wall of a ship's cabin."
Analogies between color and music, common since the Romantic period, assumed a new importance in the late 1880s thanks to the Symbolists, who valued subjective expression, poetic association, and formalist ingenuity over mimetic literalism. Here, van Gogh merged divergent aesthetic currents. He began Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La Berceuse) as a portrait rooted in the Realist tradition. But the extraordinary flowered wallpaper, whose forms teem with a vitalist energy, and the addition of a cradle rope—clearly an afterthought—transform the work into something richer and more allusive, an arresting paean to motherhood, the life force, and the mysterious power of color.
An introduction to van Gogh and Gauguin's relationship and an examination of three of their paintings completed in Arles.
VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN IN ARLES Vincent van Gogh journeyed to Arles in February 1888 with the expressed desire to create a new colony of artists in the temperate climate of southern France. In the summer of 1888, he secured a small house on the outskirts of the city and just across from the public garden. His letters are filled with descriptions of domestic activity, as he bought furniture and utensils and made decorations for what he called "The Studio of the South." Always his aim was to share his life with others, and he constantly exhorted his brother, Theo, as well as his friends Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard to join him in Arles.
Bedroom at Arles, made in the months immediately prior to the arrival of Gauguin in Arles, was part of van Gogh's scheme to decorate the walls of his home and studio. He painted great bunches of sunflowers, portraits of his friends, views of the public garden, and other Arlesian scenes to please the ever critical Gauguin. Yet, it was van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles that most moved Gauguin when he saw it shortly after its completion in October 1888. Van Gogh had painted it after a period of nervous collapse and exhaustion from overwork, and to him it represented "inviolable rest" and harmony.
The painting occupies a complex and significant place in the psychological history of the artist, since we know that his dreams of creating an enduring art colony in this house were quickly to be dashed. It is, thus, easy to read the "quiet" (a word the artist used to describe his bedroom) here as the calm before the storm. Indeed, the uneasy harmony of the intense palette of colors, the dramatic perspective of the floor and bed, and the very emptiness of the room create a tension at odds with the artist's stated purpose in executing the picture. And yet, what one must remember in considering the Bedroom is that, for its maker, art integrated dream and reality. Van Gogh's actual bedroom at Arles was never so clean, or so restful. The painting resembles a miniature room, so real does the furniture seem, so palpable the space. The tactility of the paint allows us to feel in our minds the surface of each object. We revel in the emptiness and warmth of the room, and, like van Gogh, each of us fills it with ourselves and our dreams.
Shortly after the arrival of Gauguin on October 20, van Gogh's work entered a confused, inchoate stage, certainly brought on by Gauguin's response to his art. He was critical of the rapidity with which van Gogh worked and with what he considered to be the younger artist's sloppiness and his overdependence on nature. Gauguin himself painted slowly and deliberately, thinking through each portion of his compositions and reworking them until he achieved a total pictorial harmony. Gauguin's considered methods and desire for pictorial unity and symbolic content are everywhere apparent in Old Women of Arles. Here, Gauguin created a world in which everything is flat and ambiguous. Did he intend us to know that the yellow pyramids to the right of the old women are straw coverings to protect delicate plants in the chilly autumn weather? Why do the women cover their mouths and look away from the viewer? Is the face hidden in the large bush to the lower left some-thing Gauguin intended to include, and, if so, why? What is the ultimate purpose of the two pictorial barriers — the shrub and the gate — that separate the inside of the garden from the world of the viewer? These and many other questions tumble forth as one absorbs this masterpiece from Arles. It has been suggested that Gauguin did this painting in reaction to van Gogh's many representations of the public garden of Arles to demonstrate the evocative power and complex associations with which he could infuse a theme by working from the depths of his imagination. As he stated, "The women here, with their elegant headdresses, have a Greek beauty; their shawls create folds like primitive paintings and make them look like a Greek procession." For all its deliberateness and care of composition, Old Women of Arles is much more mysterious and ultimately disturbing than any picture painted in Arles by van Gogh.
After van Gogh's tragic self-mutilation on December 24, he was placed under the care of a physician in the large public hospital in Arles, where he painted several versions of his famous canvas The Cradler (La Berceuse). It represents Madame Roulin, the wife of the artist's friend the postman, but the painting was never intended to function strictly as a portrait. Van Gogh himself called the picture La Berceuse shortly after it was finished and during the period in which he made the four surviving replicas of it. The Chicago canvas is undoubtedly one of those replicas. Van Gogh wished to hang all the versions together and in combination with his Sunflower canvases to create a composite decoration whose subject was consolation and joy. The many passages in his letters referring to La Berceuse suggest that he conceived of the pictures as allegories of motherhood. In one, he spoke of the fact that he intended the painting for sailors at sea — "sailors, who are at once children and martyrs, seeing it in the cabin of their boat should feel the old sense of cradling come over them and remember their own lullabies." When considered in this way, the boat in which the sailors toss and turn becomes a cradle moved not by the sea, but by their mothers. When one remembers that van Gogh himself was alone in what was for him a foreign hospital, far from his family, the fact that he replicated this soothing image four times is scarcely surprising.
HKFP: Thousands gathered at Edinburgh Place on Wednesday evening calling on G20 countries to raise concerns about Hong Kong at the leaders’ summit on Friday, hours after staging a mass march to foreign consulates to lobby country representatives directly.
Crowds wearing all-black spilt out of the public square, many holding signs that read “Free Hong Kong” and “Democracy Now.”
Organisers, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), issued a statement urging a withdrawal of the government’s suspended extradition bill.
“If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out during the G20 summit, and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people,” it read.
The pro-democracy coalition have led millions on marches over recent weeks against the bill, as demands have evolved into calling for universal suffrage ahead of the July 1 pro-democracy rally.
CHRF manifesto :
"Withdraw the Extradition Bill! Free Hong Kong!
A time when democracy and freedom are universal values that are inviolable.
Hong Kong people had urged for democratisation for over 30 years. When Hong Kong was handed over to China since 1997, as written in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, China promised that Hong Kong can enjoy One Country Two Systems and a high degree of autonomy. The Basic Law also promised universal suffrage to be implemented in the year of 2007 to 2008. But China broke these promises, and gradually intervened deeply in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
Hong Kong people have always insisted on having universal suffrage – to let Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we seem to be further and further away from genuine democracy. In merely 22 years after the hand-over, the One Country Two Systems principle barely survives. During the [legislative] process of the “Extradition Bill”, the Hong Kong Liaison Office blatantly intervened in Hong Kong’s internal affairs and scrapped the promises of [a] high degree of autonomy.
This year, the government decided to put the Extradition Bill through Legislative Council, in order to make all people in Hong Kong, including local citizens and expats, to be potentially extradited to China, or to countries which have less protection on human rights and the rule of law. This will destroy existing protection on human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong and will crack down the last defence to freedom and safety.
In our current political system, Hong Kong does not have genuine democracy. To stop this evil law from passing, 1.03 million followed by 2 million Hongkongers courageously took to the streets in the past two weeks. Some were even cracked down by the police with excessive, disproportionate force and lethal weapons. But the government only gave a shallow apology, without making any tangible changes.
As world leaders meet at the G20 summit, Hong Kong citizens now sincerely urge all of you, including Xi Jinping, to answer our humble questions: Does Hong Kong deserve democracy? Should Hong Kong people enjoy democracy? Can [a] democratic system be implemented in Hong Kong now?
Dear friends from around the world. I believe you have seen through media and the Internet, that Hongkongers spared no efforts to safeguard our freedom. Please bear in mind: if the Extradition Bill passes, when you come to Hong Kong to travel, study or for business, you may face unfair trials. If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out, during the G20 summit and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people."
www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/26/democracy-now-hundreds-gath...
民陣昨晚在中環愛丁堡廣場舉行集會，有數以千計市民出席，大會以英語、普通話、日語等，呼籲包括國家主席習近平等各國領袖關注香港情况，集會人群擠滿愛丁堡廣場，更擠出大會堂對出的龍和道，警員需封閉東西行車線。
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
Here Be Magic: The Source’s Apprentice>
FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
HOPE = Higher Order Potential Explored
LOVE = Living One Vibrant Energy
Who are you, what is the world, how did you get here, where are we going and why? Every child asks these questions, as do the mortally ill and those suddenly faced with unexpected change.
Young children (and venerable ancients) are most intimately connected to the deepest mysteries of being. All existence is a glorious mystery that inspires open minds and passionate hearts. Life begins in a rush of extraordinary emotion with an intimate embrace of the actual, immediate, visceral present and leaves deep imprints that last through the next rebirth and beyond.
Many newborn babes know answers to the deepest conundrums, yet quickly forget – distracted by the ongoing process of learning to wear a new body in a strangely demanding culture of drowsy domesticated primates. Most ‘modern’ people are quickly weaned from a sense of wonder to suckle on toxic waste and moribund notions in notional nations at war with themselves. What use are masters and mistresses of universal truths to soulless machines of industrious wastage – to self-styled half blind so-called ‘leaders’ who only require mindless cogs and obedient dogs that will work on their pet projects without question?
Eternal questions lead to cascades of answers and torrents of more questions. At some point in life all beings wonder and ponder the primal questions of life, the universe and everything. Every child knows they’re on a magical mystery tour, exploring and creating a gloriously intricate realm of intriguing riddles and sumptuous sensualities. Every freshly incarnate soul knows answers to eternal conundrums and recognises that truth must be really simple, clear and meaningful – unlike the plethora of corporate, ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ lies they’re fed to keep them in place in the usual fowl-brained pecking ordure.
People are rapidly weaned from infinite fonts of unending wisdom, fed on senseless half truths and superstitions by blithering wastrels until we’re self-caged in boxes and propped before blinding screens devoid of imagination, filled up with loony marching tunes, violent comical characters, warrior ‘ethics’, impersonal personalities and mobsters from the Id.
Yet every being who finds themselves living in the bosom of Gaia has the ability to flourish in a garden of freedom, art, truth and beauty – unless the divine rapture of happy revelry is beaten and brainwashed out of them by damaged control freaks. The adulteration of adulthood customarily twists each bright new spark into a carelessly forgetful servile dolt wearing uniform uniforms that suit self-styled bosses and no-one else. Yet the bright living world continues to glow and beckon with magnetic inner light, awakening inner sight and inner sense in every insightful innocent soul.
Even while selling, selling out or selling one’s soul, answers and questions lurk within, biding their time til the moment of wonder emerges anew – flowers that bud from slimy mud to bloom in the light of an unbranded bright new day.
Children know what magic is. Magic is obviously the ability to alter the fabric of ‘material reality’ at will. Adolescents and adults who quest after magical reality or ultimate truths usually encounter the teaching that magic is the ability to alter one’s level and state of consciousness at will. It transpires that these two views of magical reality are one and the same, for the world is made of mindstuff – the very same stuff you’ve made of your self.
We’re all the creator of the world we inhabit. We make and remake the cosmos we perceive from instant to instant in a seamless flow far quicker than any word or thought a monkey mind can shape or utter. We mould malleable mindstruff to fit about our hopes, dreams, desires and fears. The strongest, most emotively driven visions predominate, setting the course of our self-chosen destiny from moment to moment. At every instant new doors are opened and closed by decisive thoughts which come and go so swiftly they barely seem to register, ignored by minds entrained to self destruction through perpetual distraction.
Who won last weekend’s game? Who’ll win next week’s? Who really cares or remembers the identikit features of identical born-to-die gladiators or the meaningless trivia of daily scores? Every broadcast from the blaring, pumping, chest-thumping media is thoroughly massaged premasticated pap made to sell, sell, sell the messy message that life is hell without labels and boxes and plastic bags. The ‘news’ is a neverchanging regurgitated weather report overflowing with the meaningless mummery of falsified finance, shaggy cat stories and fishy tales about the none that got away from The System.
People aren’t encouraged to examine their minds – to investigate the source and route of each thought that passes through the easily distracted awareness of industrious sociable beings. In the kingdom of the blind, endless mindless busyness is promoted to a virtue and self-examination is regarded as ‘useless navel gazing’.
The boss will tell you that there’s plenty of time for self examination when you’re fading and tired and retired from the rat race. There’s plenty of time to be free when you’re old, weak, moribund and no longer a potential threat to the busy, dizzy status quo. Meanwhile, follow the leaders and only read parking meters – and pay through the nose for the right to exist, eat, drink and inhabit space. Do what’s expected of you and reap your reward; Work. Consume. Obey. Marry and reproduce. Die – and then begin all over again, with that alluring ‘clean slate’ – that fresh start each adult craves when they realise they’re botching Life and selling their heritage for a bowl of cold potage.
Turn on. Tune in. Opt out! The real world and real you awaits; waiting for you to discover your self.
You always get what you wish for – often when you’ve forgotten you ever wished for it – so be careful what you wish for, for wishing is magic. Each idle thought is a wilful wish when fuelled by hope or fear, love or anger or any potent emotion in the unformed ocean of eternal becoming.
Magic in a Holographic Fractal Multiverse
The cosmos is infinite, and we don’t even live in a single universe. We live in – and contain – an infinite multiverse of limitless potential.
Fractals and fractal imagery demonstrate the truth of an infinite cosmos shaping and shaped by each whole fragment of ultimate reality. Every part, particle, participle and person reflects and refracts the infinite whole – a fluid hologram altered by individual perspectives in a freewheeling free willed phantasmagoria of endless possibility and infinite variety in continuous communion with itself.
As free will is real and events are not locked into predetermined courses, there can’t be any such thing as accurate prediction – just hypnotic programs that attempt to create self-fulfilling prophecies – for all is in flux and the Book of Life is always being inscribed and rewritten as the Book of Changes. There was no single Big Bang or Creation event, for creation continues at all times in all places, everywhere and anywhen. The illusion of creation is simply the result of premillennial brainwashed minds; a dopey falsehood imagined by ‘scientists’ entrained to believe in a fantasy parental archetype – a creator god (or goddess) – by superannuated superstitions strangely exalted as ‘faiths’ or ‘religions’.
There is no god and no master, but truth, beauty, freedom and love are royally real. You are the creator. You are totally free – and ultimately responsible for everything! No guilt, honour, opprobrium or any other imaginary construct applies to you as a result of your creation. Mistakes are impossible in an infinite multiverse; all is research and all is Art. Yet some artistic creations are more pleasing to the senses than others and some acts far more compassionate and conscious. The holographic nature of reality assures that everyone IS everyone and that one simple ‘rule’ actually does apply to all human behaviour and discourse – the eternal Golden Rule; do as you’d be done by.
You create (your own) reality. How are you doing it? Self-styled creators tend to develop an exalted opinion of themselves, in the false belief they’re in charge of everyone and everything else – yet everyone is in charge of and charged by their own ongoing freeform destiny, ultimately beholden to no other yet intricately interlinked with all. Everyone is divine, a whole fractal facet of everyone and everything.
You magnetise reality, shaping and guiding the transitory ‘material world’ to follow the pattern of your dreaming. How are you doing it? Are you actually moulding the infinite potential of possibility itself, or are you selecting the best of all possible worlds from the myriad pre-existing choices available – or both, or neither? Are you a corpse that died at an earlier time, dreaming the ongoing world as you decompose into soil? Are you a Neo(tonous being) imagining a preprogrammed life in an artificial matrix?
How can you truly know the truth?
By examining each thought and image that enters your mind, and seeing from whence it arises. By meditating, and truly SEEING the sea of mentality through which you’re swimming until you find the still, pure centre where the true you abides, becoming the source of all creation at the centre of the cyclone, wreathed in the swirling spin of everchanging thoughtforms and myriad potential.
Kaleidoscopic Cosmos
There is another way of viewing the kaleidoscopic cosmos. Matter doesn’t exist. It’s an illusion created by apparent ‘particles’ which also don’t exist in ‘real’ terms, but are actually eddies formed by intricately interlocking standing waves. We live in a fluid fractal hologram. All patterns echo the primal form from which all other fractal versions and visions are derived; the vortex at the core of all things, the shape of the cosmos itself.
Every ‘electron’ and every other vortexial fragment of wholistic unity holds a holographic image of everything within its spinning skein. Every grain of a holographic image contains an image of the whole picture, and every vortex is implicately linked to all others at all levels of resolution.
In quantum theory an ‘electron’ is said to rotate around its axis more than once during each rotation, circling through infinite plena of potentials (other universes) before returning to the phase – the place – from which it’s observed. Thus every part of all possible universes is in potential and actual contact with every other part, at all levels of resolution – and so are you.
Every cloud is a fractal representation of every other cloud. All clouds are different yet similar forms, all exhibiting tendencies we recognise as ‘cloudness’. All trees are fractal representations of every other tree. Every person is a fractal representation of every other person. Every ‘universe’ is a fractal representation of every other universe, and all are intimately linked in the most fundamental ways. All forms are representation of the primordial vortex, the wellspring from which all arises.
Everything we perceive/conceive/receive is produced by standing waves, and standing waves are formed between complementary poles. Every thing vibrates between its core and extremities – the poles of creation – yet the extremities and core of every single thing extend forever and are linked to literally everything.
We live in a far greater reality than a simple single universe. The universe we perceive is a tendency that tends to maintain its apparent form and substance almost wherever we look, but if you step back from the brink of egocentric personality and really see you’ll notice differences and changes all around and within you, all the time. We are part and parcel of everything, and everything changes all the time in ways too varied to mention. Everyone is surfing through spacetimes and everyone gets exactly what they wish for with their most wilful impassioned desires.
Hopes and dreams – affirmations – predominate over fears and insecurities when you invest them with awareness, focus and consideration. Hopes manifest most easily when they dovetail with the dreams of other beings in a mutually reinforcing matrix. Hope for the best! Dare to dream of Paradise – for all.
Psychic abilities are real and available; you enact their reality all the time. Telepathy is an ongoing eternal reality; not something to be achieved, but recognised. The same applies to all psi abilities or ‘psychic powers’. Learning magic begins with the simple recognition –reknowing – that it exists, and you are already ‘doing’ it. That’s how you got here. That’s why you’re reading this.
.You are implicately and inextricably interwoven with the entire potential cosmos. To activate a broader awareness of all this potential you have to explore the core of your being and the limitless bounds of self. The whole whirled world is whorled from mindstuff and thou art god.
And myriad other beings already know this. We soar from the shoulders of giants.
Way Out, Far In
To begin any magical operation draw a circle around yourself, starting in the East. Do it now. In the southern hemisphere of this spinning Earth sphere the circle of protection is drawn clockwise (looking down from above). The opposite pertains in the northern hemisphere.
The circle is an inviolable horizon and you are its centre. All possibilities exist between the horizon and the core. Arrange your body so your spine is erect and your breathing is full and clear – this can take a single moment or many years to achieve, depending on where you’re at and how you came to be here now.
See where you’re seeing the world from. Move that point of awareness – the place where you live – into the centre of your head. Do it now. View the world from the centre of centres and watch your peripheral vision expand – you’re already aware of far more than you think.
Listen to the thoughts you think you’re thinking… see them circling round the inviolate centre where you reside… the centre where nothing exists… in the Heavenly Pool at the core of creation.
You are not the thoughts, but the still silent witness within. Become the nothing that sees and is everything. When you’re here the void is clear, not dark at all but filled with the light of eternal awareness. Be here now. Be free…
You are already immortal You don’t have to die to change or be free. You just have to recognise yourself in every thing and every one… and set it all free to be in victorious sweet surrender…
When you’re located at the still centre of the cycle, place this centre directly above the equally still and central point at the centre of the bowl of your hips – your water-centre of ‘gravity’, the hara or navel chakra, below and behind your physical navel. You can view the world from here as well, with a differing perspective that creates a different style of consciousness. Breathe deeply from and into this core and fill it with chi, prana, the Holy Spirit.
When your spine is straight and the waters above are directly above the waters below, a current begins that sparks the fusion, creating the pure flame of an opening, flowering heart.
Breathe…
If you do this and seek the truth all teachings will follow and flow through you, manifesting from the limitless potential of our massive multiplayer online cocreation. Be the immortal that witnesses all from the core of breath and being. Remove the screen from your eyes and BE HERE NOW. We create the best of all possible worlds… together.
It’s a beautiful, wonderful world.
All things in all times in all places are one thing, and that thing is love
- R. Ayana
Thanks to those who passed and pass this to and through…
Image – author’s: The Great Work
For further enlightening information enter a word or phrase into the search box @ New Illuminati or click on any label/tag at the bottom of the page @ nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/
And see
The Her(m)etic Hermit – hermetic.blog.com/
New Illuminati – nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/
New Illuminati on Facebook – www.facebook.com/pages/New-Illuminati/320674219559
The Prince of Centraxis – centraxis.blogspot.com/
This material is published under Creative Commons Fair Use Copyright (unless an individual item is declared otherwise by copyright holder) – reproduction for non-profit use is permitted & encouraged, if you give attribution to the work & author – and please include a (preferably active) link to the original along with this notice. Feel free to make non-commercial hard (printed) or software copies or mirror sites – you never know how long something will stay glued to the web – but remember attribution! If you like what you see, please send a tiny donation or leave a comment – and thanks for reading this far…
From the Her(m)etic Hermit @ hermetic.blog.com/2012/01/04/here-be-magic/
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
THE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.
The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.
Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.
Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery.
Historians and religious scholars had always accepted that there had been a site of Christian worship alongside the Fleet River and close to the Lud Gate, now known as Ludgate Circus, in the heart of the ancient City of London, for about 1,000 years.
When the Romans established Londinium following the invasion under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, they dug a mysterious extra-mural ditch on the site of the future church and built a house, which seems likely to have been one of the earliest sites of worship. A Roman pavement can be seen to this day on display in the much-restored crypts of the church.
More than four centuries were to pass before the name of St Bride became associated with the site. But that association was to last throughout subsequent recorded history.
Born in 453 AD, shortly after St Patrick, Bride (or St Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and a druidic slave. As a teenager with an overwhelming desire to do good to others, she gave away so many of her father's possessions - daily necessities such as milk and flour, but also jewellery and swords - that he eventually let her follow her calling and enter the religious life. In 470, she and seven other nuns founded a convent in Kildare which developed into a centre of learning and spirituality, famed for its illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kildare.
According to legend, when Bride received her blessing as abbess it was inadvertently read to her as the rite of consecration as a bishop, which could not then be rescinded. Thus Bride and her successor abbesses had authority equal to that of a bishop for the following seven centuries.
She was renowned throughout Christian Europe for her holiness and common sense, and was regarded as a saint during her lifetime. Ironically, in view of the part that flames were later to play in the story of the church, she shared her name with the pagan goddess of fire, who had been noted for her music, her craftsmanship and her poetry - all qualities that have been manifested in and around St Bride's over numerous generations.
A line from a poem attributed to her - "I long for a great lake of ale" - was also an ironic harbinger of one of the Fleet Street's preoccupations in later years.
She died on 1st February 525 and was buried with the remains of Ireland's two other patron saints - Patrick and Columba. This date continues to be celebrated as the Feast of St Bride.
In the early sixth century the first stone-walled church was built here, founded either by St Bride in person or by Celtic monks who had formed a community in London. It was rebuilt many times over the following centuries, with notable structures including those of the Middle Saxons and the Normans.
This period in history was characterised by the urbanisation of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival, aided by the conversion of the raiding Scandinavians to Christianity. The 11th, 12th and 13th centuries saw a large increase in London's population - from less than 15,000 to over 80,000.
By the year 1200 Britain's effective capital city was Westminster, then a small town up-river from the City of London, where the royal treasury and financial records were stored.
St Bride's was the first church encountered between London and Westminster. This accident of geography gave it considerable importance; in 1205, the Curia Regis, a council of landowners and ecclesiastics charged with providing legislative advice to King John, and a predecessor to today's parliament, was held in the church. St Bride's influence and its numbers of parishioners grew substantially during the medieval period. From the 13th century onwards London developed through two different seats of power and influence: Westminster became the royal capital and centre of government, while the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade - a distinction evident to this day.
The area between them eventually became entirely urbanised by the end of the 16th century, and it was at the beginning of that century that St Bride's developed its first links with one of the future cornerstones of British society which were to constitute its most enduring claim to fame.
In the year 1500 the church had impressive neighbours - the many members of the clergy who were unable to afford the high cost of living in the very centre of the medieval city, where there was greater protection from thieves. However, they possessed their own powerful insurance against burglars - the fear of excommunication, which freed them to live outside.
So while rich merchants huddled together in the centre for safety, the area around St. Bride's became a haven for the eminent divines who were involved in national life. Salisbury Square, Peterborough Court and Ely Place are among names which have come down through history to remind us of great houses in the vicinity.
Since the clergy possessed almost a monopoly of literacy in those days, they were the printers' best customers. Thus Fleet Street became the cradle of the transformation of the medieval art and mystery of printing into the most influential industry man had yet known.
In the early 1470s, William Caxton had learnt the recently-invented technique of printing in Cologne. He returned to London in 1476 and set up a press by Westminster Abbey. In all, he printed about 100 books, some 20 of which were translated from French or Dutch, on subjects that included history and geography, the lives of saints, fables, and instructional books (for example, on good manners and learning French). His output also included most of the works of Chaucer.
As a well-to-do cloth merchant, Caxton had no need to make his press commercially viable. But after he died in 1491, his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who acquired that press, was in different circumstances. Having no other income, printing was his livelihood. So he followed commercial principles and took his goods to the buyer, setting up England's first printing press with moveable type in the churchyard of St Bride's in 1501.
It was a period in history when churchyards were hives of activity, boasting inns, taverns and commercial premises, and Fleet Street proved the perfect place for de Worde's new enterprise.
The publishers of playwrights and poets soon set up competing presses in other local churchyards, and the connection between St Bride's and world of printing and journalism was cemented. Wynkyn de Worde was buried in the church in 1535.
By the 17th century Fleet Street had become an irresistible attraction for the great writers and diarists of the day. A trio of Johns - Milton, Dryden and Evelyn - lived in the vicinity; Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride's, and Richard Lovelace buried there.
But then, in the space of 16 terrible months, it all changed.
St Bride's long connections with the colonies in America began when the parents of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English emigrants to North Carolina in August 1585, were married at the church. The event is commemorated in a touching bust of a little girl which can be found by the font in the south-west corner of the church.
One of the most striking features of today's St. Bride's also owes its inspiration to the church's American links. The great canopied oak reredos which enshrines the church altar is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers. This connection was made 35 years after Virginia Dare's birth when Edward Winslow (1595-1655) became one of the leaders of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. Winslow, who was three times elected governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts, had served as a boy apprentice in Fleet Street and would have known St Bride's well. His parents were also married there.
At the same time, St. Bride's parish was busily helping to populate yet another English colony. One hundred girls and boys from the Bridewell Hospital orphanage were sent to Virginia in 1619. The project was so successful that the governor requested 100 more. All the youngsters received grants of land on coming of age.
The Great Plague is believed to have first struck the docklands of London in April 1665, and by 6th June the parish of St Bride's was officially notified of an outbreak within its boundaries. It was also known as "the Poore's Plague," and the parish suffered terribly because of the large number of manual workers.
The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride's vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community, including the deaths of his churchwardens.
Searchers of the Dead, usually old women, were paid to go out and inspect a corpse to determine cause of death. They were often bribed not to diagnose bubonic plague, as the entire household of a victim had to be locked in for 40 days, which normally resulted in all their deaths. Terrified residents sniffed nosegays to ward off malodorous airs which were thought to carry the infection. Funeral bells tolled constantly.
The parish distributed relief to stricken families. Watchmen were paid to guard locked houses and attend to the wants of those within. Nurses were dispatched to attend the sick. Two "bearers" were paid to carry corpses to the plague pits. The cost of all of this was partly reclaimed by the "brokers of the dead" who seized the property left in infected houses. So much was gathered that St Bride's had to rent a storehouse.
Many thousands of dogs and cats were culled, as they were believed to spread the pestilence. Flea-infested rats (the real culprits) were thus freed of predators, and proliferated.
In all the plague cost the parish of St Bride's some £581. The human cost was far worse: 2,111 people died in the parish in that fateful year. London lost 100,000, or 20% of its inhabitants.
Plague victims continued to die in smaller numbers until autumn the following year - which proved to be the very moment the City was consumed, literally, by a second dreadful tribulation on the heels of the first.
After a summer of drought, the Great Fire of London began on Sunday 2nd September 1666, and very soon the worried residents of the parish were watching in growing alarm before being put to flight two days later as the advancing flames leapt the narrow alleyways to ignite wooden houses and the often-illegal businesses many of them contained.
St Bride's was equipped with its own fire engine, but had failed to keep the machine "scoured, oyled and trimmed." Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the advance of the flames. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill."
On Friday, Samuel Pepys made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw all the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration, a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for no longer than those two weeks of his tenure, though in his will he left it £50; the silver gilt vessels bought with that bequest remain prized possessions today.
The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. So, the big question was: would St Bride's be rebuilt?
In 1671 the churchwardens of St Bride's took Mr Christopher Wren (Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the City) to dinner at the Globe Tavern. It would take another year before they could convince him of their cause, but their persistence meant that St Bride's was one of the first post-fire churches to be opened.
The blaze had destroyed 87 City churches. Despite Wren's belief that only 39 were necessary in such a small area, St Bride's was among the 51 to be rebuilt. The £500 required as a deposit by Guildhall to get things under way was raised in a month - a remarkable effort, given that most of the parishioners had lost homes and businesses in the disaster. Nor was this the end to the financial demands, as money remained tight. But a combination of Coal Dues, donations and loans eventually met the building's cost of £11,430 5s. 11d.
Joshua Marshall was the main contractor for the works. A parishioner and master mason to the king, like his father before him, Marshall was a wise choice. He also worked with Wren on Temple Bar and the Monument, while one of his assistants was the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was to become a renowned architect himself.
As today, the main material for the church was Portland stone. By September 1672, within a year of starting, the walls had reached the upper part of the cornice. The speed of progress was partly ascribed to the fact that the workmen had a hostel by the church, the Old Bell Tavern, built for them by Wren. By 1674 the main structural work was complete, and a year later the church finally reopened for worship on Sunday 19th December 1675.
Though it was open, it was not completed; most notably, the tower remained unfinished. In 1682 the churchwardens again approached Wren, this time about building the steeple. Work did not begin until 1701, and took two years to complete. At 234ft it was Wren's highest steeple, although after it was damaged by lightning in 1764 it was reduced to 226ft during more rebuilding.
Much has been written about the steeple, the most romantic tale of which is surely that of William Rich, apprenticed to a baker near Ludgate Circus. He fell in love with his master's daughter and, when he set up his own business at the end of his apprenticeship, won her father's approval for her hand in marriage.
Rich wished to create a spectacular cake for the wedding feast, but was unsure how, until one day he looked up at the steeple of the church in which the marriage was to be held, and inspiration hit him: a cake in layers, tiered, and diminishing as it rose. Thus began the tradition of the tiered wedding cake.
The year before the steeple was finished, the Daily Courant became the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom, published on 11th March 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street. A brass plaque to mark the 300th anniversary of this first edition was unveiled by the Prince of Wales at a special service in St Bride's on 11th March 2002.
Publishers and newspapers now began to spring up with some urgency; of the national papers that are still in existence, the Daily Universal Register (now The Times) was first published in 1785, and The Observer became the world's first Sunday newspaper in 1791.
Many renowned writers tried their hand - Daniel Defoe, for instance, founded the Daily Post.
As numerous regional and provincial titles were founded, they set up London offices in and around St Bride's, as did the first news agencies.
The vast expansion of the printing industry in Fleet Street also drew interest from intellectuals, actors and artists. Anyone who was anyone - Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth, William Wordsworth and John Keats - would want to be seen in the coffee houses and inns around St Bride's.
Guardian (1821)
Daily Mail (1896)
Sunday Times (1822)
Daily Express (1900)
News of the World (1843)
Daily Mirror (1903)
Daily Telegraph (1855)
Sunday Mirror (1915)
The People (1881)
Sunday Express (1918)
Financial Times (1888)
Morning Star (1930)
With the coming of the 20th century their combined circulations were immense, and the power of press barons such as Northcliffe, Kemsley, Beaverbrook, Astor and Rothermere propelled Fleet Street into the very heart of the British power structure, often shaping news as well as reporting it.
Then came World War II and, in 1940, Fleet Street watched helplessly as the news exploded right at its doorstep. For St Bride's, by now enshrined as the parish church of journalism, it once again brought catastrophe.
The Blitz began in the early autumn as the Germans, their plan for a summer invasion thwarted, sought instead to bomb Britain's cities into submission. Guildsman John Colley, now in his 80s, recalls what it was like to be in a Grub Street at war:
"The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming that there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big provincial papers.
"That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.
"Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini; couriers brought Government hand-outs from the Ministry of Information; messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office; even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa.
"With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street, the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.
"Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes.
"Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from an incident were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all, there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above."
Two days before this grim year ended, St Bride's luck ran out. On the night of Sunday 29th December the Luftwaffe targeted the City of London in a concentrated incendiary raid. Some 1400 fires were started; eight of Wren's churches were destroyed. St Bride's was one of them.
The church, locked after Evensong, suffered incendiary hits which pierced the roof, and the seasoned timbers proved perfect tinder. Some treasures were rescued from the flames, including the medieval gospel lectern which had survived the Great Fire of 1666. But most was destroyed. The famous bells melted and fell, but the steeple, despite having flames pouring from it, prevailed - testament to Wren's design.
Up Ludgate Hill, the Times reported, "the dome of St Paul's seemed to ride the sea of fire like a great ship lifting above the smoke and flames the inviolable ensign of the golden cross."
But all that lay ahead for St Bride's were years of ruined desolation until the war ended and the church's administrators were able to address the question that had faced their predecessors in 1666: How do we rebuild both the church and its congregation?
By the time the austere 1950s came round, services were being held on the site, some in the open air and others in the crypt chapel.
Rebuilding work was scheduled for 1954, thanks to the restoration fund which was a tribute to the dedication of the Rector, Revd Cyril Armitage. The chosen architect, Godfrey Allen, an authority on Wren, studied the master's original plans and produced a faithful recreation. He kept the clear glass Wren loved, but did not rebuild the galleries, instead laying out the stalls in collegiate style.
With rebuilding came excavation as well as restoration. In addition to the astonishing discovery of Roman remains on the site in 1953, the crypts were found to contain thousands of human remains, many of them victims of the Great Plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854. The latter claimed 10,000 lives in the City of London, and, as a result, Parliament decreed that there should be no more burials in the City. The crypts were sealed and forgotten about.
One hundred years later the excavations of Professor F.W. Grimes resulted in St. Bride's possessing two almost unique series of human remains. One includes well over 200 skeletons identified by their sex and age at the time of death, thus forming a very important source of research into forensic and other forms of medicine.
The other series, which is estimated by some to include nearly 7,000 human remains, is in a medieval charnel house where all the bones were found in categories - thigh bone with thigh bone and so on - and laid in chequer-board pattern. This is probably evidence of a land shortage in London even that many centuries ago.
On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1962, Dewi Morgan inherited the Rector's mantle from Cyril Armitage, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s St Bride's continued its ministry to the newspaper world, hosting baptisms, weddings and memorial services as well as offering regular weekday worship for those working in the area.
In 1967 the church was packed for a service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Press Association, whose offices were next door. The glass doors at the West End were a gift to mark the occasion. Through the generosity of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's heir, a permanent exhibition was mounted in the crypt chronicling the history of the site and of Fleet Street, and was renewed with the help of Reuters and the Museum of London 25 years later.
By the early 1980s, however, all was not well in the newspaper business. For years Fleet Street had been living with chaotic industrial relations. Proprietors found the so-called Spanish practices of the print unions intolerable, while the workers rejected management attempts to introduce flexible working, no-strike clauses, new technology, and an end to the closed shop.
National newspapers continued to be produced by the labour-intensive linotype hot-metal method, rather than being composed electronically. Eddie Shah's regional Messenger Group had, however, benefited from the Conservative government's trade union legislation which allowed employers to de-recognise unions, enabling Shah to use an alternative workforce and new technology. Journalists could input copy directly, sweeping away arcane craft-union manning levels and cutting costs dramatically.
On 24th January 1986, some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after the breakdown of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News International, parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers. They were unaware that Murdoch had built and clandestinely equipped a new-technology printing plant in Wapping. When they struck, he moved his operation overnight.
Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch's lead. Computers had consigned Wynkyn de Worde's revolution to history.
Many people at that time feared that the diaspora of the Fourth Estate might result in St Bride's losing its title of the cathedral of Fleet Street. Some even considered that the great church would lose its parishioners. Might Rupert Murdoch's vision bring about what pestilence, fire and the Luftwaffe had failed to achieve?
Fortunately for St Bride's, the national newspapers scattered in every direction rather than congregating in one locality, so that "Fleet Street" remains to this day a generic term for the nation's press, and the church retains its pre-eminent position in the journalistic and media constituency.
During the Middle East hostage crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it hosted all-night vigils for John McCarthy and others, and on their release in 1991 a grand service of celebration was held.
We have commemorated John Schofield, BBC reporter killed in Croatia in 1995; Reuters' Kerem Lawton, killed in Kosovo; Channel 4's Gaby Rado and ITN's Terry Lloyd (Iraq); BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers, murdered by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia; and the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002.
In 2003 we unveiled a memorial to all journalists who died in Iraq, and in 2006 commemorated James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS journalists killed in Baghdad, demonstrating St Bride's unique position in journalism throughout the world. When, earlier this year, The Times' driver in Iraq, Yasser, was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad, it was to St Bride's that senior News International staff came to light a candle.
The Journalists' Altar in the North East corner also carries prayers for reporters who are missing or who have lost their lives in current conflicts.
Newspaper proprietors such as Lord Burnham, Lord Rothermere and Lord Hartwell have been remembered in memorial services. So have editors like Sir Edward Pickering, David Astor, Stewart Steven and Louis Kirby; the Guardian's famed woman's editor Mary Stott; the D-Day war reporter Doon Campbell; BBC figures such as Godfrey Talbot, Louis MacMillan and Leonard Miall; and Fiona MacPherson of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Strong and successful efforts were made by the former Rector, Canon John Oates, to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers. Twenty years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.
The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.
As a result of a successful funding appeal, new side aisles constructed of English and European oak were installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church.
Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.
The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.
Click on image then press the "L" key to view large on black.
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
© All rights reserved.
Somaliland. www.afrodigg.com/news.php
SOMALILAND: AFRICA'S BEST KEPT SECRET
But the most defining and instructive question remains, how have the people of Somaliland built such a stable democracy, society and institutions in a region that has not known peace in nearly two decades? In order to answer this puzzle, it is important to revisit the history of Somaliland. SOMALILAND: Africa's Best Kept Secret.
With almost daily reports of chaos and violence rocking Mogadishu, the capital city of the failed state of Somalia, the average Kenyan would be forgiven to believe that the whole of Somalia is on fire, to be visited only by those who have signed up with fate! But alas, wait a minute. There is a safe haven in north western Somalia, actually a republican state in every respect but for international recognition. Welcome to the peaceful and beautiful state of Somaliland, one of the states Simon Reeve, in his popular award winning five-part BBC Four series, refers to as Places that don't exist.
I was in the city of Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland, two weeks ago on an assignment. This trip was in many ways an eye opener to me. It drastically changed my perceptions about Somalia, and Somaliland in particular, perceptions largely informed (misinformed) by a transnational western press eternally unfavorable to Africa and especially Islamic Africa.
After my brief visit, I now fully appreciate the support Somaliland is receiving from her visitors including the admiration of acclaimed scholars such as Prof. Ali Mazrui, Prof. William Reno, Prof. George Eshiwani, Gerard Prunier, Bernard Helander, I'M. Lewis, and the courageous Prof. Equal Jhazbhay of South Africa to mention just a few.
The first thing that strikes a foreigner against his/her expectations is the peace, tranquility and order in the city. Unbelievably, one can walk or drive on the streets of Hargeisa by night without the slightest fear of muggings, carjacking and armed robberies, much unlike Nairobi and other major towns of Kenya where the government has nearly ceded control to organized crime. A robust and lively city, it is in many ways similar to the sprawling Eastleigh estate, in terms of aggressive commerce and social lifestyles.
However, the similarity ends there. Where eastleigh is crime prone, water and sanitation services stretched to the limit and burst sewers releasing raw human waste onto pot holed streets, Hargeisa is neat and with a working system of social services. The ordinary Kenyan accustomed to heavy police presence on our city streets, occasionally falling victim to their harassment, will not believe his luck to find unarmed and unobtrusive, though poorly dressed policemen, patrol the streets of Hargeisa. The popular thinking is that every Somali Lander has an obligation to safeguard the freedom and territorial integrity which they valiantly fought for and reclaimed at great human sacrifice.
Somali Landers are united in their love for country irrespective of political affiliation.
This love for country immediately became evident to me upon landing at Legal airport. At the prompting of the Somalia embassy in Nairobi, my colleague and I hesitantly obtained visas even though we had already secured referred Somaliland visas to be issued on arrival in the country. The immigration officers were so enraged on seeing Somalia visas endorsed in our passports that they immediately refused us entry. We came to learn later that the head of a UN agency in the country and his entourage were furiously turned away on account of the same problem, two days ago. They considered Somalia's alleged authority to issue visas for entry into Somaliland, an affront on their sense of nationhood as a separate and sovereign state. We were kept waiting at the airport for our return flight to Nairobi for three hours.
It took the intervention of a smooth talking driver to end our ordeal and secure our entry. Looking back on that incident, I salute the fierce display of patriotism by those seemingly poorly paid officers. I was left questioning the feeble sense of patriotism me and many of my compatriots, some with genuine continuing and historical grievances against the state we have for Kenya.
Somaliland has made huge strides in expanding social services to its people since reclaiming its independence on 18th May 1991, despite a limited revenue base. Without formal international recognition as a sovereign state and therefore ineligible for funding by international lending institutions, it has been handicapped in undertaking large scale reconstruction programs. With few revenue streams, the economy is heavily dependant on monthly remittances from the Diaspora and international NGOs whose involvement spreads across a range of social sectors such as health, education and skills development etc
In a span of 16 years, primary school enrolment has shot up from a dismal figure of 10,000 to 150,000 in 2007, while enrolment in secondary schools increased by 56 % over the same period. There is a renewed impetus for modernization within the universities of Hargeisa, Burao and Amoud, churning out freshly minted professionals in as diverse fields as medicine, engineering, sciences and education.
Social services such as water, electricity and mobile telephony are partly privatized. Indigenous businessmen team up in partnerships and joint ventures to provide these services at profitable but affordable costs to their people. The leading mobile phone companies Telecom and Telecom charge a fraction of what Safaricom charge its customers in tariffs, thereby increasing connectivity to a large segment of the population.
Though the economy is heavily dependent on imports due to a non-existing manufacturing sector, often only shipping out livestock to the Middle East, prices of basic foodstuffs and other commodities are comparatively cheaper.
While it is a nightmare for the average middle class Kenyan to import a secondhand car owing to prohibitive custom duties, an average Somali Lander can buy a well conditioned Toyota Mark II, the popular car of choice from anything between 1500 - 2000 dollars, with the more powerful 4-wheel drive Toyota Surf changing hands for anything between 3500 - 5000 dollars in the local used car bazaars. I'm already seeing images of the typically aggressive kikuyu car dealer sniffing a lucrative business opportunity, if only he can find ways of going round the tax man.
Somaliland has established a strong and robust multiparty democracy in which the opposition has a majority in the House of Representatives. With the support of the international community, the country held its first multiparty elections widely praised as credible, free and fair in 2003, following the death of the second caretaker president, Mr. Mohamed Egal. In order to tap into the positive values of a clan system which plays an important role in regulating intra and inter group relations in much of Somalia, and also the principal culprit behind the failed state in Central and Southern Somalia, Somaliland has an upper house called the " Guurti."All clans select their representatives to the exalted ‘house of lords'. A similar proposal in the initial CKRC draft was shot down in Bomas in our failed experiment at constitution making. The role of this house of elders is to moderate partisan acrimony in the legislative process, in a system of checks and balances aimed at promoting unity in diversity.
A robust and free media unafraid to criticize the establishment when necessary complete the picture.
There is in place a code of conduct, akin to our own IPPG deal of 1997, to which political parties subscribe in competition. Parties nominate representatives to the National Electoral Commission, are allotted equal airtime and space in the nation's electronic and print media to sell their respective manifestos and programs during elections.
The fabric of the state is founded on the twin pillars of devotion to the cardinal Islamic principle of Taw heed (unity of Allah) and social justice. A very proud people by nature, the search to find the existence of a class society characteristic of a capitalist economy is tenuous and elusive. It would appear that the emergence of a conspicuous class system is suppressed by religious imperatives and the clan system which serves as a focal point of group insurance. It is not quite uncommon to find a commoner engaging and interacting with a cabinet minister on the streets. To my consternation, I found a senior government official later introduced to me as the Minister for Youth and Sports , in an animated after lunch conversation with a group of people in front of a hotel, something of a rarity in Kenya. I mean, how many times have you seen Dr. Mohamed Kuti, his Kenyan counterpart, mingle freely with the youth on the streets of Nairobi. The humility of the political class in Somaliland has convinced me that we create leaders with cult like tendencies and then cry foul when they ride roughshod over us.
As other Muslim countries in or neighboring the middle east experiencing unbearably hot temperatures, official working hours ran from 7.30 am to 1.00 pm with the remainder of the day mostly devoted to miraa/chat chewing. As is the case with many pastoralist communities, the Somalis are a socially egregious and oral people with a strongly developed tradition of social affiliation. The miraa/ chat chewing sessions provide an appropriate forum to discuss debate and even argue over common issues in their trademark loud and garrulous manner. Friday is the only designated prayer and rest day.
Practicing a moderate form of Islam, the Somali Landers are a liberal lot, with smoking a national pastime and an entrenched habit unlike in other African countries including Kenya, where the practice is frowned upon on account of its emerging health implications.
Hargeisa has a vibrant informal roadside business much like the hawkers paradise of Eastleigh's Garissa lodge. The money changers stand out from the crowd. Countless moneychangers sitting behind meshed boxes containing wads of blue colored notes in denominations of 500 Somaliland shillings dot the streets. During prayer times, the note holding boxes are left unattended without the slightest fear of theft. In a country where the Somaliland shillings and the US dollar are the currencies of choice, a stranger will be tempted to conclude that every resident of the city is a money changer, considering the bulky notes in everyone's possession.
Trading at 6000 shillings to the dollar, one needs to carry a bagful of Somaliland notes to make routine purchases at the local supermarket.
But the most defining and instructive question remains, how have the people of Somaliland built such a stable democracy, society and institutions in a region that has not known peace in nearly two decades? In order to answer this puzzle, it is important to revisit the history of Somaliland.
Somaliland was a British Protectorate for nearly 80 years before attaining independence as the state of Somaliland on 26th June, 1960. The Southern part under Italian rule became independent five days later on 1st July, 1960. In pursuing a grand dream of greater Somalia which envisaged the re- unification of all territories occupied by the Somali's, including Ethiopia's Ogaden province and Kenya's Northern Frontier District, the newly independent and sovereign state of Somaliland rushed headlong against the wise counsel of the first prime minister Mohamed Ibrahim Igal, into a union with the South. It was an experience they would live to regret.
The British press at the time described Somaliland as the colony that rejected its independence. When the late Said Barre took power in a military coup; he embarked on an ambitious public works programmed and an expansionist adventure to annex the Ogaden province from Ethiopia. The ramifications of the war soon spilled over to Kenya culminating in the infamous shifta wars of the late 1960's and 1970's in which ethnic Somali dissidents took up arms in a war of secession to unite the present day North Eastern Province with the Greater Somalia.
The effect of this war on ethnic Kenya Somalis is best captured by the infamous Wagalla massacre of 1980 in which the Kenyatta government cracking so hard on innocent citizens causing massive displacement, confiscation of livestock and indiscriminate killings as a way to suppress the emergency. Survivors and relatives of victims of that massacre are still crying out for justice.
While the abrasive Barre initially appeared to have an upper hand in the territorial war with Ethiopia, capturing the strategic towns of JigJiga and Dirre Dawa, he was soon vanquished and humiliated by an Ethiopian onslaught reinforced by superior air power provided by Cuba and Russia.
Following this monumental disillusionment and a severely bruised ego, Barre soon became paranoid and captive to the wishes of his marehan clan, banning dissent to his rule. Barre's growing politics of exclusion soon bred discontent among the population and particularly in Somaliland which felt that it had been dealt a back handed compliment for its voluntary decision to join the Union.
Somaliland bore the worst brunt of Barre's military actions at muzzling dissent. In 1988, he ordered a series of air strikes against the city of Hargeisa from the nearby military air base, reducing the city to debris. A war memorial featuring the fighter plane used to flatten the city today stands out conspicuously in the freedom park in honor of the veterans and as a historic reminder to the present generation.
Unlike the Rwanda genocide very little is known about the ethnic cleansing of the tens of thousand Somaliladers between 1988 and 1991.
The Somaliland National Movement (SNM) together with other popular forces in the south, joined hands against Barre's dictatorship leading to the fall of Mogadishu in 1991. While the warlords in Mogadishu soon turned against each other over control of power, the people of Somaliland quickly organized to bring stability to the entire territory falling within the borders of an independent pre-unification Somaliland.
It is argued that Somaliland successfully managed the transition because they fell back on their experience of administration and governance for which they had been adequately prepared by the British. On the other hand, it is the butt of local jokes that the Italians trained soldiers instead of administrators in the south, hence the continued infighting and violence among the warlords of Mogadishu whose several attempts at forming a central government have proved elusive.
Smarting from the bitter experiences of unification, the people of Somaliland quickly secured and reclaimed their pre-unification borders and installed a caretaker government. Somaliland held its first multiparty elections widely regarded as credible, free and fair in 2003. The three main parties UDUB, Kulmiye and UCID have seats in an opposition dominated parliament. Sixteen years on, they are yet to get formal recognition as a sovereign state despite enjoying uninterrupted stability since 18th May, 1991.
However, it has established agreements and co-operation with several African countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda and even Kenya. In Europe, it has either established co-operation agreements or contacts with Belgium, U.K., Sweden, Ireland, the European Union and lately Norway, which the president, Dahir Rayale Kahin recently toured on an official visit.
The Arab states, led by Egypt and Sudan, have not been forthcoming in supporting Somaliland's statehood endeavor. Probably this has to do with the Ethiopia's Blue Nile. A strong united Somalia - and a member of the Arab League - is obviously an excellent proxy in the war for the Blue Nile.
It is not clear, though, why the rest of the international community is not forth coming in recognizing Somaliland as a sovereign state and fail to recognize the inviolable right of the Somalilanders to revert to their original pre-unification status. We have seen the international community especially Western Europe, offer support to liberation fronts such as SPLA/M in Southern Sudan resulting in autonomy and self rule. It has further supported the separation of previously single countries such as Senegal and Mali, Egypt, Sudan and Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore and the disintegration of the former USSR into several distinct nation states.
As you read this the US and most other members of the UN Security Council are pushing for "supervised independence" of the province of Kosovo.
It would appear that the major powers in global politics especially the veto wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, have failed to read the strategic benefits of recognizing the republic of Somaliland, as a way of bringing peace to the troubled horn.
With repeated US claims of the existence of Al Qaeda cells in Mogadishu, the international community should move fast and confer recognition on Somaliland and seal it off from possible terrorist infiltration. Terrorist elements can easily infiltrate and recruit membership in Somaliland by whipping up popular anti-American sentiments and tapping into the frustrations of an unfulfilled dream of recognition. Such recognition will also be in the best strategic and security interests of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
In my view, the way to go will be to divide Somalia into original two separate states to bring any semblance of order and stability. At least for Somaliland, this is the way to go. In any case, I don't see why Somaliland should be forced to remain part of Somalia against the popular wish of its people. The people of Somaliland will definitely stand to lose a lot if forced to remain part of Somalia, after painstakingly having rebuilt their war shattered economy, democratic institutions and cities.
I think the starting point in Somaliland's audacious and treacherous journey in securing international recognition would be for brave individual states to come forward and affirm its right to self determination to reclaim its sovereign past. This way, international opinion would progressively change to favour its position. For historical reasons, the United Kingdom should take the lead in the effort to help restore Somaliland's sovereign past after the ill fated attempts at unification.
Despite differences in policy, the government and the opposition in Somaliland are singularly united in their resolve to become a sovereign state separate from Somalia. This presents them with a unique challenge to bridge the gap that divides them and instead harness their collective energies to rally the international community around their nationalistic cause.
This would entail the formation of a bipartisan network of think tanks and informed lobbies in Somaliland and the Diaspora to champion the cause of statehood at regional, continental and international levels.
Kenyan Somali Landers have an equally moral duty to support the cause of their kith and kin. The upcoming general election presents them with a rare opportunity to petition and influence policies of mainstream Kenyan political parties with regard to the thorny issue of Somaliland's recognition. As a focused interest group, they can throw their combined support behind one of the leading parties in return for the recognition of Somaliland.
An entry point would be to petition the Paul Muite led parliamentary committee on the administration of justice to push a motion in parliament calling on the Kenya government to recognize Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state. Hon. Muite led a parliamentary delegation to Somaliland in December 2006 which found and reported overwhelming evidence of a functioning democracy.
Do you know that Raila Odinga, once addressed a mammoth rally at the freedom park in the middle of the city of Hargeisa? Perhaps the ever courageous Agwambo, and fourth president of Kenya, can be approached for support. Are you listening Somalilanders?
If Somaliland has satisfactorily fulfilled the basic duty of any republican state, which is to protect the lives and property of those living within its borders, what else does the international community require of it? If the streets of Hargeisa are absolutely safer than any you can find in other African capitals, what justification does the African Union have in its dithering about recognizing Somaliland?
In spite of the formidable odds stacked against it, I have a feeling that Somaliland will finally reclaim its rightful place among the family of nations - (my prediction is this will happen around its 2010 - Somaliland's 50th anniversary of independence from the British rule) It would appear that Somaliland has failed to attract international attention for all the right reasons while the international community has failed to recognize Somaliland for all the wrong reasons.
The challenge for Somaliland is to keep stoking the fire of nationalism burning while maintaining peace and stability within its borders. This will prick the unfeeling conscience of the international community to act faster than it should. And finally, the hypocrisy of the southerners who pretend to favor a united Somalia should be exposed and dismissed for what it is. If they cannot keep peace within their own backyard, why else would they want to drag Somaliland into their never ending cycle of nepotism, violence and lawlessness, other than envy?
By Michael Torome
toromemichael@gmail.com
HKFP: Thousands gathered at Edinburgh Place on Wednesday evening calling on G20 countries to raise concerns about Hong Kong at the leaders’ summit on Friday, hours after staging a mass march to foreign consulates to lobby country representatives directly.
Crowds wearing all-black spilt out of the public square, many holding signs that read “Free Hong Kong” and “Democracy Now.”
Organisers, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), issued a statement urging a withdrawal of the government’s suspended extradition bill.
“If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out during the G20 summit, and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people,” it read.
The pro-democracy coalition have led millions on marches over recent weeks against the bill, as demands have evolved into calling for universal suffrage ahead of the July 1 pro-democracy rally.
CHRF manifesto :
"Withdraw the Extradition Bill! Free Hong Kong!
A time when democracy and freedom are universal values that are inviolable.
Hong Kong people had urged for democratisation for over 30 years. When Hong Kong was handed over to China since 1997, as written in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, China promised that Hong Kong can enjoy One Country Two Systems and a high degree of autonomy. The Basic Law also promised universal suffrage to be implemented in the year of 2007 to 2008. But China broke these promises, and gradually intervened deeply in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
Hong Kong people have always insisted on having universal suffrage – to let Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we seem to be further and further away from genuine democracy. In merely 22 years after the hand-over, the One Country Two Systems principle barely survives. During the [legislative] process of the “Extradition Bill”, the Hong Kong Liaison Office blatantly intervened in Hong Kong’s internal affairs and scrapped the promises of [a] high degree of autonomy.
This year, the government decided to put the Extradition Bill through Legislative Council, in order to make all people in Hong Kong, including local citizens and expats, to be potentially extradited to China, or to countries which have less protection on human rights and the rule of law. This will destroy existing protection on human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong and will crack down the last defence to freedom and safety.
In our current political system, Hong Kong does not have genuine democracy. To stop this evil law from passing, 1.03 million followed by 2 million Hongkongers courageously took to the streets in the past two weeks. Some were even cracked down by the police with excessive, disproportionate force and lethal weapons. But the government only gave a shallow apology, without making any tangible changes.
As world leaders meet at the G20 summit, Hong Kong citizens now sincerely urge all of you, including Xi Jinping, to answer our humble questions: Does Hong Kong deserve democracy? Should Hong Kong people enjoy democracy? Can [a] democratic system be implemented in Hong Kong now?
Dear friends from around the world. I believe you have seen through media and the Internet, that Hongkongers spared no efforts to safeguard our freedom. Please bear in mind: if the Extradition Bill passes, when you come to Hong Kong to travel, study or for business, you may face unfair trials. If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out, during the G20 summit and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people."
www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/26/democracy-now-hundreds-gath...
民陣昨晚在中環愛丁堡廣場舉行集會，有數以千計市民出席，大會以英語、普通話、日語等，呼籲包括國家主席習近平等各國領袖關注香港情况，集會人群擠滿愛丁堡廣場，更擠出大會堂對出的龍和道，警員需封閉東西行車線。
020
CHAPTER XV.
REPORT OF THE ALIENISTS.
The report of the sanity commission follows:
To the Honorable A. C. Backus, Judge of the Municipal Court of Milwaukee County:
Pursuant to your appointment of the undersigned on the 12th day of November, 1912, as a Commission to examine John Schrank with reference to his present mental condition, we respectfully submit our report.
This report consists of:
First: The examination of John Schrank with reference to his personal and family history, his present physical state, and his present mental state.
Second: Inquiry by means of data furnished by the New York Police Department, the Magistrate of Erding, Bavaria, reports furnished by the Milwaukee Police Department and other officials brought in contact with him, and certain documents furnished by the defendant himself, and others found in his possession, some of which are herewith submitted as exhibits, duly numbered.
Third: Summary and conclusions arrived at.
PERSONAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
Age 36. Single. Born in Erding, Bavaria, March 5, 1876. Father born in Bavaria, and mother born in Bavaria. Occupation, bar tender and saloonkeeper. No regular occupation in the last one and one-half years. Education, common schools in Bavaria from the seventh to the twelfth year; three or four years in night school in New York, in English.
In early life a Roman Catholic; not a practical Catholic for the past 15 years.
His father died at the age of 38 of consumption; was a moderate drinker; the mother living at the age of 56 or 57. One brother and one sister living, in good health. One brother and one sister died in infancy.
A sister of mother insane, suffered from delusions of persecution; died of softening of the brain, so-called, in 1904, in Gabersee Asylum, Bavaria. Certified by Magistrate of Erding, Bavaria.
Patient states he was never seriously sick. Knows of no serious accident or injury. Never suffered from headaches.
Lived with grandparents from three to nine years of age; worked in a vegetable garden during that time, and then returned to parents.
HABITS.
Denies excesses; no use of tobacco until two years ago, never more than five or six cigars a day, average two or three cigars. Has generally taken about five pint bottles of beer in twenty-four hours, of late years. For two years, in 1902-1903, drank no intoxicants at all. He states he drank to slight excess at most half a dozen times a year. Never used drugs of any kind. Denies all venereal diseases, and presents no physical evidence of them. His usual habit was to retire before 10 o'clock at night.
PRESENT PHYSICAL STATE.
Height 5 feet 4½ inches in stocking feet. Weight, 160 pounds, with clothing. Is right-handed. Head presents no scars or injuries or evidence of injuries or irregularities of cranial bones; normal in shape, except measurements over left parietal bone from ear to median line at vertex is 1.25 centimeters larger than the right. Cephalic index 80. Cranial capacity normal. External ears normal in shape. Holds head slightly tilted to left. Shape of hard palate, mouth and teeth normal. Maxillary bones normal except lower jaw slightly prognathic. Blonde hair. Eyes, bluish gray. Complexion fair. Tongue, slight yellowish coating, edges clean. Appetite and general nutrition good. Stomach, digestion, bowels normal. Sleep good. State of heart and arteries normal. Blood pressure 125 to 130 systolic; 115 to 120 diastolic. Pulse 82-86. Temperature Nov. 12, 1912, P.M., 99.4. Nov. 14, normal. No scars on genitals. Urine practically a normal specimen.
NEUROLOGICAL.
The Eyes—Light, accommodation and sympathetic reflex present, but somewhat slow. Slight inequality of pupils, right distinctly larger than left. Color sense normal. No contraction of visual field. Slight horizontal nystagmus in both eyes on extreme outward rotation of the eyeballs. (Pupils equal and normal Nov. 20th, 1912.)
After above symptoms ascertained, 1.40 grain euphthalmine inserted, and examination of eye grounds showed no optic atrophy. The right eye ground (retina) was slightly higher in color than the left.
Hearing very acute, both sides.
Sense of taste and smell normal.
Tactile, pain, temperature and weight sense normal.
Deep Reflexes—Knee, reflex, right, irregularly present, regular on reinforcement; knee, left, absent; brought out by reinforcement irregularly.
Myotatic irritability of forearm, right markedly heightened; left slightly heightened.
No ankle-clonus.
Superficial Reflexes—Abdominal reflex present. Epigastric reflex absent. Cremasteric reflex, active both sides. No Oppenheim reflex. No Babinski reflex. Plantar reflex: right markedly heightened; left heightened.
Musculature—Arm and leg showed slightly diminished power on right side. The left side stronger, though subject right-handed.
Dynamometer, right 90, 90 (two tests); and left 100, 100 (two tests).
No Romberg symptom, and no inco-ordination of upper and lower extremities.
Gait and station normal.
Slight tremor of fingers, noticeable under mental excitement. At times slight tremor of lips.
EXAMINATION OF PRESENT MENTAL STATE.
Tests for attention show normal conditions.
Tests for memory, general and special, show normal conditions.
Tests for association of ideas and words showed special bearing upon his delusional state.
Logical power good, except as limited by his delusions.
Judgment the same.
Has no "insight" as to his own mental condition.
Emotional tests show tone of feeling exalted.
Orientation correct as to time and place.
Delusions present, as subsequently set forth.
CHAPTER XVI.
FINDING OF THE ALIENISTS.
We find that John Schrank came to New York at the age of 12, and lived with his uncle and aunt as foster parents, who kept a saloon at 370 East Tenth street, New York City.
Before coming to this country he had 5 years of the public schools of his native village in Bavaria, and after arrival in this country his only schooling was such as he could obtain at night schools in New York during 3 or 4 years.
Up to this time no peculiarity had been observed in him, from any evidence available. We note the fact that he was most especially interested in history and government, as illustrated by political writings and by the Bible. He speaks frequently of his very great admiration for the character of George Washington.
At 15 or 16 years of age he became greatly interested in poetry. This perhaps corresponds to the period of development at which eccentricities are wont to appear.
He represents that in the saloon in which he worked he was chiefly engaged in supplying beer to residents of neighboring tenements; that there was no gambling or other immoral conduct practiced or encouraged in this business place. He went on for over 12 years as barkeeper. His uncle and aunt had during this time accumulated means for the purchase of a small tenement. At the death of the uncle and aunt in 1910 and 1911 the defendant came into possession of this property.
In the last year and a half has not been in any regular business or employment, and spent his time in long walks about New York and Brooklyn, during which he meditated upon poetical compositions, and political and historical questions, jotting down ideas upon loose slips of paper as they came to him, night or day, forming the basis of his poems. He spent his evenings in a saloon, retiring early. The average daily quantity of stimulants or beer taken by him was insufficient to produce intoxication. He also states that in 1902 and 1903, for a period of nearly 2 years, he drank no intoxicants at all.
He states that in 1901, between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning of the day after President McKinley's death he experienced a vivid dream, in which he appeared to be in a room with many flowers and a casket, and saw a figure sit up in the casket, which he says was the form and figure of the assassinated President McKinley, who then pointed to a corner of the room, and said, "Avenge my death." He then looked where the finger pointed and saw a form clad in a Monkish garb, and recognized the form and face of this individual as the form and face of Theodore Roosevelt.
At the time this made a strong impression, but was not dwelt upon especially except in the light of later events.
Prior to the nomination of Colonel Roosevelt for the Presidency in the year 1912, he had felt great interest in the political campaign, and had read articles expressing great bitterness toward the idea of a third term, and toward Colonel Roosevelt personally in the newspapers of New York, and after the period when the nomination of Colonel Roosevelt began to be actively agitated, meditated more deeply upon these matters. He had always studied with the greatest interest the questions of free government, as illustrated by the Declaration of Independence, and Washington's Farewell Address. In this connection, the Monroe doctrine also assumed great importance in his mind, and the converse thereof, the duty of this nation to refrain from war of conquest; and out of these meditations grew what he elaborated into his declaration as to the unwritten laws, or "The Four Pillars of our Republic," namely (1) the Third Term Tradition, (2) the Monroe Doctrine, (3) that only a Protestant by creed can become president, (4) no wars of conquest. This document, hereunto annexed as Exhibit 1, fully sets forth his views on these subjects.
These "four unwritten laws" had assumed in his mind a character of sacredness. They were "sacred traditions" to be maintained at all hazards, and, as subsequently appeared, even the hazard of life.
The following are some quotations from this document:
"Tradition is an unwritten law."
"I would doubt the right of a court to have jurisdiction over a man who had defended tradition of his country against violation."
"The oldest of these traditions is the 'third term tradition,' it has never been violated and is an effective safeguard against unscrupulous ambition, but never before has been established a test case of its inviolability as a warning to coming adventurers."
"For the first time in American history we are confronted by a man to whom practically nothing is sacred, and he pretends to stand above tradition."
"Anybody who finances a Third Term Movement should be expatriated and his wealth confiscated."
"The dangers in this campaign are these, the third termer is sure that the nomination has been stolen, and that the country and the job belongs to him, therefore, if he gets honestly defeated in November he will again yell that the crooks of both parties have stolen the election and should he carry a solid West, he and the hungry office-seekers would not hesitate to take up arms to take by force what is denied him by the people, then we face a Civil War, * * * * * * and that he who wilfully invites war deserves death. We would then be compelled to wash out the sin of violating the Third Term with the blood of our sons. Yet this is not the gravest danger we are facing. We have allowed an adventurer to circumtravel the Union with military escort with the torch of revolution in his hands to burn down the very house we live in."
"Have we learned no lesson about a one man's rule experienced in France with such disastrous results as the end of the reign of Napoleon I and Napoleon III."
"Are we trying to establish here a system like our ancestors have done in Europe, which all revolutions of a thousand years could not abolish."
"Are we overthrowing our Republic, while the heroes of the French revolutions, and the martyrs of 1848 gladly gave their lives to establish Republican institutions."
"The abolition of the Third Term tradition is the abolition of the Monroe doctrine also."
"Hardly any revolution has started without pretending that their movement was progressive."
"The prudence of our forefathers has delivered to us an equally sacred unwritten law which reads that no president should embrace another creed than Protestant, if possible, a sect of the English Church. I am a Roman Catholic. I love my religion but I hate my church as long as the Roman parish is not independent from Rome, as long as Catholic priests are prevented from getting married, as long as Rome is still more engaged in politics and accumulation of money contrary to the teachings of the Lord. The Roman Catholic Church is not the religion for a president of the United States."
"The Fourth unwritten law, which is practically supplementary to the second, we find in George Washington's Farewell Address, where he advises us to live in peace with your neighbor. We have no right to start a war of conquest."
In his examination in this connection he stated as follows: "Four-fifths of the United States would take up arms to defend the Third Term tradition. Trying to get perpetual power and dictatorship would justify killing."
He also said he would be justified to the same extent, that is, by killing, a man who would seek the presidency and was a Roman Catholic; and also for a man who would start a war for conquest; and he thought also of the possibility of foreign powers to help Roosevelt possibly to annex the Panama Canal and break down the Monroe Doctrine. He said he believed the country would be facing a civil war if Roosevelt went on as he had done.
He gives as a reason for his present attack upon Roosevelt, that he did not wish to give him (Roosevelt) an opportunity to plead that no defense of the Third Term tradition had been made in 1912 should he aspire to another term in 1916. Asked as to how he reconciled his act with the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," he replied that, "religion is the fundamental law of human order, but to kill to try and do a good thing, and to avenge McKinley's murder, justifies the killing."
The proof of his position came to him in his dream and in his vision.
"Roosevelt's ambition and conduct proves to every man that he was back of McKinley's assassination in some way or other."
The defendant says that he prayed God to find a leader among men who would take this responsibility, and he expected all along someone else would do this thing, but no one did it, and as he was a single man of 36, without a family, and thought the deed was a good deed, and it made no difference to him, he was willing to sacrifice his life for that end, even if he were torn to pieces by the mob. He therefore concluded that it was his mission, and desired to make of this a test case.
Henry F. Cochems.
(Who was in the Automobile with Col. Roosevelt when the Ex-President was Shot.)
He thinks the election returns corroborate the fact that the people have been awakened to the idea of no Third Term.
In the progress of the campaign, when the progressive movement had taken shape, and Colonel Roosevelt had been nominated as the head of a third party, and on August 7th, 1912, the dream which had come to him in 1901, as above related, began to assume more importance, and special significance in his mind. He felt extreme agitation on this subject continuously. On the morning of September 15th, 1912, the anniversary of the date of his dream in 1901, having retired as usual the night before with his manuscript by his bedside, he suddenly awakened between 1 and 2 A.M., with the completion of a poem entitled "Be a Man" uppermost in his mind.
We insert the poem at this point:
1. Be a man from early to late
When you rise in the morning
Till you go to bed
Be a man.
2. Is your country in danger
And you are called to defend
Where the battle is hottest
And death be the end
Face it and be a man.
3. When you fail in business
And your honor is at stake
When you bury all your dearest
And your heart would break
Face it and be a man.
4. But when night draws near
And you hear a knock
And a voice should whisper your
Time is up; Refuse to answer
As long as you can
Then face it and be a man.
He found his ideas were taking shape, and getting up he sat writing, when he suddenly became aware of a voice speaking in a low and sad tone, "Let no murderer occupy the presidential chair for a third term. Avenge my death!" He felt a light touch upon his left shoulder, and turning, saw the face of former President McKinley. It bore a ghostlike aspect. This experience had a decisive effect in fixing in his mind the iniquity of the third term, and from this time he questioned as to his duty in the matter, and he finally regarded this vision and its connection with the exact anniversary of the dream as a command to kill Roosevelt, and as an inspiration. When asked by us whether he considered this as imagination or as inspiration and a command from God, while showing some reluctance to claim the vision as an inspiration, he finally answered decisively that he did.
When asked whether a man had a right to take a weapon and hunt down a man who had violated tradition, he submitted his written statement in reply, which is hereto annexed as Exhibit 2, some quotations from which are as follows:
"I should say where self-sacrifice begins the power of law comes to an end, and if I knew that my death during my act would have this tradition more sacred I would be sorry that my life was spared so convinced am I of my right to act as I did that if I were ever a free man again I would at once create an Order of Tradition."
"I presume you men would declare Joan d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans insane because the Holy Virgin appeared to her in a vision."
"When we read that God had appeared to Moses in the shape of a burning thorn bush, then again as a cloud, we will find many people who doubt the appearance of God to man in human or other shape."
"Why then in cases of dire national needs should not the God appear to one of us in vision."
The defendant states that at no time and under no circumstances did he communicate to anyone his intention. In fact, he kept it as an inviolable secret and took measures to throw off the scent persons who might inquire about his leaving New York. The defendant stated in this connection that he did not wish to commit the act in New York, as it would then be claimed that he had been "hired by Wall Street" and in that way the real purpose of the act would be obscured.
CHAPTER XVII.
SCHRANK DESCRIBES SHOOTING.
(BEFORE SANITY COMMISSION.)
On September 21, 1912, he left New York City, having first borrowed $350, and purchased a 38-caliber revolver, for which he paid $14. His efforts from this time were continuous to come within shooting distance of Colonel Roosevelt. He missed him at Chattanooga and at Atlanta, and then went to Evansville, where he remained seven days awaiting Colonel Roosevelt's return to the West. He then sought to come within range of Colonel Roosevelt in Chicago, and states that he waited for him at the exit of the building, where he spoke, but found afterwards that he had left by a different exit. He then preceded him to Milwaukee, arriving here at 1 o'clock P.M. the day preceding the attack.
On the evening of the shooting Schrank arrived at the hotel, where he had learned Colonel Roosevelt would stay, in advance of the time he was expected to start for the place of meeting. When a crowd began to collect around the automobile awaiting Colonel Roosevelt at the curb, he went into the street, standing near the automobile in a line just behind the front seat on the left hand side opposite the chauffeur's seat. He says,
"Seeing him enter the automobile and just about to seat himself, I fired. I did not pick any particular spot on his body. The crowd was all around me and in front of me. The next minute I was knocked down, but was not rendered insensible, and the gun was knocked out of my hands."
The defendant insists that he said nothing during his assault. He was then dragged to the sidewalk, and getting on his feet was hurried into the hotel, and the doors were locked. Here he said nothing, and was taken by the police through the back door to police headquarters.
From the examination at police headquarters, made at 9:25 P.M., October 14, 1912, by the Chief of Police, John T. Janssen, we find that he objected to telling his name, but did so when it was insisted upon. We also find that his statements made to the police concerning his following and attempting to gain access to Colonel Roosevelt, and his visits to various localities correspond, and his explanations of his acts agree with those made to us.
Some of his statements to the Chief of Police, are as follows, as extracted from document submitted herewith, marked Exhibit 3.
Q. Why did you want to meet him?
A. Because I wanted to put him out of the way. A man that wants a third term has no right to live.
Q. That is, you wanted to kill him?
A. I did.
Q. Have you any other reason in wanting to kill him?
A. I have.
Q. What is that?
A. I had a dream several years ago that Mr. McKinley appeared to me and he told me that Mr. Roosevelt is practically his real murderer, and not this here Czolgosz.
Q. Did you know Johann Most when he was alive?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you ever hear him talk?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you ever hear Emma Goldman?
A. No, sir; I am not an anarchist or socialist or democrat or republican; I just took up the thing the way I thought it was best to do.
(It seems worth while to note that the defendant differs from many assassins of rulers or prospective rulers in having no anarchistic ideas or connections, but rather that he intended to be an upholder of established government.)
"Mr. Grant was refused" (a third term) "and he was satisfied; this man was refused and he is not satisfied; it's gone beyond limits; if he keeps on doing this after election, he can't possibly carry a solid Western state; the next thing we will have a civil war, because he will say the scoundrels and thieves and crooks stole my nomination, and now they will steal my election, and they will take up arms in all the Western states; we are facing a civil war just to keep him in a third term."
Q. Where did you get all this idea from?
A. I have been reading history all the time.
Q. What schooling did you have?
A. Well, I have attended school in the old country, and I attended night school in New York for about four winters; that's all the schooling I had.
Q. You haven't a very good education then?
A. Indeed I ain't.
Q. Have you always enjoyed good health?
A. Yes, sir; I am a healthy sane man, never been sick.
Q. Well, do you believe that that is a sane act that you committed this evening?
A. I believe that is my duty as a citizen to do, it's the duty of every citizen to do so.
Q. Well, how did you happen to get the idea that it was your duty among all the people that live in the United States?
A. I don't know, I thought maybe somebody else might do it before I got there.
Q. And you spoke to no one about your intention on all the route you took concerning this, nobody?
A. No, sir; nobody.
While in jail the prisoner prepared a written defense, which we submit herewith as Exhibit 4, and we extract certain sentences from the same, as follows:
"Gentlemen of the Jury, I appeal to you as men of honor, I greet you Americans and countrymen and fathers of sons and daughters. I wish to apologize to the community of Milwaukee for having caused on October 14th last, great excitement, bitter feeling, and expenses."
"Gentlemen of the Jury: When on September 14th last I had a vision, I looked into the dying eyes of the late President McKinley, when a voice called me to avenge his death, I was convinced that my life was coming soon to an end, and I was at once happy to know that my real mission on this earth was to die for my country and the cause of Republicanism."
"You see that I have appeared here today without assistance of a counsellor at law, without any assistance save that of God, the Almighty, who is ever with him who is deserted, because I am not here to defend myself nor my actions."
"The law I have violated for which you will punish me is not in any statute book."
"The shot at Milwaukee which created an echo in all parts of the world was not a shot fired at the citizen Roosevelt, not a shot at an ex-president, not a shot at the candidate of a so-called prog. pty. (Progressive party), not a shot to influence the pending election, not a shot to gain for me notoriety; no, it was simply to once and forever establish the fact that any man who hereafter aspires to a third presidential term will do so at the risk of his life."
"If I do not defend tradition I cannot defend the country in case of war. You may as well send every patriot to prison."
(As showing the erratic reasoning of the defendant, the following passage, intimating that the assassination of President McKinley was a part of a conspiracy to elevate Colonel Roosevelt to a permanent control of the destinies of the United States, we quote further:)
"Political murders have occurred quite often, committed by some power that works in the dark and only too frequently of late the assassin was classed as an anarchist, but the real instigators could never be brought to justice. Whoever the direct murderer of President McKinley has been it could never be proven that he has ever been affiliated with any anarchistic or similar society, but we may well conclude that the man who in years after willingly violated the third unwritten law of the country whenever he thought it profitable to change his creed while president, perhaps to the mother of monarchies."
(From the remarks of the prisoner in our examination of him, we find by "the mother of monarchies" that he refers to the Roman Catholic Church.)
We further quote:
"Such was his fear that his machine, built up in 7½ years will be destroyed over night, that he threatened not to leave the chair unless he were allowed to nominate his successor."
"Gentlemen of the jury: The 3t (third termer) 'never again will I run for pres.' (president) has a parallel in the history of Rome. Whoever read the history of Julius Caesar knows that this smart politician while elected dictator managed to become so popular with the people that they offered him the kingly crown, but J. Caesar knew that he had to bide his time, that the rest of Senators know of his ambition, and after refusing three times he knew they would offer it to him a fourth time, and when then he accepted it he was murdered for ambition's sake."
"He" (Colonel Roosevelt) "was ambitiously waiting for the Government at Washington to start a military intervention in Mexico, but the leaders of the Republican party feared that the 3t (third termer) would muster an army of volunteer Rough Riders and return at election as the conquering hero."
"The danger even more grave than civil war is the possibility of intervention of foreign powers, who may help the 3t (third termer) in order to keep the Union disunited and separated." * * * * * *
"We would at once realize that we are surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves ready to destroy this hated Republic, ready to destroy Monroe Doctrine, ready to annex the Panama Canal and the great land of the brave and free, the home many millions free people, the dream of all heroes and martyrs for political freedom to 1848 would have ceased to be owing to the ambitions of one man, and one man's rule. I hope that the shot at Milwaukee has awakened the patriotism of the American nation."
"I have been accused of having selected a state where capital punishment is abolished. I would say that I did not know the laws of any state I travelled through. It would be ridiculous to fear death after the act as I expected to die during the act, and not live to tell the story, and if I knew that my death would have made the third term tradition more sacred, I am sorry I could not die for my country."
"Now, Honorable Men of the Jury, I wish to say no more, in the name of God go and do your duty, and only countries who ask admission by popular vote and accept the popular vote never wage a war of conquest murder for to steal abolishes opportunity for ambitious adv. (adventurers).
"All political adventurers and military leaders have adopted the career of conquering heroes wholesale murder, wholesale robbers called national aggrandizement. Prison for me is like martyrdom to me, like going to war. Before me is the spirit of George Washington, behind me, that of McKinley."
(The last sentence the prisoner explained, was written hastily, and he expected to revise it.)
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
021
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONCLUSION OF COMMISSION.
From the testimony of the jailor who had been in charge from the date of Schrank's arrest to the present date, we learn that he was a quiet, pleasant man, well-behaved in all respects, and fastidious as to dress and food, uniformly cheerful and happy. It was noticeable that he showed much less concern or anxiety as to his fate than the average prisoner. This is also corroborated by the examination of a detective concerned in his arrest.
The impression we have derived from the demeanor of the prisoner in our several examinations is that he is truthful in his statements and shows no desire to conceal anything. He undoubtedly has an elevated idea of his importance, but is free from bombast. In the course of his examination when the question of his views or opinions about himself came up he drew from his pocket the document herewith submitted as Exhibit 4, which he says he prepared as a defense, saying: "Perhaps I can help you, Gentlemen." He has shown every disposition to assist us in arriving at facts. He shows a knowledge and command of the English language unusual in a foreigner who has only had very limited schooling. He is self-confident, profoundly self-satisfied; is dignified, fearless, courteous and kindly. He shows a sense of humor and is cheerful and calm under circumstances that severely test those qualities. Beneath all of this is an air which is illustrated by his concluding sentence, that the spirit of George Washington is before him, that of McKinley behind him. He gives the impression that he feels himself to be an instrument in the hands of God, and that he is one of the band of historic heroes paralleled by such characters as Joan d'Arc and other saviours of nations. He undoubtedly considers himself a man of heroic mold. At no time did he express or exhibit remorse for his act.
SUMMARY.
We have limited the scope of our investigations to the questions that we have been asked to determine and summarize briefly: John Schrank, age 36 years, single, barkeeper and saloon keeper, and of limited educational opportunities, with insane heredity (see Exhibit 5), was born in Bavaria, on March 5, 1876, and came to this country twelve years later. Apparently he developed normally, but early in life showed a particular fondness for the study of the histories of this and other countries, and also for the composition of poetry. In the course of his studies of history, and especially of the Constitution of the United States, and of Washington's Farewell Address, he developed the belief that this Republic is based upon the foundation of four unwritten laws, to which he also refers as the "Four Sacred Traditions," as is more fully set forth in the preceding report.
In 1901 he had a very vivid dream, which at that time he recognized as only a dream, the memory of which has frequently recurred to him ever since. In the course of a pre-convention campaign, the belief that the four unwritten laws or the "Four Sacred Traditions" are in danger comes to him, and later, upon the nomination of a presidential candidate by the Progressive Party, he begins to attach particular significance to the dream he had in 1901. He meditates deeply upon this and, in the course of a few weeks there appears to him a vision accompanied by a voice which, in effect, commands the killing of the man through whose acts and machinations he believes the sacred traditions to be endangered, and who, he also believes is, through a conspiracy, concerned in the assassination of a former president. He continues to ponder upon the subjects set forth, awaiting the appearance of a person who would carry out the act suggested by the vision, but shortly arrives at the conclusion that he, and not someone else, is the chosen instrument. He at once sets forth to accomplish his mission, following his victim until he finally comes up with him.
During his examination as to his sanity, he conducts himself in perfect accord with his beliefs, and expresses a regret at not having died at the hands of the mob if such a result would have proven of benefit to his chosen country.
CHAPTER XIX.
SCHRANK DISCUSSES VISIONS.
(BY JOHN FLAMMANG SCHRANK.)
Has a man a right to take a weapon and hunt down a man who has violated tradition? In answer to this I would like to ask the gentleman the following question. How and by what means would you expect to withhold from a man that right. You know that according to the old Roman law the atonement for the taking of a life has been the giving of a life, and to this day our power of state with the laws and instruments for punishment is limited to the taking of man's life there is no severer penalty than death sentence. Now then when a man concludes to take a weapon and hunt down another man and he then willingly sacrifices his own life in defense we say of tradition, does such man then not willingly give what otherwise the law could take from him, is then not the right with him, I should say where self-sacrifice begins to power of law comes to an end and if I knew that my death during my act would have this tradition more sacred.
I would be sorry that my life was spared, so convinced am I of my act to act as I did, that if I were ever a free man again I would at once create an order of tradition sole purpose to defend it.
You gentlemen claim that you would think a man insane, that could have such things as a vision appear to him. There might be exceptions, but I disagree with you in making this the rule. Then I presume you men would declare Joan d'Arc the Maid of Orleans insane because the Holy Virgin appeared her in a vision. France as a nation passed in those days through a grave trial, her very existence as a nation was at stake. To our shame we must admit that while we prosper and are far from danger we hardly ever give it a thought, that all our comfort is granted to us by God the Almighty, and it is an old saying that when the danger is over the saints are mocked. But in days of hard stress, dire need and want, we at once knew that we are indebted to a power above us, we at once realize that we are sinners, we feel that our good spirit is a small particle to the Holy Spirit God that we are helpless children and related to the good father God. We then pray with innermost contrition that God may forgive, that God may enlighten one of us that God may find a leader among us.
And such is the mercy of God that for the repentance of one man for the acknowledgement for one good deed, God will forgive the sins of a whole nation. When we read about the destruction of Sodom Gomorrha, when Lot asked the Lord, wouldst Thou spare these cities if there were ten honorable and just men within its walls and God answered, if I could find one honorable and just man I would spare that people.
We may conclude from these words that God had long before this forsaken them when a nation is confronted with grave trials it is then nearing the boundary line of God's patience, no doubt the people of Sodom had arrived there and God had weighed their deeds and found them too light he would not enlighten one of them to be a leader and who would impress upon his people to come back to the safe avenue of God and leave the road of destruction. In our health and prosperity we are too easily over-confident and self-possessed when we read that God had appeared to Moses in the shape of a burning thorn bush, then again as a cloud, we will find many people who doubt the appearance of God to man in human or other shape. When I see a tree growing out of rocks it appears to me as if God spoke to me that he wants all people to live a temperate life as it requires but little to live and proper as is shown in that tree. Now then does God appear to us in our journey through this life. Has he ever appeared to you. Has there never been a time when you would say, O what a lucky dog I was that I did not do this or that. Have you ever refused for some reason an invitation to a joy ride, a pleasure trip or others, and after you would find one or the other of your friends killed while you escaped. Everyone of us is confronted at once in life with a grave trial which requires all the good in you to overcome temptation and find the right way out of it, is not this the secret assistance of God the Almighty when you appeal to Him and He weighs your deeds and either enlightens you or punishes Science discoveries. When then in cases of dire national needs should not God appear to one of us in vision the greatest injustice.
(Schrank's copy is followed closely in all presented here from his pen.)
ALIENISTS' CONCLUSIONS.
Our conclusions are as follows:
First—John Schrank is suffering from insane delusions, grandiose in character, and of the systematized variety.
Second—In our opinion he is insane at the present time.
Third—On account of the connection existing between his delusions and the act with which he stands charged, we are of the opinion that he is unable to confer intelligently with counsel or to conduct his defense.
Dated, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nov. 22nd, 1912.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Dewey, M. D.,
Chairman.
W. F. Becker, M. D.
D. W. Harrington, M. D.
Frank Studley, M. D.
Wm. F. Wegge, M. D.
Commissioners.
CHAPTER XX.
SCHRANK'S DEFENSE.
John Flammang Schrank expected to conduct his own defense before a jury, if tried for his assault upon ex-President Roosevelt.
This is demonstrated by the fact that he had prepared a defense to be read to the jury. In this defense he alluded to the fact that he "is not represented by counsel."
This defense is remarkable in that it shows clearly the thought which overcame his mental strength.
Schrank's defense is presented as he wrote it, with the exception of two or three corrections to enable readers to realize what Schrank is trying to say. The defense was prepared by Schrank in the county jail. He was writing it when it was reported that he was writing verse. The defense follows:
Gentlemen of the jury: I appeal to you as men of honor. I greet you Americans and countrymen and fathers of sons and daughters. I wish to apologize to the community of Milwaukee for having caused on October 14 last great excitement, most bitter feeling and expenses. I wish to apologize to you honorable men of the jury that I am causing to you this day unpleasantness in asking you to pass a verdict in a matter which should have better been tried by a higher than earthly court.
Gentlemen of the jury, when on September 14 last during a vision I looked into the dying eyes of the late President McKinley, when a voice called me to avenge his death, I was convinced that my life was coming soon to an end, and I was at once happy to know that my real mission on this earth was to die for my country and the cause of Republicanism.
Gentlemen of the jury, you see that I have appeared here today without the assistance of a counsellor at law, without any assistance save that of God the Almighty, who is ever with him who is deserted, because I am not here to defend myself nor my actions. I am here today to defend the spirit of forefathers with words what I have defended with the weapon in my hand, that is the tradition of the four unwritten laws of this country. Tradition is above written statute, amended and ineffective. Tradition is sacred and inviolable, irrevocable. Tradition makes us a distinct nation. Order of tradition. The law I have violated for which you will punish me is not in any statute book. Gentlemen of the jury, the shot at Milwaukee, which created an echo in all parts of the world, was not a shot fired at the citizen Roosevelt, not a shot at an ex-President, not a shot at the candidate of a so-called Progressive party, not a shot to influence the pending election, not a shot to gain for me notoriety. No, it was simply to once and forever establish the fact that any man who hereafter aspires to a third presidential term, will do so at the risk of his life. If I cannot defend tradition I cannot defend the country in case of war. You may as well send every patriot to prison. It was to establish a precedent for the third term tradition, which for the first time in the history of the United States one man dared to challenge and to violate.
Gentlemen of the jury, the third term tradition is the most sacred, because it has been established by the greatest champion of liberty in all ages past and to come by our first President, George Washington, when he modestly declined a third term nomination by saying that two terms are enough for the best of Presidents. The two great American political parties have since guarded this tradition most jealously, have regarded it as a safeguard against the ambitions of probable adventurers. The great Republican party, the party of an Abe Lincoln, the party of the new U. S., that party as a medium between government and the people, the party to which we are greatly indebted for our achievements and our greatness among the family of nations, it was that party that was destined to give birth to and to nurse the first offender of that tradition, who gradually proved to be the evil spirit of the country, and that great party which was born during a national crisis and which had bravely faced and overcome many a grave trial, nobly faced the coming storm and survived it with its honor unimpaired.
Gentlemen of the jury, when we inquire into the past of that man, we will find that his ambitious plans have all been filed and laid down long before he has been President. All doubt that these plans were towards establishing at the least a perpetual presidency in these United States have been removed during last summer, when a certain senator unearthed from within the library of the white house a written document deposited there during the third termer's presidency. This document was an order for repairing to be done in the white house, and this order closed with the following words: "These alterations should be done, to last during my lifetime." When the third termer was informed of the finding of this document, he admitted and absorbed the all-important matter by simply saying: "Some people have no more brains than guinea pigs."
Gentlemen of the jury, his rough rider masquerade during the Spanish-American war was his first important step towards his goal, it gained for him the governorship of the Empire state and that important office made him an influential factor in the councils of the Republican party. During his term as secretary of the navy he gained the popularity among the men in that branch of the mailed fist of the country by increasing the salaries of those men, who might some day be of vital benefit to his cause. The Republican leaders of those days were soon aware of the dangerous ambitions of this man and also knew that this man would never be safe enough to fill the highest office of the nation, for this reason these men thought it wise to make him vice-Presidential candidate on the same ticket with McKinley, for it must not be new to you that the office of a vice-President has always been regarded as the suicide to a man's political ambitions. But, gentlemen of the jury, now came the time when a man's ambitions blindfolded him to all reason. The desire to overcome the obstacle robbed him of his sane judgment, and in such a case the spoiler invites himself, political murders have occurred quite often, committed by some power that works in the dark and only too frequently of late the assassin was classed as an anarchist, but the real instigators could never be brought before justice. Whoever the direct murderer of McKinley has been it could never be proven that he has ever been affiliated with any anarchistic or similar society, but we may well conclude that the man who in years after so willingly violated the first unwritten law, which is the third term tradition, may have readily promised to violate the third unwritten law of the country whenever he thought it profitable to change his creed while president, perhaps to the mother of monarchies.
Gentlemen of the jury, a man's first presidential term begins when he takes the oath of office and constitutes a full term if it will only last twenty-four hours after oath and a man's third term is his third when he seeks it or is given to him twenty years or more after his second. When Roosevelt took the oath of office at McKinley's departure, he had ceased to be a Republican. He at once began to build a political machine of his own. It was then in fact that his one man party so-called Progressive party was born, parts of which we find later in the insurgents, handicapping Mr. Taft wherever they could. Later in August at the convention of treason he took the material where and as he found we see him trying hard to bring the money power of the union into his service, we find him extorting large sums for his political campaigns from the so-called despisable trusts, since then we became accustomed to look upon every man of wealth and the great industrials corporations who have been and are today of incalculable value and benefit to our national welfare, as nothing more or less than contemptible criminals, whom he offended in the most profane language during his crusade against them, if they refused to become a part of his machine. At the decline of his second term the remainder of the Republican party, those who had not been absorbed by "my policies" could no longer be in doubt as to the third termer's real intentions, and for the first time the third termer realized the magnitude and importance of the third term tradition and most men of influence in those used their power to scare him out of office at the same time comforting him with the fairy tale that if not succeeded by two consecutive terms another term would not be a third term but such was his fear that his machine built up in seven and a half years would be destroyed over night, that he threatened not to leave the chair unless he were allowed to nominate his successor.
Gentlemen of the jury, now comes the time when the third termer committed his second crime against friends, party, nation and republic. With his innermost conviction that his successor would be incompetent, incapable and that he would commit so many blunders while in office that at the expiration of his term the people would unanimously demand the renomination of the third termer, he thought to remove that obstacle of the third termer and to make it appear that he was not ambitious and that a renomination would have to be forced upon him, he solemnly declared, "Never again will I run for president," but again ambition had blindfolded him and robbed him of his judgment of men in selecting William H. Taft as his successor although his most intimate friend Mr. Taft was aware of his oath of office and his duties toward the nation, there never was a whiter man in the white house and no one ever more deserved a re-election as an honor for his services to the country against the revolutionary machine of the third termer in the house and senate than William H. Taft.
Gentlemen of the jury, the third term, "never again will I run for president," has a parallel in the history of Rome. Whoever read the history of Julius Caesar, knows that this smart politician, while elected dictator, managed to become so popular with the people that they offered him the kingly crown, but Julius Caesar knew that he had to bide his time, that the rest of senators knew of his ambition, and after refusing three times, he knew they would offer it to him a fourth time, and when then he accepted it, he was murdered for ambition sake. Never again will I run for president and under no circumstances, said this man, and four years later we find him eagerly seeking renomination at Chicago, to his friends, who advise him to run, he didn't have the heart to tell that if he were not a man of word he could never be a man of honor, but what shame lies in between his never again and his profane declaration that the crooks, thieves, scoundrels and liars had stolen the nomination from him, although he knew that the party could not give him what they had a third term not to give for the great Republican party determined to sooner go down to defeat than to violate the third term yet.
Gentlemen of the jury, the third termer had license to create a new party and be the power behind the throne and perhaps lead his party to victory. But having been deceived by the selection of his successor and having removed the mask he determined to insist on a third term. Had we lived in a time of panic, general disorder, strikes with armies of unemployed, most likely the third termer would have an easy walkin. He was anxious waiting for the government at Washington to start military intervention in Mexico, but the leaders of the Republican party feared that the third termer would muster an army of volunteer rough riders and return at election as the conquering hero.
Gentlemen of the jury, the danger of the third termer was less in his probable election than in his sure but close defeat. The man who cried of the theft at Chicago would never submit to the verdict on November 5, however honest it may be; he would again yell robbery, and if he carried a solid west as was then expected, he would give way to his fighting nature and try to take the presidency on the battlefield and so invite civil war, yet, Ab. Lincoln said that war is hell, and that he who wilfully invites war deserves death. Do we realize the horrors of civil war; are we willing to wash out the sin of violating the third term with the blood of our sons imagine torn from home, family and parents, from prosperity to dire want in order to place a man to the presidency he is legitimately not entitled to? Yet, gentlemen of the jury, the United States may still be able to subdue the rebels the danger the more grave than even civil war is the possibility of intervention by foreign powers, who may help the third termer in order to keep the union disunited and separated for we must know that our strength is not in our army and navy, money power, our strength is in our union, we would at once realize that we are surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves ready to destroy this hated republic, ready to destroy Monroe doctrine, ready to annex the Panama canal and the great land of the brave and free, the home many millions free people, the dream of all heroes and martyrs for political freedom to 1848 would have ceased to be owing to the ambitions of one man and one man's rule.
I hope that the shot at Milwaukee has awakened the patriotism of the American nation, that it has opened their eyes to the real danger and shown them the only safe way out of it as is proven by election returns in the great Democratic party the north, south, east and west is once more and more solidly united and proudly can we prove to the nations of the world that the spirit of 1776 is still alive and shall never die, and that self-government is an established fact and a success.
I have been accused of having selected a state where capital punishment is abolished. I would say that I did not know the laws of any state I traveled through, it would be ridiculous for me to fear death after the act, as I expected to die during the act and not live to tell the story and if I knew that my death would have made the third term tradition more sacred, I am sorry I could not die for my country.
Now, honorable men of the jury, I wish to say no more, in the name of God, go and do your duty, and only countries who ask admission by popular vote and accept the popular vote never wage a war of conquest, murder for to steal abolishes opportunity for ambitious adventurers, for all political adventurers and military leaders have adopted the career of conquering heroes, wholesale murder, wholesale robbers called national aggrandizement. Prison for me is like martyrdom to me, like going to war.
Before me is the spirit of George Washington, behind me that of McKinley.
CHAPTER XXII.
UNUSUAL COURT PRECEDENT.
Judge August C. Backus' method of conducting the Schrank case has established a precedent for such cases, and the action of the court in establishing a new form of procedure has met with favorable comment on the part of lawyers, alienists, court officials and editors all over the world.
Instructing the commission of five alienists in its duties Judge Backus said:
Gentlemen of the Commission:
"You have been appointed as an impartial commission to examine into the present mental condition of the defendant John Schrank, who is charged with the crime of assault with intent to kill and murder Theodore Roosevelt, with a loaded revolver, on the 14th day of October, 1912, in the city and county of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin.
"The court in this proceeding will finally determine the issue. I have decided to take this method of procedure instead of a jury trial, because as a rule in trials by jury the case resolves itself into a battle of medical experts, and in my experience I have never witnessed a case where the testimony of the experts on one side was not directly contradicted by the testimony of as many or more experts on the other side. Where men especially trained in mental and nervous diseases disagree, how can it be expected that a jury of twelve laymen should agree? Such testimony has been very unsatisfactory to the jury and to the court, and generally very expensive to the community.
James G. Flanders
James G. Flanders,
Attorney for Schrank.
"Bear in mind, gentlemen, that your appointment has not been suggested by either counsel for the state or for the defendant, or by any other party or, source directly or indirectly interested in this inquisition. You are the court's commission, and you must enter upon your duties free from any bias or prejudice, if any there be. You should assume your duties, and I know you will, with the highest motives in seeking the truth, and then pronounce your judgment without regard to the effect it may have upon the state or upon the defendant; in other words, in your inquiry and deliberation you are placed on the same plane as the judge.
"If any person seeks to influence you or talks to you as a commission, or to any member of the commission, who is not duly requested to appear before you, report him to the court so that an order to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt may issue.
"If there be any witnesses you desire, the court will command their attendance. The court will grant you the services of a phonographic reporter so that everything that is said and done may appear of record.
"This commission may now retire, select a moderator and proceed with the inquiry.
"Now, gentlemen, perform your duties fairly and impartially and render such findings to the court as your consciences and your judgments approve.
"The question for your determination is, 'Is the defendant John Schrank sane or insane at the present time?'"
Editorial comment from three newspapers is herewith presented as showing the general trend of comment on the course followed by Judge Backus:
The Milwaukee Free Press said:
"The findings of the alienists appointed by Judge Backus to determine the mental condition of Schrank were foreseen. There has been little doubt at any time of the derangement of that unfortunate man. This fact, however, does not detract from appreciation of the excellent and novel course pursued by Judge Backus in taking advantage of the statute that permitted him to submit the question of Schrank's sanity to a body of alienists appointed by himself instead of leaving the question to a jury at the tender mercy of alienists employed alike by state and defense.
"The judge justified his procedure in these words, when instructing the examining physicians:
"'I have decided to take this method of procedure instead of a jury trial, because as a rule in trials by jury the case resolves itself into a battle of medical experts, and in my experience I have never witnessed a case where the testimony of the experts on one side was not directly contradicted by the testimony of as many or more experts on the other side. Where men specially trained in mental and nervous diseases disagree, how can it be expected that a jury of twelve laymen should agree? Such testimony has been very unsatisfactory to the jury and to the court, and generally very expensive to the community.'"
"Worse than that. It has been a scandal to the medical profession, a source of travesty to judicial procedure and all too often a means of defeating the ends of justice.
"The very course pursued by Judge Backus was advocated by President Gregory of the American Bar association not very long ago, and the outcome in this instance at least is such as to recommend its adoption by the bench wherever the statutes permit."
The Chicago Record-Herald said:
"It is notorious that 'expert testimony' is too often confused and confusing testimony which jurors and judges feel themselves bound to disregard in favor of mere horse sense. The stated experts are matched or overmatched by the experts for the defense, and the conflict of 'scientific' testimony assumes in many cases the proportions of a public scandal.
"Hence the 'Wisconsin idea' as applied by Judge Backus of Milwaukee, who is presiding over the trial of John Schrank, is an admirable one. Under a statute of Wisconsin a judge may summon a certain number of experts and make them officers of the court. They testify as such officers, and presumably the state pays them reasonable fees. Under such a plan as this there is no temptation to strain science in the interest of a long purse, and impartial opinions is likely to be the rule.
"Statutes similar to that of Wisconsin are needed in all other states. 'Expert testimony' has long been a byword and reproach. Of course, under Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence no defendant can be deprived of the right to call witnesses of his own choosing, and after all a medical expert is only a witness who gives opinions instead of facts. Still, a law which authorizes the court to call truly impartial experts would not seem to be 'unconstitutional.' It is certainly not unfair or unreasonable from the lay point of view."
The Saturday Night of Toronto, Ont., said:
"In the stress attending on matters of greater moment which have been occupying the attention of the daily press of late, the judicial wisdom of Mr. A. C. Backus, municipal judge of the city of Milwaukee, charged with the task of trying John Schrank, the man who attempted to slay Col. Roosevelt, has been overlooked.
"Nevertheless, he established a precedent with regard to the trial of prisoners where insanity is the only defense, that should be copied not only by every state of the American Union, but by every province of Canada.
"It was not generally known that the laws of the state of Wisconsin gave a presiding justice the plenary powers he has exercised, but every good judge who has presided over cases where alienists have been employed to furnish testimony must have yearned for similar authority.
"In the Schrank case Judge Backus decided to eliminate all direct testimony by alienists, and to constitute such experts into an auxiliary court who should co-operate with him in the final judgment of the case.
"His auxiliary, consisting of five physicians, was directed to elect a moderator who would preside over their deliberations and decide the issues of sanity or insanity in case of a deadlock.
"It would be difficult to say what objection could be taken to this system in any case where alienists are subpoenaed. It is even possible that by carefully protecting the rights of the prisoner the same system could be worked out in any case where medical testimony beyond the mere proving of the crime is required. In many murder cases physicians have been heard swearing to contrary positions until the jurors, disgusted with the confusion of the testimony, have simply thrown up their hands, neglected their duty to consider the reasonable facts of the case, and allowed murderers to go free.
"Judge Backus has taken a forward step in the administration of justice on this continent, and it is to be trusted that the effects of it will be far-reaching."
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
The oldest known appearance of the name of Montenegro dates back to 1053. In a papal epistle written on November 9th, the name Montenegro, meaning the area of the region of the state of Duklja or the Slavic Kingdom is mentioned. In its Slavic, Cyrillic form, the name Crna Gora was first mentioned in King Milutin’s Charter of 1276, meaning Black Hills or Black Mountains.
There are several civilisation layers from prehistoric and pre-Slavic times in Montenegro. Archaeological finds from the Red Cave, the Odmut cave and other localities prove the existence of human settlements in these parts dating back to 180,000 years ago. Prehistoric periods in Montenegro are represented from finds from the stone, the bronze and iron ages. Favourable geographic and climate conditions attracted various peoples to settle and live and leave traces in these parts. According to archaeological and historical sources, in the pre-Slavic times the coastal region of Montenegro was first settled by the Greeks, then the Illyrians, and in the interior, the Docleats and the Autariats. Their state was at its peak in the middle of the third century B.C., and it dwindled between 168 and 167 B.C. Coming under Roman rule, the Illyrians were exposed to strong Romanisation. The remains of the Illyrian and Roman arts are numerous, especially at the seaside. Duklja (Duklea) was the most influential town in central Montenegro in the Roman period, while in the north it was the Roman settlement Komine close to Pljevlja.
By the end of the fourth century, a separate province Prevalitana, with Skadar as its centre, was formed out of Dalmatia. According to written sources, there was an Archbishopric there as early as 343, or perhaps even earlier. Montenegro is heir to a rich treasure of spiritual and material culture from the early stages of its history. After the division of the Roman Empire, the territory of modern Montenegro remained under Byzantine rule. In the 6th and 7th centuries, the Avars and Slavs fiercely broke into Montenegrin area. The Slavs then started settling the Balkans which caused great ethnic changes and a re-composition of the whole peninsular. The forefathers of modern Montenegrins used to live in the Elbe valley (eastern Germany), and they originate from the Slavic union of tribes called Veleti (Ljutici) and partly Obodriti. They settled the areas of the Roman province Prevalitana and formed their skavinija within the east Roman Empire – Byzantium. The Byzantine sources record them mostly as Dukljans. The new coming Slavs accepted the name of Duklja, a part of Prevalis named after the antique Roman town of the same name. In the late 12th century the Roman name of Duklja was gradually replaced by the Slavic name of the river Zeta (meaning fruitful land). The name Montenegro was adopted for the same state the second half of the fifteenth century.
The first Slavic ruler of Duklja mentioned in written sources was Archon Petar (ninth century). In his Regnum Sclavorum (Kingdom of Slavs) – a blend of legends and history, chronicler and priest Pop Dukljanin lists as many as 28 kings from Archon Petar until the end of independence of Duklja-Zeta. The history and the legends especially single out Prince Vladimir Dukljanski, (997-1016), Petrislav’s son. He was married to Kosara, the daughter of the Macedonian Emperor Samuilo. Betrayed by his brother-in-law Emperor Vladislav, Prince Vladimir was killed and proclaimed a saint. His successor Prince Stefan Vojislav (1016-1043), after winning a battle against the Byzantine army, managed to render his state independent, which was recognised by Byzantium itself. Vojislav’s rule was recognised by Raska, Hum and Bosnia and established the dynasty of Vojislavljevic’s. Stefan Vojislav’s son Mihailo Vojislavljevic was the first crowned King of Duklja. According to historical sources, before him there were eight, and after him twelve rulers of Duklja – Zeta. He received the insignia of royal power from Pop Gregory VII in 1077. Under King Mihailo’s rule Duklja received the conformation of international recognition and grew substantially becoming a military power. His son King Konstantin Bodin (1081/2-1101) further consolidated and strengthened the kingdom and acquired new territories. Bodin was anointed emperor by the Macedonians in Prizen, in gratitude for his help in their struggle against Byzantium.
The Archbishop of Duklja grew stronger along with the strengthening of state power, and the range of jurisdiction expanded. After King Bodin, the state became weaker, grew smaller and began to break up. During the 173 years of its existence, a specific church developed, along with a distinctive culture. Duklja was conquered in 1189 by the great prefect of Raska, Stefan Nemanja, with the support and help of Byzantium. From that time, until 1360, Duklja – Zeta was part of the state ruled by the Nemanjic dynasty, within which it managed to preserve a high level of autonomy. Sava Nemanjic established the Orthodox Bishopric of Zeta in 1219. Some think this happened in Prevlaka, and the others that it could have been somewhere near Podgorica.
After 1360, under the dynasty of Balsics, the rebellious Zeta – a state within a state, recognised its autonomy, which lasted, with shorter interruptions, from 1360 until 1421. In these times the interests of the Venetian Republic and the Serbian state strongly intertwined in this area. The founder of the dynasty was Djuradj Balsic I, and his successors were Balsa II, Djuradj Stracimirovic II and Balsa III. The Archbishopric of Zeta grew stronger and became a significant factor in the society.
The third Montenegrin dynasty is the Crnojevic dynasty (1421-1496). Under the pressure from Turkey, Venice, Herzegovina and the Serbian state territory grew smaller. The Crnojevic dynasty managed to preserve and fought fierce battles, turning to the Venetian Republic in fear of the Turkish assault. At the same time they resisted the spread of Catholicism and attempt to submit them to papal authority. Under this dynasty in Montenegro, great care was taken of churches and monasteries, which were aided and granted estates. The Bishopric of Zeta became the Montenegrin Metropolitan. Although this whole dynasty had a major role in maintaining the country, it is Ivan and his son Djurdje Crnojevic that made a particular historical contribution to Zeta – Montenegro. Having lost Podgorica (1474) and Skadar (1479), and having renewed the alliance with the Venetians, Ivan tried to mobilise the western catholic countries against Turkey, which was taking Montenegrin territory bit by bit. Retreating before the great power, Ivan moved the capital and the seat of the Metropolitan from Zabljak to Obod and then to Cetinje (1482). There he erected a palace and a monastery. His son and heir Djurdje purchased a printing press in Venice, only several decades after Johan Gutenberg invented typography and the printing press, and brought it to the Slavic south for the first time. The first printed books (the Okoih, a psalter and prayer book, among others) were the last form of weaponry defending Montenegrin spirituality and liberty. Djurdje found refuge in Venice, and Montenegro fell under Turkish domination in 1496. The country assembly, the metropolitan, the chieftains and the people remained in the part of Montenegro around the foothills of Lovcen. In the final phase of the Crnojevic dynasty, humanist and renaissance influences are apparent in culture primarily on the coast, but also in Cetinje. Although the rest of Montenegro fell under Turkish control, The Montenegrin area around Mt. Lovcen, as the only reminder of a century old state, became the nucleus of the state and national identity in days to come – of a new Montenegro.
In the Turkish period, Montenegro was organised on the principles of clan society, ruled by the General-Montenegrin and Montenegrin chieftains Assembly presided over by the metropolitan Bishops. The Bishops were elected from different clans at the meetings of the assembly. From 1499 to 1697 this title was not hereditary. Only from Bishop Danilo of the family Petrovic Njegos did the theocracy become hereditary. Certain elements of statehood remained, although the medieval tradition was on the wane. Under Turkish rule Montenegro gained a special status and great privileges. Montenegrin autonomy was based on tax and other privileges. Apart from Cetinje, Montenegro had no towns in the Turkish period and hence it depended on trade in the surrounding area. The Montenegrin Metropolitan was the spiritual foundation of the Montenegrin clans and society in general, and the General-Montenegrin assembly represented the main institution of clannish and military democracy, functioning as the political, national and supra-tribal court of justice. Along with the bishop, it was instrumental in the establishment of the union of clans as a first step in the restoration of centralised state governance. From 1496 until 1697 there were 18 Bishops from various clans.
The Petrovics were the fourth Montenegrin dynasty, particularly significant for the survival and the historical fate of Montenegro and its overall development from the end of the seventeenth century until 1918. This dynasty was founded by Danilo Scepcev Petrovic. He took the bishops seat after Sulejman Pasha of Skodar sacked and ruined the Crnojevic monastery in 1692. The young bishop built both the monastery and the state – the new Montenegro. He took a more resolute and firm attitude towards Turkey. His majesty combined the power of an ecclesiastical and state leader. He won a battle against the great Turkish army at Carev Laz in 1712. In 1711 he established connection with Russia, which then became a Montenegrin protector and supporter for the next two hundred years. In 1717, because the coast had come under the spiritual authority of Montenegro, a concession was made to Venice establishing a governorship that held mostly by the Radonjic family from Njegusi, until as late as 1830. In times of disorder, Bishop Danilo tried to bring the country under greater control. The Country Court, established in 1713, had twelve members and adjudicated on conflicts between the clans and other significant issues. Bishop Sava Petrovic Njegos (1735-1781) succeeded his uncle and helped Russia and Austria in their wars against Turkey. He travelled to Russia and received from the Holy Russian Synod recognition for the autocephalous Montenegrin and Littoral Metropolitan. Bishop Vasilije Petrovic Njegos (1750-1766) was Bishop Sava’s nephew and assistant, and he became bishop in Pec. The Serbian Metropolitan called him “the Metropolitan of the Principality of Montenegro”. He was a visionary and very energetic, resolute, active, fierce and dauntless. He ruled together with his uncle as the “second Bishop”, but in reality he made the main decisions and was the carrier of the country’s internal and foreign policies. He wrote the first History of Montenegro in 1754. He died in Petersburg and was buried there, next to Suvorov.
The self-styled Scepan Mali, a person of unknown origin, suddenly appeared in Montenegro in 1767 during the rule of Bishop Sava Petrovic, and falsely presented himself as the Russian Czar Petar III. He imposed himself upon the Montenegrins as their lay ruler. During his short rule he handles state affairs very successfully, while the Bishop took care of ecclesiastical matters, especially after the Patriarchy of Pec when the Montenegrin metropolitan resumed functioning as an independent church. Scepan Mali introduced order into the country, he founded a court consisting of 20 members as well as an armed unit which enforced the courts decisions. This angered the Turks and the Venetians and Scepan Mali was assassinated in 1773. After his and Bishop Sava’s death, metropolitan Arsenije Plamenac (1781-1784), the bishop’s nephew, ruled in Montenegro for a short time.
In 1784 the General Montenegrin Assembly chose archimandrite Petar I Petrovic Njegos (1784-1830) as the Montenegrin bishop. He is undoubtedly, the greatest – the most important personality in Montenegrin history. He became bishop in Sremski Kolovci and went to Russia. With his victories in the battles of Krusi and Marinici in 1796 he steadied the basis of the Montenegrin state and incorporated Brda (the Hills) into Montenegro. Petar I was outstandingly honest and gifted. He was not only a gifted spiritual leader, but was also an outstanding statesman, military leader, legislator, thinker, diplomat, visionary and writer. He wrote Restraint (Stega) in 1796 and the General Code of Montenegro and Brda (1798 and 1803), known as the code of Petar I. He established organs of central authority – the senate and the Kulak. He was successful in combat against Napoleons in the Boka Kotorska gulf (1806-1813) and during the short union between Montenegro and Boka Kotorska (1813-1814) he was the head of the government. In his political visions and plans he worked on the idea of creating a Slavic-Serb empire on the territory of the medieval Kingdom of Slavs. The people considered him a saint during his lifetime, and his heir Petar II proclaimed his a saint according to church canons in 1834 (Saint Petar of Cetinje).
Petar II Petrovic Njegos (1830-1851) continued with his uncle’s work on internal consolidation of the country and on strengthening of the organs of centralised authority. He transformed the Justice Court of Montenegro and Brda established by his uncle, into the Justice Senate of Montenegro and Brada which was the highest court and co-ordinating organ of the regime. The Guardia was an executive organ, and institution of the perjanik represented the National Guard. In 1837, under Petar II, the state was divided into captaincies, with captains at their head. He also introduced taxes (1834) and managed to settle clear boarders with Austria (1841). He was also a propagator of the Yugoslav ideal. Petar II Petrovic Njegos founded the first state school and purchased a printing press from Russia (both in Cetinje in 1834) and also published the almanac Grlica (Dove). His works “The Mountain Wreath, The Light of the Microcosm and False Emperor Scepan Mali” established his reputation as the greatest south Slavic author, and one of the greatest European writers as well. He was buried on the top of the Lovcen Mountain.
His successor Danilo was the first secular ruler of the Petrovic dynasty (1851-1860). Supported by Russia, he proclaimed himself a Prince, and Montenegro a Principality (1852). Ecclesiastical rule was separated from the secular. Together with his brother, the Great Duke Mirko, he managed to resist the massive military assault launched against Montenegro by Omer Pasha Latas in 1852-1853, and to win an outstanding victory at Grahovac in 1858. During his short rule, he proved to be a resolute and energetic ruler and did much to complete the establishment of state institutions, creating preconditions for the development of civic society and state. He reorganised the army and created the guard, and made a new administrative and territorial organisation. He abolished General-Montenegrin Assembly, modernised the tax system, and reformed the court. His reforms were based upon the Code of Montenegro and Brda of 1855, known as Prince Danilo’s Code. There was opposition to the Prince’s reforms and absolutism which he managed to break. State policy was aimed at the territorial expansion of Montenegro, the liberation of surrounding areas and international recognition of independence. In order to fulfil these aims the Prince sought support from the traditional Montenegrin protector and supporter, Russia, until 1856, and from then he changed his political course and turned towards France. The victory of Grahovac drew the attention of the great powers to the Montenegrin issue, and they helped effectuate the establishment of boarders between Montenegro and Turkey (1858/1859). Although the territorial extension was rather slight, this meant that Montenegro, although not formally, gained real recognition as an independent state. The Prince was killed in Kotor in 1860, victim of a revenge assassination.
During the reign of Prince Nikola, who became King in 1910 and is the last of the famous Petrovic- Njegos dynasty, Montenegro experienced great progress in comparison to previous periods. It went through a renaissance in all spheres of state, social, economic and cultural life. The first period of his rule (1860-1878) is characterised by territorial extension and help to the population in surrounding areas still under Turkish rule. This led to war in 1861-1862 in which the Turks were again led by the notorious Omar Pasha Latas. A catastrophe was avoided only at the intercession of the Russia and France with the Turkish government. However, the Prince did not give up his goal of territorial enlargement. In the Great Eastern Crisis (1875-1878), Prince Nikola discerned a historical opportunity for Montenegro. When he understood that because of Austrian interests he could not hope for any part of Herzegovina, he turned towards the Tara and Lim valleys and the Adriatic Sea. Although the provisions of the Berlin Congress (held in the summer of 1878) were much more unfavourable to Montenegro than the San Stefano Peace Treaty (March 1878), its territory was more than doubled and it gained important towns and part of the Adriatic coast. In the second period of the reign of Nikola I (1878-1905), there were already ripe conditions for civic, industrial and cultural development, for the establishment of transport, telephone, telegraph, agricultural reforms, for reforms in schools, state management and the army. Instead of the Senate he established the State Council, the ministries and the Great Court. The Prince’s government was formed in 1902; judicial and executive power were separated, a new administrative and territorial division into regions (and further to captaincies) was carried out but the Prince’s power remained inviolable. Dr. Valtazar Bogisic made the greatest contribution to the development of the legal system in Montenegro. His General Property Code is a masterpiece of legal thought, theory and practice. The rapid development of the society and the schooling of pupils and students resulted in the increasingly vociferous demands for the democratisation of Montenegro. The newly emerging middle class and intellegencia generally opposed the attitudes of the Prince and his regime. Although they cherished democratic ideas, amid heated political infighting and under the influence of the surrounding area, they turned against the state interests of Montenegro and it survival. The growing tension became especially obvious in the third period of Nikola’s rule (1905-1918). This is the period of the first Montenegrin Constitution and the establishment of the parliamentary system. The national Parliament was constituted, and the Prince shared his power with it. Montenegro was claimed a constitutional Monarchy and in 1910 it was raised to the level of a Kingdom. With the traditional support of Russia it followed European policy.
In the first Balkan war with Turkey, Montenegro liberated Pljevlja, Bijelo Polja, Berane, Plv, Gusinje and Razaje, and extended to Metohia. In the battle if Skadar (1913) Montenegrin interests opposed the interests of the Great Powers, and so, along with great casualties, it was faced with defeat. In World War I, after outstanding military successes and the battle of Mojkovac, the Montenegro army, betrayed and abandoned by the allies, experienced a catastrophe. It surrendered at the beginning of 1916, the people fell into slavery, King Nikola left the country along with the government and a substantial number of soldiers and officers were sent to Austro-Hungarian prison camps. After the capitulation of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Great Peoples Assembly in Podgorica (November 24-28, 1918) voted for an unconditional unification of Montenegro with Serbia – disregarding the constitution of Montenegro and the will of its sovereign and its people. This was the end of the centuries- long statehood and independence. Two days later, on December I, 1918, the Kingdom of the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was proclaimed. In the new united state, Montenegro first fell within the Zeta region, and then the Zeta province.
In World War II, the July 13 uprising of the Montenegrin people in 1941 against Italian and German fascist occupation forces was unique in its massiveness in the whole of the conquered Europe of that time. Later, the majority of Montenegrin citizens joined the Yugoslav ant-fascist liberation movement, contributing, according to its ability, to the victory of the allies and democracy. In the Socialist Federation Republic of Yugoslavia, Montenegro achieved progress and affirmation in the fields of social and cultural life. After its disintegration in 1991 Montenegro chose to live together with Serbia in a new country – the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
BRITISH SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE & BALKAN AIR FORCE MISSIONS TO MONTENEGRO 1943-44
HM Ambassador Kevin Lyne unveiling the stone sculpture presented by the British Government
In 2009 details of all secret operations carried out by the British SOE in WW II have been released under the Public Information Act for public view. It was of particular interest to the then HM Ambassador Mr. Kevin Lyne that the following details came to light.
The Government of Montenegro and British Embassy organized an event in the village of Brezna on Friday 4th September. The event included a military band, an air show the unveiling of the memorial, speeches from HM Kevin Lyne and the President and photo exhibition in the school in Brezna.
During World War II in the summer of 1944 there was a mission of cooperation between the British SOE (Special Operations Executive), BAF (Balkan Air Force) and Partisans (dominant communist resistance fighters).
“Partisans being forced back by German battalions”
By August 1944 the 2nd Battalion of the Partisans were in retreat and increasingly pinned down by German forces in the vicinity of Durmitor. By 12th August, desperate battles were being waged for control of Savnik (12 miles north of Niksic), Indeed, a BAF airstrip in Negovudje (which had been earmarked for the evacuation of Partisan wounded) fell into German hands. Pinned back to a line west of the Niksic-Pljevlja road, the Partisans awaited their fate. With the number of dead, injured and incapacitated growing steadily (not to mention the burden imposed by the bearing of stretchers, estimated at least two, possibly four fighting men or woman), the Partisans were at risk of being overwhelmed by the superior German battalions. The wounded became a burden, limiting the capacity of the Partisan fighters; their ability to defend themselves against the onslaught diminishing with every casualty taken. Put simply, the situation was critical. The Partisans could only become mobile again if the wounded were airlifted out. But whilst this was theoretically possible, it was in practice exceptionally ambitious and potentially hazardous. But luck was on their side. The capitulation of both Bulgaria and Romania in August 1944 dictated that the Germans had to refocus their efforts (and manpower) on safeguarding rail communications in Serbia, and thus they were forced to withdraw a significant number from the Savnik-Niksic area.
“Flt Lt Philip Lawson was guest of honour at the ceremony”
But whilst this relieved the immediate pressure, it did little to solve the problem of the burden of the Partisan wounded. They could not become mobile before this matter was resolved. The BAF was required to airlift them out, but this would prove problematic. The first problem would be finding a space where large enough craft (Dakota’s) could be accommodated. In the mountainous terrain surrounding Durmitor, the chances of finding an appropriate piece of ground upon which an airstrip could be constructed for that purpose was, put simply, slim. Arguing to their superiors at SOE headquarters in Bari that an airlift was the only option for saving the Partisan effort, two SOE officers who had been seconded from the RAF – Flt Lt Thomas Mathias and Flt Lt Philip Lawson – were dispatched to the Durmitor region on a reconnaissance mission to find a suitable piece of terrain upon which to construct an airfield which would allow for the landing of the Dakota aircraft. After several fruitless expeditions and two days of marching, they found such a spot near the village of Donja Brezna (located between Niksic and Savnik). Hardly ideal and only just large enough, the space would have to suffice. A small strip of flat ground in the village of Brezna was decided upon.
The village of Brezna incorporating lower (donja) and upper (gornja) was the largest valley in the Piva region of Montenegro. Situated about 30 miles north of Niksic, the valley stretched between Komanica Canyon on its northern edge to mount Vojnik on its southern. The village itself was situated on about 1000 meters above sea-level and the valley was about 8 miles long from east to west and around a mile wide. The north eastern part of the valley is called Gornja (upper) Brezna and Donja (lower) Brezna on the north-western section of the valley. The central part of the valley is called Potprisoje. Before World War II the village was populated with only 1000 inhabitants with agriculture its main source of economy, predominately the nomadic style of cattle and sheep breeding. Prior to the arrival of the SOE, the majority of population supported the communist-led Partisans’, although a small proportion opted to support the Chetniks. A number of villagers took an active part in fighting with the Partisans against the Italians and Germans. It is estimated that 104 people died during the war, 43 from Gornja Brezna, 24 from Potprisoje and 37 from Donja Brezna. The majority were innocent civilians killed by Germans between 1943 and 1944. The worst incidents involved the feared German Prince Eugene Division during the Fifth Offensive against Partisans. During this period the Germans forces slaughtered many civilians in Piva Region, among them almost 70 people were killed in Brezna, with the majority killed by firing squad or burned alive in their homes.
In Brezna and the surrounding villages, locals (mostly children, women and older men) were mobilised into action – to clear the fields, destroy existing walls, fill in ditches and prepare the foundations for the airstrip. Hardly ideal and only just enough, the space would have to suffice. In a broadcast given to the BBC in August 1944, Flt Lt Philip Lawson described the scene:
The plan of making airstrips in this particular zone were no strip had been made before was decided upon as the only hope. I was sent ahead to reconnoiter for level ground. With me came a British Army Major, a Partisan Engineer and some couriers. The ground wasn’t exactly ideal. It was on a slight hill, with a wheat field, slit trenches and sheep folds across it. But we collected the inhabitants of five villages, and people came from miles around. They scythed the green corn, removed fences and filled the trenches. They carried the hard white stones away in wooden buckets and on the evening of the second day of work the airfield was ready.
With the work completed within 48 hours the landings could begin. But according to Flt Lt Mathias, the pilots had no idea an airfield had been built at Brezna (they had been instructed that their next mission was near Dubrovnik). Upon seeing the airstrip, however, he noted it was very satisfactory for a daytime operation – being approximately 830 yards long and 80 yards wide. On 2th August, British Spitfires guided by the white parachute canopies laid out on the runway, dropped message bags informing the beleaguered Partisans that British and American Dakotas would soon arrive to provide vital assistance to the wounded , landing in waves of six per hour (with approximately thirty wounded on each plane). In the meantime, to ensure that the objective of landing Dakotas could be achieved, it was imperative that the Partisans held their line of defense during the German assault. Failure would mean that the Partisans would have to leave their wounded to an uncertain fate. Flt Lt Mathias was one of the first Dakota pilots to land on the airstrip. He succinctly depicted the scene as he arrived at Donja Brezna:
“Rough landing on temporary airstrip”
The atmosphere at Lawson’s airfield was the tensest I have ever known. Some of the wounded had been travelling for more than four months with little or no skilled attention. This, they knew, was their only chance. If the planes did not come they would be driven again to the hills, and with the Germans closing in, many undoubtedly would have been slaughtered.
As the German forces advanced, the Dakotas (protected by Mustangs and Spitfires) landed in Donja Brezna. Time was of the essence. However, in a daring, chaotic and ambitious maneuver led by Wing Commander James Polson, more than 800 wounded (SOE and BAF estimates vary between 800 and 1000) were airlifted to Italy. Typhus was widespread among those airlifted out, and many were suffering critical injuries. Polson was shocked by the condition of the wounded, as he recounted following the event:
From a medical point of view, most of the wounded were in a pathetic state of malnutrition. Because of their shortage of stretchers and bearers, these Partisans consider anyone who can stand upright and breathe to be a walking case. One man had walked to a report centre after having had a bullet pass clean through his chest, touching his left lung. He too was a walking case… They don’t always have anaesthetic for their amputations and conditions were such that the general state of sepsis was appalling, apart from the presence of lice, typhus and some malaria. But despite their weakness they gave a tremendous cheer each time a plane landed.
“Wounded being helped into Dakota’s arriving every 15 minutes”
The Dakotas managed to airlift thirty-five people per flight, taking, according to Flt Lt Mathias, twenty-five minutes to load and get each of the six aircraft away. Releasing the burden of the injured and infirm liberated the stretcher bearers, who were now free to engage the German forces. Despite this, the Partisans were overwhelmed and forced into retreat, and a few hours later the Germans occupied the village of Donja Brezna. The ambitious airlift had been successful only by a matter of minutes. It remains one of the most spectacular, yet little known, air stories of the war in Yugoslavia. The Dakota landings were the first in a series of joint SOE-Allied-Partisan actions that proved instrumental in changing the dynamics on the ground. But the roll of the Balkan Air force, whilst celebrated in the context of the Dakota landings, has been the subject of significant debate. Holistically effective, the Allied intervention brought some negative effects. The Allied bombing of major towns and communication routes, through which the German forces were retreating wrought significant damage upon Niksic, Bijelo Polje, Ulcinj, Pljevlja and Podgorica. Following the Dakota landings and numerous other SOE operations, a Partisan offensive was launched that would force the German units from Montenegrin soil.
“The wounded arriving in Bari Italy”
The fighting in the summer months of 1944 was fierce. The German command in Berlin had only one objective left, ensuring that Montenegro did not fall to the communists, and in this they found a willing partner in the Chetniks. Between February and July 1944 the Chetniks carried out mass executions in the areas they still controlled, whilst in the north-east of Montenegro the notorious Albanian-dominated, 21st SS Skenderberg Division massacred over 400 of the Orthodox population around Andrijevica. Both these areas were back under Partisan control by the end of August 1944, with much of the planning being done in the BAF headquarters in Bari
Lcdo: Carlos Omar Coriano's Part:
Your Honor and The Grand Jury, The Resourses of Allah and Mr. Osama Bin Laden, will Claim Themselves: Guilty,
For My Clients, The Resourses of Allah, are still Covered and Justifyed, under, The First Ammendment to The Constitution of The United States of America.
* Absolutely Innocent
*** The First Amendment ******** ( therefore protects even speech that calls for overthrow of the government or lawless action.)*******
For example, hecklers are generally not permitted to exert a “veto” over speech by creating a threat of violence and disorder;
****** the state ( The Congress of The United States of America ), is obligated to protect, Mr. Osama Bin Laden plus Allah's Army, also known as: The Alqaida Squad, not stop, for they all are, in a well recognized, Language of Creed or Religious Beleif: Controversial Speakers; justified, under The First Ammendment to The Constitution of The United States of America.*******
******* Just a Remider as it is Written:
( The Congress protects, ***** abstracted Dogmas *****, of Religious Beleif or Creed.. )
Jefferson did not have a hand in the authoring of the Constitution, nor of the 1st Amendment, but he was an outspoken proponent of the separation of church and state, going back to his time as a legislator in Virginia. In 1785, Jefferson drafted a bill that was designed to quash an attempt by some to provide taxes for the purpose of furthering religious education. He wrote that such support for religion was counter to a natural right of man:
... no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
In the end, many supporters of the Constitution, including one of the most prominent, James Madison, agreed to support a bill of rights in the Constitution, if it could be ratified. Several of the states included suggested amendments, including rights of the people, in their ratification documents. The push was on for a bill of rights in the Constitution. Madison was true to his word — on June 8, 1789, Representative James Madison rose and gave a speech in the House where he introduced a series of articles of amendment. One concerned religious freedom:
The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.
Madison's proposal follows the proposals of some of the states. New Hampshire's read:
Congress shall make no laws touching religion, or to infringe the rights of conscience.
Virginia was much more verbose:
That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.
New Yorkers had the same to say, but more succinctly:
That the people have an equal, natural, and unalienable right freely and peaceably to exercise their religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.
The Court noted that religion and government had often mixed in the years prior to the Constitution, causing concern among some. The debate culminated in Virginia, where a proposal to set rules and regulations for religious instructors was proposed and postponed — eventually, another bill in defiance of the first was proposed and passed, that being Jefferson's work which established religious freedom. The act included a definition of what religious freedom encompasses:
In the preamble of this act religious freedom is defined; and after a recital 'that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty,' it is declared 'that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order.' In these two sentences is found the true distinction between what properly belongs to the church and what to the State.
* Homeland Security, Ever Read The Quran' ?
Emphasize: It's A Licence to Kill, Religion
Ps.
May Allah also Bless Ye'
Que Alá les Bendiga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lcdo. Carlos Omar Coriano Torres
Religious Belief:'
( N/A )
___________________________________________________________________________
Árabe
العاطى : الجزء كارلوس Coriano عمر :
الشرف الخاص وهيئة المحلفين الكبرى، وResourses الله والسيد أسامة بن لادن، وسوف يدعون أنفسهم : مذنب،
لموكلي، وResourses الله، وتبرير هل لا تزال مغطاة، وكيل، والتعديل الأول لدستور الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.
* بريئة تماما
******** *** التعديل الأول (أحداث خطاب يحمي ولذلك يدعو إلى الإطاحة بالحكومة أو العمل التي ينعدم فيها القانون.)*******
على سبيل المثال ، عادة ما تكون المقاطعين لا يسمح للالمبذولة ل"الفيتو" على خطاب إنشاء التهديد بالعنف والفوضى؛
****** والدولة (كونغرس الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية)، وتلزم لحماية، والسيد أسامة بن لادن بالاضافة الى جيش الله، المعروف أيضا باسم : إن القاعدة اللاعبين، تتوقف، لأنها كلها، في بئر التعرف على اللغة العقيدة الدينية أو المعتقد : مكبرات الصوت للجدل ، يبرر، بموجب التعديل الأول للدستور الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.*******
******* مجرد remider كما هو مكتوب :
(ويحمي الكونغرس ، ***** *****، المستخرجة من الإيمان الديني أو المعتقد العقيدة..)
على ما يلي : إنها رخصة للقتل، والدين
فرع فلسطين.
صلى الله!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
العاطى. كارلوس توريس عمر Coriano
المعتقد الديني '
(ن / أ)
___________________________________________________________________________
HEBREO
עו"ד: חלק Coriano של עומר קרלוס:
כבודו ואת חבר מושבעים גדול, Resourses אללה מר אוסאמה בן לאדן, יטענו את עצמם: אשם,
עבור לקוחות שלי, Resourses של אללה, ולהצדיק מכוסים עדיין, תחת, התיקון הראשון לחוקה של ארצות הברית של אמריקה.
* חפים מפשע לגמרי
******** *** התיקון הראשון (אירועים הדיבור מגן לכן קורא להפיל את השלטון או פעולה פורעי חוק .)*******
לדוגמה, hecklers בדרך כלל אינם רשאים המופעל על "זכות וטו" על הדיבור על ידי יצירת איום של אלימות הפרעה;
****** המדינה (הקונגרס של ארצות הברית של אמריקה), היא מחייבת להגן, מר אוסאמה בן לאדן פלוס צבא אללה, הידוע גם בשם: אל קעידה כיתה, לא להפסיק, עבור כולן, ב באר המזהה הדתית שפה של אמונה או אמונה: רמקולים במחלוקת, להצדיק, תחת התיקון הראשון לחוקת ארצות הברית של אמריקה .*******
******* רק remider ככתוב:
(מגן על הקונגרס, הפשטה ***** *****, של קדושה אמונה או דת אמונה ..)
להדגיש: זה רישיון להרוג, דת
תהלים.
אללה יברך !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
עו"ד. קרלוס טורס עומר Coriano
האמונה הדתית '
(N / A)
___________________________________________________________________________
LATÍN- Traductor Googles.Com
___________________________________________________________________________
Atty, Carlos Omar Pars Coriano:
Amplitudinem et magnam iudicibus of Allah The Resourses and Mr Osama Bin Laden, sumet sibi reus
Clients enim mea et de Resourses Allah et iustifica adhuc tectus Under: Primus ad constitutionem Sheldoniano Foederatarum Americae.
* Innocent Absolute
******** *** Prima Emendatione (protegit rerum oratio petit ergo oppressam impiorum action regimen .)*******
Nam plerumque hecklers non licet exercetur "intercedere" super creando oratio vim minatur disiecta
****** Status (Congressu Civitatum Foederatarum Americae) est tueri obligare D. Osama bin Laden's Plus Allah exercitus quoque Sive: Al Qaeda Squad, nec cessat enim omnia sunt in Recognizer bene Language of Religious dogmate vel persuadeo Controversial loquentes iustificare sub primo constitutionem Sheldoniano Foederatarum Americae .*******
Just a remider ******* sicut scriptum est:
(The Congress conservat ***** fidei vel abstrahi *****, Symbolum .. Fides)
Biblical: It's A Licence occidere Religion
Ps.
Benedic May Allah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Atty. Carlos Torres Coriano Omar
Fides '
(N / A)
___________________________________________________________________________
Traspase de La Defensa Evidenciada, en La Próxima Fotografía
Fecha: Febrero 15, 2011
Hora: 7: 37 pm
___________________________________________________________________________
traducción del inglés al español
Lcdo: Coriano,
( LA FIRMA Carlos Omar Coriano )
A Vuestro Honor y Al Gran Jurado, en la mañana y/u tarde del 11 de Diciembre del 2007, ( A que hora le llegó Mi Tesis ? ), comparecí por escrito, ante La Fiscal Federal, Sra. Rosa Emilia Rodríguéz, en Representación del Ejército de Alá y el Sr. Osama Bin Laden, los cuales en ausencia, predisponen su voluntad: y hacen voluntariamente, Alegato de Culpabilidad, por todo Delito al Impute, el cúal evidencien y el cual aún jamás puedan Evidenciar...
Su Señoría:
Yo, el Lcdo. Honorario: Carlos Omar Coriano Torres, entiendo, ( concidere Menester, muy Necesario y con Urgente Parecer, Conciliar un Estudio Pos Graduado en Derechos Humanos - Derechos Civiles y Políticos, previo conferidos Universalmente; entendiendo éste que, Por ser Carta Magna y/u Constitución Universal, perpétuose en Veracidad de Formato: Ser Derechos Inviolables ); entendiendo Yo, el Lcdo.Carlos Omar Coriano Torres, que todo éste Proceso no ha tenido ni sentido..
.. Puesto que, en Luz de Los Derechos Civiles Constitucionales, previo Conferidos en Vuestra Tierra, Vuestro Honor o Señoría ( Cómo Prefiere ? ); donde se alega fuése acometido El Acto, por el cúal, pretenden Juzgar a éste Mi Colectivo en Representación, en Plena Conciencia y Evidenciado Concreta y Contundentemente, mediante diversidad de Grabaciones, Audio-Visuales e Ilustraciones Fotográficas; el No Existir Evidencia alguna, a través de la cual se rastrée y ésto con el fín de entrevistar al/ los Reponsable/es, quien/es, existe la Posibilidad, haya/n Actuado en Independencia de Criterio, tal cúal hizo, en un Pasado, El Autor o El Responsabilizado por El Acto Terrorista, conocido cómo: El Bombaso de Oklahoma, por el cúal fuese sentenciado a Pena de Muerte, el Sr. Timothy Mc Veigh.
( Sin Censura - El SiIencio de éste Letrado )
No obstante, enfatizo, Intentan de Asecho, responsabilizar, por la alegada actuación, a éstos, Mis Clientes, también conocidos cómo: El Ejército de Alá, a quienes voluntariamente, he representado, pues se identifican a sí mismos, Recursos Legítimos del dios Alá, y en mi Modesto entendimiento, créo guarda una estrecha correlación, ( si es que no sufro de Amnesia Temporera y Menopausia Bipolar en Mi Capacidad Pensante Individualista, dentro de Mis Delirios de Intelectual ), a Religión o algo parecido; y ésto basando mi hipótesis, en la poca comprensión que he adquirido del Derecho Civil, conferido Universalmente, en unión a la complejidad de La Antropología Multi-Cultural.
hipótesis s. f.
1 Afirmación que se considera lo suficientemente fiable o creíble como para basar sobre ella una tesis o teoría demostrada o confirmada con datos reales:
Vease la Primera Página de la alegada Tesis en Libertad de Religión o Credo en Contraste con El Derecho a La Vida.
Nota:
* Con un Artículo de Periódico fué efectuada y DEFENDIDA; la misma !
A. Matan a Unos Cristianos
1. Psiquiatra del Ejercito Mata en El Nombre de Alá
2. FEDERAL JUDGE says: School Can't Bar Girl over Nose Piercing, based on Religious Beleif.
Evidence;
A. Judge Says NC School Can't Bar Girl Over Pierced NoseUpdated: 3 hours 5 minutes ago
Print Text Size Print this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on Lifestream Emery P. Dalesio
AP RALEIGH, N.C. (Oct.8) - A federal judge ordered a North Carolina school to admit a 14-year-old high school student suspended for wearing a nose piercing she says is part of her religion, and the teenager was on her way to science class Friday afternoon, her attorney said.
* * * * * U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard
B. Resolución del Supremo de Los Estados Unidos de América, en cuanto al Veredicto del Civil, quien en Nombre de su Particular Credo Religioso, sacrificaba Cabras..
En la Potestad que me es Conferida de Letrado, Vuestro Honor, le cedo la oportunidad de Juzgarles contra Derecho y los mismos aún queden, exentos de Procesabilidad ante el Delito en Impute: Terrorismo y Conspiración para Acometer Terrorismo - Genocidio y/u Crimen Lesa Humanidad, puesto que, es Garantía de Protección y Justificación, previo conferida; en La Primera Enmienda a La Constitución de Los Estados Unidos de América, lugar donde se acometen Los Hechos relativos, por lo cúal, pretenden Responsabilizar a éste, Mi Colectivo en Representación; en entera conciencia de que, el/los Responsable/es por las respectivas actuaciones, concernientes al 11 de Septiembre del 2001, fueron muertos y consumados al Impacto, cómo predisposición Individualista de Su Exigencia de Creencia Religiosa Particular Individual, previo aceptada por Vuestra Tierra, vuestro Honor.
* Los Juzgados ó El Colectivo al Impute; están aún VIVOS ?; Pregunto.
Verifiquese Datos Relativos al 11 de Septiembre del 2001.
* Son Absolutamente Inocentes
*** La Primera Enmienda ******** ( por lo tanto protege incluso, el discurso que llama a derrocar al Gobierno, ( Discurso en Síntesis Simbólica: Anti Capitalismo Pro Destrucción Humanitaria ) ó La Actuación contra Ley ( Mediante la utilización de Bombas - Aviones con el Fín de convertirles en Armas de Destrucción Masiva en Actuaciones cuyo fín es La Inmolacion ó Acto Insurgente y etc..)
Se Destaca: Sus Fines son Pro Humanitarios
Vease Filosofía del Chiismo
******* ( Para los chiíes, Dios no puede admitir que el hombre camine hacia su perdición, por ello envió a los profetas para guiarle. Elías Transfigurativo) *******
Por ejemplo, los provocadores ( Se Traduce en Autoridades Federales y/u La Milicia ), por lo general, no les es permitido ejercer un "Boicot" o La Interrupción y/u Obstrucción para con El Mensaje y/u el Discurso en cuestión; mediante el origine de Amenazas, La utilización de la violencia y El desorden;
****** El Estado, es éste particular caso, ( El Congreso de Los Estados Unidos de
América ), está obligado a proteger, al Señor: Osama Bin Laden, al igual que, al Ejército de Alá, los cúales han sido estigmatizados como: La Brigada de Al-Qaida; y no intentar detenerles, puesto que, todos son, al Goze de Gran Reconocimiento, a su Doctrinaje de Credo ó Credencial Religioso:
( Altavoces Polémicos ); justiciados, En La Primera Enmienda a la Constitución de Los Estados Unidos de América .*******
******* Sólo un Recordatorio, tal cúal está aún escrito y ésto para Septiembre 11, 2010, fecha en la cúal fué Publicada, a través de éste medio de Comunicación Masivo Informal; conocido cómo: Flick R.
****** ( El Congreso protege,***** Doctrinajes Abstractos******, concernientes al Credencial Religioso, Credo ó Libertad de Conciencia Religiosa. )
Los derechos civiles de ninguno se podrá coartar a causa de la creencia religiosa o de culto, ni ninguna religión nacional habrá de ser adoptada..
1 - A.
La propuesta de Madison sigue las propuestas de algunos de los estados. New Hampshire el siguiente:
El Congreso no aprobará ninguna ley que toque la religión, o para infringir los derechos de conciencia.
* Ustedes Meten Preso, a quienes quebranten La Ley.
* El Chiismo, si El Capitalismo se Pasa el Código Penal, por dónde no les de Sol; los Matan con Bombasos..
******* Solución:
* No Apostaten contra Derecho, porque esa es la Verdadera Reforma de: Osama Bin Laden y El Ejército de Alá; mediante Lecciones Simbólicas.
Virginia fue mucho más detallado:
( Que la religión, o el deber que tenemos con nuestro Creador = Matar a Los INFIELES, y la manera de cumplirlas ( Con Bombas - Predisposiciones Individualista de Inmolación, mediante Actos de Insurgencia ), y ésto incluye, El Utilize de Aviones de Carga con Explosivos, predirigido; al Engrosamiento de los Judíos -
Nota: Alá, Yahve y Dios, Aborrece y Resiste: La Soberbia y etc.,
( sólo pueden ser dirigidas por la razón y convicción ), no por la fuerza o la violencia.
Nota: ( El Acto es Libre y Voluntario, o sea, No Impuesto por Hombre alguno; sino por Su Creador.. )
( Pretenden que toda Religión sea Pacifista ? ),
...Y por lo tanto, todos los hombres tienen el mismo derecho natural e inalienable ( al ejercicio de la religión ) de acuerdo a los dictados de la conciencia
( Y La Conciencia del Islam Radical, ******* Vease Filosofía del Chiismo contrástese con El Yihad Mayor ), es Purificar al Capitalismo y Atacar el Problema de Raiz..)
* El Dinero es La Raiz de Todos los Males .
* Un Buen Entendedor daría con ésta Conclusión:
( Son La Fuerza Bruta de La C I A ), pues Si No Respetan La Moral Pública y la Seguridad Nacional, ésta constantemente Amenazada, habiendo Códigos Penales que establezcan, el orden de la Sociedad; ( considérese, Alianzas Secretas de La C I A y El F B I ), y sean "El Task Force o Law Enforcement, tal cúal: La Inteligencia Secreta de Dios ó por sus siglas en Inglés:
+ ( C I A Divina ), * Y esa Alianza es más efectiva que la Policía Estatal -
* * * ( Éstos no Aceptan Soborno y No están sujeto a Cambio del Capitalismo y su único CAPATAZ es Alá. )
...Y que ninguna secta o sociedad en particular deberá ser favorecida o establecida por la ley con preferencia a otros.
Destacar:
Ésta Secta, ( Yihadista Mayor - El Chiismo ), cuyo subyugue corresponde al Musulmanismo y/u Al Islam, los cuales sean considerados Extremistas y Radicales, son la Única Religión, que en Legitimidad del Derecho, previo conferido, Constitucionalmente; posée Licencia para Privar del Derecho a La Vida, todo aquello que no conceptúen Fiel ó Licencia para Matar.
Nota:
* Si el Problema fué, dejar escribir a Mahoma y Después Mundializarlo, cuando a Jalil
( Kalil ) Gibrán del Libano, los Católicos, le quemaron hasta un Libro, titulado: Espíritu Rebelde..
* Ya el Libro está Aceptado, lo que hay es que Portarse Bien es Por Nuestro Bien..
* * * * * * * El Problema es Osama Bin Laden, quien nos Predicó a su manera, y NO nosotros que somos fans de Riky Martin: ( Forever Livin' La Vida Loca ) ?; siempre la culpa la tiene el otro y no uno ?
* * * * * * * # 767.. El Concepto, Espíritu Rebelde, creo que; resume mi conjetura.
* Lo que no sea Fiel a lo Preestablecido por Ley y Orden, no paga Consecuencia, mediante Códigos Preestablecidos y ésto para mantener el Orden Público ?
Pregunta Filosófica..
Ps.
Por Siempre usted Vuestro Honor u Honorable, Por Siempre YO seré:
Su Magestad...
Que Alá les Bendiga !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lcdo. Carlos Omar Torres Coriano
Creencias Religiosas: N/A
Klere maak nie die Monk ( Por que ésto es: AFRICA )
___________________________________________________________________________
DEFENSA EVIDENCIADA EN SU ORIGEN
___________________________________________________________________________
traducción del inglés al español
Lcdo: Coriano, ( LA FIRMA Carlos Omar Coriano)
A Vuestro Honor y Al Gran Jurado, en la mañana y/u tarde del 11 de Diciembre del 2007, ( A que hora le llegó Mi Tesis, Fiscal Federal: Rodríguez ? ), comparecí por escrito, ante La Fiscal Federal, Sra. Rosa Emilia Rodríguéz, en Representación del Ejército de Alá y el Sr. Osama Bin Laden, los cuales en ausencia, predisponen su voluntad: y hacen voluntariamente, Alegato de Culpabilidad, por todo Delito al Impute, el cúal evidencien y el Cual aún jamás puedan Evidenciar...
Su Señoría:
Yo, el Lcdo. Honorario: Carlos Omar Coriano Torres, entiendo, ( concidere Menester, muy Necesario y con Urgente Parecer, Conciliar un Estudio Pos Graduado en Derechos Humanos - Derechos Civiles y Políticos ), previo conferidos Universalmente, entendiendo éste que, Por ser Carta Magna y/u Constitución Universal, perpétuose en Veracidad de Formato: Ser Derechos Inviolables; concluyendo en fín, Yo, el Lcdo.Carlos Omar Coriano Torres, que todo éste Proceso, no ha tenido, ni sentido..
.. Puesto que, en Luz de Los Derechos Civiles Constitucionales, ya Conferidos en Vuestra Tierra, Vuestro Honor o Señoría ( Cómo Prefiere ser llamado ? ); donde se alega fuése acometido El Acto, por el cúal, pretenden Juzgar, a éste Mi Colectivo en Representación, en Plena Conciencia y Evidenciado Concretamente, mediante diversidad de Grabaciones Audio-Visuales e Ilustraciones Fotográficas; el No Existir Evidencia alguna, a través de la cual se Rastrée y ésto con el Fín de entrevistar al/ los reponsable/s, quien/es existe la Posibilidad, haya/n Actuado en Independencia de Criterio, tal cúal hizo, en un Pasado, El Autor o El Responsabilizado, por El Acto Terrorista ,conocido cómo: El Bombaso de Oklahoma, por el cúal fuese sentenciado, a Pena de Muerte, el Sr. Timothy Mc Veigh.
( Sin Censura - El SIencio de éste Letrado )
No obstante, enfatizo, Intentan de Asecho, responsabilizar por la alegada actuación, a éstos, Mis Clientes, también conocidos cómo: El Ejército de Alá, a quienes voluntariamente, he representado, pues se identifican a sí mismos, Recursos Legítimos del dios Alá y a mi Modesto entender, créo guarda una estrecha correlación, ( si es que no sufro de Amnesia Temporera y Menopausia Bipolar en Mi Capacidad Pensante Individualista, dentro de Mis Delirios de Intelectual ), a Religión o algo parecido; y ésto, basando mi hipotesis, en la poca comprensión que he adquirido del Derecho Civil, conferido Universalmente, en unión a La Complejidad de La Antropología Multi-Cultural.
hipótesis s. f.
1 Afirmación que se considera lo suficientemente fiable o creíble como para basar sobre ella una tesis o teoría demostrada o confirmada con datos reales:
* Véase. Primera Página de la alegada Tesis en Libertad de Religión o Credo en Contraste con El Derecho a La Vida.
Nota:
* Con un Artículo de Periódico fué efectuada y DEFENDIDA; la misma !
* Matan a Unos Cristianos
* Psiquiatra del Ejercito Mata en El Nombre de Alá
* FEDERAL JUDGE says: School Can't Bar Girl over Nose Piercing, based on Religious Beleif.
Evidence;
Judge Says NC School Can't Bar Girl Over Pierced NoseUpdated: 3 hours 5 minutes ago
Print Text Size Print this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on Lifestream Emery P. Dalesio
AP RALEIGH, N.C. (Oct.8) - A federal judge ordered a North Carolina school to admit a 14-year-old high school student suspended for wearing a nose piercing she says is part of her religion, and the teenager was on her way to science class Friday afternoon, her attorney said.
U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard
* Resolución del Supremo de Los Estados Unidos de América, en cuanto al Veredicto del Civil, quien en Nombre de su Particular Credo Religioso, sacrificaba Cabras..
En la Potestad que me es Conferida de Letrado, Vuestro Honor, le cedo la oportunidad de Juzgarles contra Derecho y los mismos aún queden, Exentos de Procesabilidad, ante todo Delito en Impute: ( Terrorismo y Conspiración para Acometer Terrorismo - Genocidio y/u Crimen Lesa Humanidad y etc..), puesto que, es Garantía de Protección y Justificación, previo conferida; en La Primera Enmienda a La Constitución de Los Estados Unidos de América; lugar donde se acometen los Hechos relativos, por lo cúal, pretenden Responsabilizar a éste; Mi Colectivo en Representación; concernientes al 11 de Septiembre del 2001.
* Los Juzgados ó El Colectivo al Impute; están aun VIVOS ? Pregunto.
Verifiquese Datos Relativos al 11 de Septiembre del 2001
* Son Absolutamente Inocentes
*** La Primera Enmienda ******** ( por lo tanto protege incluso, el discurso que llama a derrocar al Gobierno, ( Discurso en Síntesis Simbólica: Anti Capitalismo Pro Destrucción Humanitaria ) ó La Actuación contra Ley ( Mediante la utilización de Bombas - Aviones con el Fín de convertirles en Armas de Destrucción Masiva en Actuaciones cuyo fín es La Inmolación ó Acto Insurgente y etc, bajo la exigencia y/u precondicionamiento; Religioso..)
Se Destaca: Sus Fines son Pro Humanitarios
Véase. Filosofía del Chiismo
Por ejemplo, los provocadores ( Se Traduce en Autoridades Estatales // Federales y La Milicia ), por lo general, no les es permitido ejercer un "Boicot" o La Interrupción y/u Intercepte del Discurso en cuestión, mediante el origine de Amenazas, La utilización de la violencia y El desorden;
****** El Estado, es éste particular caso, ( El Congreso de Los Estados Unidos de América ), está obligado a proteger, al Señor: Osama Bin Laden, al igual que, al Ejército de Alá, los cúales han sido estigmatizados como: La Brigada de Al-Qaida; y no intentar detenerles, puesto que, todos son, al Goze de Gran Reconocimiento, a su Doctrinaje de Credo ó Credencial Religioso: Altavoces Polémicos; justiciados, En La Primera Enmienda a La Constitución de Los Estados Unidos de América .*******
******* Sólo un Rocordatorio, tal cúal está aún escrito y ésto para Septiembre 11, 2010:
****** ( El Congreso protege,***** Doctrinajes Abstractos******, concernientes al Credencial Religioso, Credo ó Libertad de Conciencia Religiosa. )
Destacar:
Ésta Secta ( Yihadista Mayor - El Chiismo ), cuyo subyugue corresponde al Musulmanismo y/u Al Islam, los cuales sean considerados Extremistas y Radicales, son la Única Religión, que en Legitimidad del Derecho, previo conferido, Constitucionalmente; posee Licencia para Privar del Derecho a La Vida, todo aquello que no conceptúen Fiel ó Licencia para Matar.
Ps.
Por Siempre sea usted, Vuestro Honor u Honorable, Por Siempre YO seré:
Su Magestad...
Que Alá les Bendiga !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lcdo. Carlos Omar Torres Coriano
Creencias Religiosas: N/A
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my memory banks, determined to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
During the whole period of existence of soviet regime, Ukrainian people went through the terrible tragedies - the famines of 1921-1922, 1932-1933, and 1946-1947. They murdered millions of Ukrainians. The most horrible humanitarian catastrophe of Ukraine of the XXth century was the starvation of 1932-1933, artificially created by Stalin’s regime, that resulted into 3 million 941 thousand deaths. Taking into consideration 6 million 122 thousand unborn babies, Ukraine lost 10 million 63 thousand people (data of the M. V. Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the NAS of Ukraine). Having killed the innocent people by famine, the Bolshevik regime wanted to erase the memory about them as well.
In the USSR, spreading any information about the famine was considered to be calumniation against the Soviets, which led to appropriate penalties. However, Ukrainians managed to survive and preserve their memories about the innocent people killed by famine. They began to talk about starvation in public only after declaration of independence of Ukraine.
On November 28th, 2006, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law “On the Holodomor of 1932- 1933 in Ukraine”. The law resolved the issue of building in Kyiv the Memorial to the Victims of Holodomors in Ukraine in order to establish a center of preserving memory about the victims of the three famines.
To commemorate the innocent people murdered by starvation, the memorial complex was created on the Dnipro’s slopes in 2008. The ceremony of the Memorial’s opening was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933. On November 22nd, 2008 the Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine was opened for the first visitors.
On July 8, 2009 according to the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the State Museum “The Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine” was founded. On February 18, 2010 it gained the status of the National museum. The Museum was founded by the Central Body of Executive power - the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
The author of the Memorial’s project is national painter of Ukraine Anatoly Haydamaka, the architect is Yury Kovalov. The national painter of Ukraine Mykola Syadrysty picked up quotations from works of politicians of the past.
The Memorial consists of three main parts: the Memory Candle, the Memory Hall and the symbolic Black boards, where one can read names of towns and villages which had been suffering during the years of famines.
At the beginning of the alley, at the entrance to the Memorial complex on both sides you can see the so-called “Angels of Sorrow”- the guardian angels of the starved one’s souls. This composition is a kind of portal to the Memorial.
In the center of the square one can see “Millstones of Destiny”. They are set in the form of a ring and have double meaning. On the one hand, they symbolize the source of life- as they had been used for centuries for making flour, on the other hand- the millstones symbolize timer of the history, image of 24 hours reminds us that every day up to 24 thousand people were dying in the years of famine. The paving leading to the center of the Memorial symbolizes Ukrainian fertile black soils. This is the main alley of the Memorial- “Arable of Memory”.
In the central part of the square there is a sculpture called “Sad Memory of Childhood”, which is dedicated to tragic fame of the most defenseless category of starvation’s victims- children. Five ears of wheat in the hands of a small girl symbolize the notorious “law of five spikelets”. That is how the peasants named the decree of Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom of the USSR “On Protection of State Enterprises, Kolkhozes and Cooperatives” of August 7, 1932 according to which the collective farm property was treated as the state one and was proclaimed inviolable. Even if there were some spikelets left on the field after reaping, picking them up was considered to be a crime and could be punished by 10 years of imprisonment with confiscation of all person’s property or even by death. There was no exception, even small children and old people could be arrested when caught with few spikelets or several frozen potatoes from a collective farm field.
The central part of the Memorial is the Candle- the sign of memory of the Ukrainian people about the tragedies they lived through. It embodies the monumental statue of reborn Ukraine to all the victims of those horrible events: Ukrainian peasants, nationally conscious intelligentsia, the military and the clergy. Its height is 30 meters. The Candle is decorated with glass crosses of different size symbolizing the souls of the victims. The small crosses remind us of the children who died of starvation; the bigger ones symbolize the souls of adult people. The foot of the Candle consists of four black metal crosses decorated with figures of bronze storks which are the testimony of Ukrainian national renaissance.
The main part of the Memorial is the Hall of Memory. Visitors have an opportunity to commemorate the victims of starvation by lightning a candle and by ringing the bell. There are volumes of the National Memory Book of Famine’s Victims of 1932- 1933 in Ukraine in the Hall of Memory. Everybody can get all sorts of information about starvation’s victims in different regions of Ukraine; they can also fill in “The profile of starvation’s victims of 1932- 1933 in Ukraine” to give the information about their relatives who died of starvation.
The visitors of the Hall have a possibility to learn the truth about those terrible times watching films about starvation which last 20-30 minutes and are projected on the walls of the Hall.
Leaving the Memory Hall visitors go ahead to the “Black board Alley”. There are symbolic “black boards” from black labradorite at the Alley where the names of 14 thousand of villages and towns of Ukraine are engraved – the villages which suffered in black times of the Holodomor. Putting the villages into the list of “black boards” meant starveling death for the people who lived in them. “Black boards of Ukraine” became one of the tragic symbols of the Holodomor of 1932-1933.
National Museum “The Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine” became the center of perpetuation and commemoration of people killed by starvation. The truth about the famines is gradually returning to the people’s memory and becoming its pain and sign of nation indestructibility at the same time. [memorialholodomors.org.ua]
Co. C, 15th IND. Infantry Medal of Honor Recepient.
This is a new marker placed behind his Civilian marker.
George L. Banks was born in Lake county, OH., Oct. 13, 1839. His parents, Orin and Olive (Brown) Banks, were natives of Scoharrie county, New York, and born the father January 25, 1803, and the mother March 12, 1805. They were married in 1823, and settled in Lake county, Indiana, in 1845 and stopped, first, in LaPorte county. They passed their lives as country people, were upright Christian folk and were thrifty as farmers of their time. They died in Lake county, Indiana, the father October 29, 1857, and the mother January 27, 1887. The Banks were Scotch-Irish origin and the Browns of English lineage. The parents both belonged to old families of the east and reared a large family of children, as follows: Charles, of Salina, Kansas; Elisha, of McPherson county, Kansas; Parley, of Lake county, Indiana; Mary C., wife of Simon White, of LaPorte county, Indiana; George L., of this notice; Nathaniel P., of Lake county, Indiana; Sarah L., wife of W. B. Adams of Montgomery county, Kansas.
George L. Banks spent his youth and early manhood in LaPorte county, Indiana, and had the advantage of a good country school education. The Civil war came on just after he had reached his majority, and was concerned with the serious affairs of peace, but he enlisted, June 6, 1861, in Company “C”, 15th Inf. under Col. Geo. D. Wagner. The regiment was ordered at once into the field and it took part in the battles of Greenbriar and Elk Water that same year. As the war progressed it participated in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River and Missionary Ridge, where Mr. Banks was wounded, and rendered unfit for service for some weeks. During his later active service he was in battle at Charleston and Dandridge, Tennessee. He was discharged from the army June 25, 1864. In 1897, he received from the Secretary of War a medal of bronze, appropriately engraved and inscribed in commemoration of distinguished service while in the line of duty. Engraved on the face of the medal is:
“The Congress to Color Sergeant George L. Banks, 15th Indiana Infantry,
“For gallantry at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 25, 1863.”
The letter from the Secretary of War notifying Mr. Banks of the honor accorded him and announcing the issuing of the medal states the specific acts of gallantry and is herewith made a part of this record:
MEDAL OF HONOR.
War Department, Washington, D. C. Sept. 21, 1897.
George L. Banks, Esq. – Independence, Kansas.
Sir:--You are hereby notified that by direction of the President and under the provisions of the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1963, providing for the presentation of medals of honor to such officers, non-commissioned officers and privates as have most distinguished themselves in action, a Congressional Medal of Honor has this day been presented to you for most distinguished gallantry in action, the following being a statement of the particular service: At Missionary Ridge, November 25, 1863, this soldier, then a Color Sergeant, 15th, Indiana Vols., in the assault, led his regiment, calling upon his comrades to follow, and near the summit he was wounded and left behind insensible, but having recovered consciousness rejoined the advance, again took the flag and carried it forward to the enemy’s works, where he was again wounded. In the brigade of eight regiments the flag of the 15th Indiana was the first planted on the Parapet.
The medal will be forwarded to you by registered mail as soon as it shall have been engraved.
Respectfully, R. A. Alger, Secretary of War.
From volume 4, pages 1840-1841 of A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918
GEORGE L. BANKS. A sterling pioneer and citizen who is now living virtually retired in the City of Independence, Mr. Banks is specially entitled to recognition in this history. He was one of the early settlers of Montgomery County and has contributed his full quota to its civic and industrial development and progress, and he was long one of the prominent and influential exponents of agricultural industry in this section of the state. High honors also are his for the valiant service which he gave as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
Mr. Banks was born in Lake County, Indiana, October 13, 1839. His father, Orin Banks, was born in the State of New York, in 1800, and was there reared to manhood, his marriage having been solemnized in Schoharie County, that state. His entire active career was one of close association with the basic industry of agriculture and he was one of the pioneer farmers of LaPorte County, Indiana, where he established his home in 1845. In about 1850 he removed to Lake County, Indiana, where he died in 1856. He was a supporter of the democratic party until the organization of the republican party, when he transferred his allegiance to the latter. He was influential in community affairs and was called upon to serve in various township offices. Both he and his wife were devout members of the Baptist Church, in which he served as a deacon. Mrs. Banks, whose maiden name was Olive Brown, was born in Schoharie County, New York, in 1803, and thus she was eighty-three years old at the time of her death, in 1891, she having been at the time one of the most venerable pioneer women of Lake County, Indiana. Of the children the eldest was Betsey, who became the wife of Major Atkins, and who died in Lake County, Indiana, in 1866, her husband having long survived her and having been a farmer and capitalist of influence. Charles W., a lawyer by profession, died in 1907, in Chambers County, Texas. Morgan, a farmer and merchant, died in McPherson County, Kansas, in 1890. Elisha, who likewise became a representative farmer in McPherson County, died in 1906. Parley A. is a retired farmer and resides at Crown Point, Lake County, Indiana. Mary C. first married Balsar Keith, a farmer, near Union Mills, Indiana, and after his death she became the wife of Simon White, likewise a prosperous farmer of LaPorte County, Indiana. He likewise is deceased and his widow now resides at LaPorte, that county. William A., who died at LaPorte, Indiana, in 1903, had served six years as postmaster of that city and had been a leading importer of live stock in that section of the Hoosier state. George L., of this review, was the next in order of birth. The next two children were sons, both of whom died in infancy. Nathaniel P. is president of a bank at Hobart, Lake County, Indiana. Sarah Lavina is the wife of W. B. Adams, and they reside at Dearing, Montgomery County, Kansas, where Mr. Adams is vice president of a banking institution.
George L. Banks acquired his early education in the common schools of Lake and LaPorte counties, Indiana, and he continued to be associated with his father's farming operations until he had attained to the age of seventeen years. In the autumn of the year in which he reached this age he went to Minnesota and found employment in a pioneer sawmill at St. Anthony, the nucleus of the present great City of Minneapolis. The next year, 1857, found him employed in the lumber woods in the wilds of Northern Michigan, and he then returned to the old homestead farm. In Lake County, Indiana, he did a large amount of contract work in the digging of drainage ditches and for one year there he clerked in a grocery store, and afterward was a clerk in a dry-goods store. He finally resumed farming in his native county and was thus engaged at the outbreak of the Civil war. On the 6th of June, 1861, in response to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, Mr. Banks enlisted as a private in Company C, Fifteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he proceeded to West Virginia and took part in the engagements at Greenbriar and Elkwater. Later he was a participant in the memorable battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Chattanooga. In the battle of Chattanooga he was thrice wounded but his injuries were not serious and he was incapacitated for a few weeks only. Mr. Banks was color sergeant of his regiment in the storming of Missionary Ridge, and most gallantly did he acquit himself on this historic field. The colors were shot down six times, and Mr. Banks himself was wounded on the first and last of these occasions. He was first shot in the ribs, and after regaining consciousness he was again wounded,—this time through the top of the head. His severe injuries incapacitated him from November, 1863, until January 14, 1864, and on the 25th of June of the latter year he was mustered out. Mr. Banks received and greatly prizes the Congressional medal of honor that was presented to him and that bears date of November 25, 1863, and he also has a letter from Hon. Russell A. Alger, at the time the latter was serving as Secretary of War, many years later, congratulating him on his admirable service during the ever memorable battle of Missionary Ridge. Mr. Banks, as color bearer for his regiment, was the first regimental color sergeant to plant the colors on the enemy's works at Missionary Ridge out of a brigade of six regiments, and for this gallant deed he received a medal of honor from Washington, District of Columbia.
After the close of the war Mr. Banks returned to his native county, where he followed farming until the spring of 1871, when he came to Kansas and numbered himself among the pioneers of Montgomery County. He settled in Fawn Creek Township, where he took up a pre-emption claim of 160 acres, and there he continued his farming operations for sixteen years. He developed and improved one of the fine farms of the county and was specially influential in township and community affairs. To his efforts was due the defining of the school district and the erection of the first schoolhouse of District No. 91, and this pioneer school was named in his honor. He had the supervision of the erection of the school building and was a member of the school board until he left his farm, in the autumn of 1886, when he returned to Indiana and became the proprietor of a hotel at Angola. In the following spring he exchanged his hotel property for a farm in Hillsdale County, Michigan, where he remained six years. He then sold his Michigan farm, or exchanged the same for property in Montgomery County, Kansas, where he again was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits for the ensuing two years. He thereafter passed two years at Independence, the county seat, but in 1896 he returned to his farm, upon which he continued to reside until 1903, when he resumed his residence at Independence. Here he has been engaged in the real estate and loan business and in the supervision of his various properties, so that he is not yet fully retired from active business, idleness and apathy being entirely foreign to his nature. He is the owner of valuable residential property in Independence, including his own attractive home, at 417 North Fifth Street, and near Bolton, this county, he owns 240 acres of valuable farm land, besides having another farm, of 160 acres, south of Dearing, this county, and 300 acres in Chambers County, Texas. On the farm near Bolton Mr. Banks effected the drilling of the first large oil well in Montgomery County, in 1903, and the same is still producing extensively.
Mr. Banks has not only achieved large and worthy success in connection with the practical affairs of life but he has also been most loyal and influential in public affairs in Southeastern Kansas. He served two terms as a representative of Montgomery County in the Kansas Legislature, 1905-7, and made a characteristically excellent record in furthering the interests of his constituent district and of wise legislation in general. He is a progressive republican and is well fortified in his convictions concerning governmental policies. While a resident of Fawn Creek Township he served six years as justice of the peace and later held the office of township trustee, his retirement from the office of justice of the peace having occurred in 1882. He has long been a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Anti-Horse Thief Society. Mr. Banks is one of the most appreciative and valued members of McPherson Post No. 4, Grand Army of the Republic, at Independence, and has not only served several terms as commander of the same but also as junior vice commander of the Department of the Grand Army for Kansas. It is worthy of special record that on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his being mustered in for service in the Civil war his surviving regimental comrades presented him with a beautiful silk flag of the United States, this being a tribute that he deeply appreciated. Mr. Banks is one of the representative men of Montgomery County, has inviolable place in popular esteem and is one of the substantial citizens of Independence, and he is a director and the secretary of the Jefferson State Bank, at Jefferson, this county.
On the 8th of October, 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Banks to Miss Olive W. Chandler, and she was summoned to the life eternal nearly forty years later, while their home was on the farm near Bolton, Montgomery County. She was a gracious and gentle woman who was loved by those who came within the compass of her influence, and she died in the year 1902. Of the children of this union the eldest is William N., who is a representative member of the bar of Montgomery County, and is engaged in the practice of his profession at Independence; Charles B. is engaged in the real estate business at Caldwell, Idaho; and Arthur A. is at Denver, Colorado.
In 1904 Mr. Banks contracted a second marriage, when Mrs. Helen J. (Clarkson) Shoemaker, widow of Philo Shoemaker, became his wife. They reside in an attractive home at Independence, in which city she had resided prior to her marriage to Mr. Banks. No children have been born of the second marriage.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
You can follow me also on Getty | 500 px | Deviant Art
Here is my virtual tour through the city - portfotolio.net/jup3nep/album/72157631887823501
The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı or in Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى) is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign.
As well as a royal residence, the palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments. It is now a major tourist attraction and contains important holy relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword. The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described in Criterion iv as "the best example[s] of ensembles of palaces [...] of the Ottoman period."
Construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. At its peak, the palace was home to as many as 4,000 people, and covered a large area with a long shoreline. The complex was expanded over the centuries, with major renovations after the 1509 earthquake and the 1665 fire. The palace contained mosques, a hospital, bakeries, and a mint. The name translates as "Cannon gate Palace" from a nearby gate which has since been destroyed.
From the end of the 17th century the Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city. Some functions, such as the imperial treasury, the library, and the mint were retained in the Topkapı Palace.
Following the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Topkapı Palace was transformed by a government decree dated April 3, 1924 into a museum of the imperial era. The Topkapı Palace Museum is administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today. The complex is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military. The palace includes many fine examples of Ottoman architecture. It contains large collections of porcelain, robes, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts and murals, as well as a display of Ottoman treasures and jewelry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace
Harem (pronounced [haˈɾem], Turkish, from Arabic: حرم ḥaram "forbidden place; sacrosanct, sanctum", related to حريم ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place; female members of the family" and حرام ḥarām, "forbidden; sacred") refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah and zenana.
The word harem is strictly applicable to Muslim households only, but the system was common, more or less, to most ancient Oriental communities, especially where polygamy was permitted.
The Imperial Harem of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent, mother of Selim II) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail, Alaouite sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.
During the whole period of existence of soviet regime, Ukrainian people went through the terrible tragedies - the famines of 1921-1922, 1932-1933, and 1946-1947. They murdered millions of Ukrainians. The most horrible humanitarian catastrophe of Ukraine of the XXth century was the starvation of 1932-1933, artificially created by Stalin’s regime, that resulted into 3 million 941 thousand deaths. Taking into consideration 6 million 122 thousand unborn babies, Ukraine lost 10 million 63 thousand people (data of the M. V. Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the NAS of Ukraine). Having killed the innocent people by famine, the Bolshevik regime wanted to erase the memory about them as well.
In the USSR, spreading any information about the famine was considered to be calumniation against the Soviets, which led to appropriate penalties. However, Ukrainians managed to survive and preserve their memories about the innocent people killed by famine. They began to talk about starvation in public only after declaration of independence of Ukraine.
On November 28th, 2006, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law “On the Holodomor of 1932- 1933 in Ukraine”. The law resolved the issue of building in Kyiv the Memorial to the Victims of Holodomors in Ukraine in order to establish a center of preserving memory about the victims of the three famines.
To commemorate the innocent people murdered by starvation, the memorial complex was created on the Dnipro’s slopes in 2008. The ceremony of the Memorial’s opening was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933. On November 22nd, 2008 the Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine was opened for the first visitors.
On July 8, 2009 according to the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the State Museum “The Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine” was founded. On February 18, 2010 it gained the status of the National museum. The Museum was founded by the Central Body of Executive power - the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
The author of the Memorial’s project is national painter of Ukraine Anatoly Haydamaka, the architect is Yury Kovalov. The national painter of Ukraine Mykola Syadrysty picked up quotations from works of politicians of the past.
The Memorial consists of three main parts: the Memory Candle, the Memory Hall and the symbolic Black boards, where one can read names of towns and villages which had been suffering during the years of famines.
At the beginning of the alley, at the entrance to the Memorial complex on both sides you can see the so-called “Angels of Sorrow”- the guardian angels of the starved one’s souls. This composition is a kind of portal to the Memorial.
In the center of the square one can see “Millstones of Destiny”. They are set in the form of a ring and have double meaning. On the one hand, they symbolize the source of life- as they had been used for centuries for making flour, on the other hand- the millstones symbolize timer of the history, image of 24 hours reminds us that every day up to 24 thousand people were dying in the years of famine. The paving leading to the center of the Memorial symbolizes Ukrainian fertile black soils. This is the main alley of the Memorial- “Arable of Memory”.
In the central part of the square there is a sculpture called “Sad Memory of Childhood”, which is dedicated to tragic fame of the most defenseless category of starvation’s victims- children. Five ears of wheat in the hands of a small girl symbolize the notorious “law of five spikelets”. That is how the peasants named the decree of Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom of the USSR “On Protection of State Enterprises, Kolkhozes and Cooperatives” of August 7, 1932 according to which the collective farm property was treated as the state one and was proclaimed inviolable. Even if there were some spikelets left on the field after reaping, picking them up was considered to be a crime and could be punished by 10 years of imprisonment with confiscation of all person’s property or even by death. There was no exception, even small children and old people could be arrested when caught with few spikelets or several frozen potatoes from a collective farm field.
The central part of the Memorial is the Candle- the sign of memory of the Ukrainian people about the tragedies they lived through. It embodies the monumental statue of reborn Ukraine to all the victims of those horrible events: Ukrainian peasants, nationally conscious intelligentsia, the military and the clergy. Its height is 30 meters. The Candle is decorated with glass crosses of different size symbolizing the souls of the victims. The small crosses remind us of the children who died of starvation; the bigger ones symbolize the souls of adult people. The foot of the Candle consists of four black metal crosses decorated with figures of bronze storks which are the testimony of Ukrainian national renaissance.
The main part of the Memorial is the Hall of Memory. Visitors have an opportunity to commemorate the victims of starvation by lightning a candle and by ringing the bell. There are volumes of the National Memory Book of Famine’s Victims of 1932- 1933 in Ukraine in the Hall of Memory. Everybody can get all sorts of information about starvation’s victims in different regions of Ukraine; they can also fill in “The profile of starvation’s victims of 1932- 1933 in Ukraine” to give the information about their relatives who died of starvation.
The visitors of the Hall have a possibility to learn the truth about those terrible times watching films about starvation which last 20-30 minutes and are projected on the walls of the Hall.
Leaving the Memory Hall visitors go ahead to the “Black board Alley”. There are symbolic “black boards” from black labradorite at the Alley where the names of 14 thousand of villages and towns of Ukraine are engraved – the villages which suffered in black times of the Holodomor. Putting the villages into the list of “black boards” meant starveling death for the people who lived in them. “Black boards of Ukraine” became one of the tragic symbols of the Holodomor of 1932-1933.
National Museum “The Memorial in Commemoration of Famines’ Victims in Ukraine” became the center of perpetuation and commemoration of people killed by starvation. The truth about the famines is gradually returning to the people’s memory and becoming its pain and sign of nation indestructibility at the same time. [memorialholodomors.org.ua]
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
La dignidad humana es inviolable y será respetada y protegida.
La dignité humaine est inviolable; elle doit être respectée et protégée.
La dignità umana è inviolabile, e che essa deve quindi essere rispettata e tutelata.
The dignity of men is unimpeachable and it is the duty of all State powers to respect and protect it.
Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar, sie zu schützen ist Verpflichtung aller staatlicher Gewalt!
Adolf Hitler's naturalization into the German Reich took place on 25 February 1932 by the Free State of Braunschweig. As early as 1925, at least seven attempts were made by various parties to procure Hitler, at that time by own initiative stateless, the nationality of one of the member states of the Weimar Republic by naturalization (a uniform German nationality has existed only since the Ordinance on German Nationality of February 5, 1934, on the basis of the Act on the Reconstruction of the Reich, with which the German countries were synchronized).
Initially, these attempts were almost always carried out in secret, the initiators both leaving the public as well as the political decision-makers largely in the dark about the processes, or at least trying to cover them up. So this has been happening at the first attempt in Thuringia and in Hildburghausen, and finally in Braunschweig, where, in February 1932, through massive intervention by Dietrich Klagges (NSDAP), the Minister for the Interior of the Free State of Brunswick, as well as the support of the German People's Party (DVP) it was succeeded to naturalize Hitler by appointment as state council shortly before the Reich presidential election. In some cases, the initiators or the supporters of the naturalization attempts are still unknown.
Historical background
Born in 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Hitler was an Austrian citizen because of his ancestry (see § 28 sentence 2 ABGB - Austrian civil code). He grew up in Linz and moved to Vienna in 1907 where he wanted to become an artist. Hitler applied twice for admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, but was rejected both times because of a lack of talent. The director of the Kunstakademie subsequently attested to him the "non-suitability for painter" in a personal interview. Due to acute financial distress, he had to live in a homeless asylum from 1909, from the beginning of 1910 in the men's home Meldemann street where he, inter alia, got to know Rudolf Häusler. With this he moved to Munich in 1913, because he had a deep dislike for the Austro-Hungarian multinational state and wanted to escape the military service there. Having arrived in Munich, Häusler and Hitler reported to the authorities, whereby Häusler presented his complete papers, while Hitler pretended not to have any papers or be stateless.
Die Einbürgerung Adolf Hitlers in das Deutsche Reich erfolgte am 25. Februar 1932 durch den Freistaat Braunschweig. Bereits ab 1925 wurden von verschiedenen Seiten mindestens sieben Versuche unternommen, dem zu diesem Zeitpunkt auf eigenes Betreiben hin staatenlosen Adolf Hitler durch Einbürgerung die Staatsangehörigkeit eines der Gliedstaaten der Weimarer Republik zu verschaffen (eine einheitliche deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit gibt es erst seit der Verordnung über die deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit vom 5. Februar 1934 auf Grund des Gesetzes über den Neuaufbau des Reichs, mit dem die deutschen Länder gleichgeschaltet wurden).
Diese Versuche wurden anfänglich fast immer im Verborgenen unternommen, wobei die Initiatoren sowohl die Öffentlichkeit als auch politische Entscheidungsträger über die Vorgänge weitestgehend im Dunkeln ließen oder diese wenigstens zu vertuschen suchten. So geschehen beim ersten Versuch in Thüringen und in Hildburghausen und zuletzt in Braunschweig, wo es durch massive Einflussnahme seitens Dietrich Klagges (NSDAP), des Innenministers des Freistaates Braunschweig, sowie durch Unterstützung der im Braunschweigischen Landtag vertretenen Deutschen Volkspartei (DVP) schließlich im Februar 1932 gelang, Hitler kurz vor der Reichspräsidentenwahl durch Ernennung zum Regierungsrat einzubürgern. In einigen Fällen sind die Initiatoren bzw. die Unterstützer der Einbürgerungsversuche bis heute nicht bekannt.
Vorgeschichte
Der 1889 in Braunau am Inn geborene Hitler war aufgrund seiner Abstammung österreichischer Staatsbürger (s. § 28 Satz 2 ABGB). Er wuchs in Linz auf und zog 1907 nach Wien, wo er Kunstmaler werden wollte. Hitler bewarb sich wegen eines entsprechenden Studiums zweimal um Aufnahme an der Wiener Kunstakademie, wurde jedoch beide Male wegen mangelnder Begabung abgewiesen. Der Direktor der Kunstakademie attestierte ihm anschließend in einem persönlichen Gespräch die „Nichteignung zum Maler“. Aufgrund akuter Geldnot musste er ab 1909 in einem Obdachlosenasyl leben, ab Anfang 1910 im Männerwohnheim Meldemannstraße, wo er u. a. Rudolf Häusler kennenlernte. Mit diesem siedelte er 1913 nach München über, da er eine tiefgehende Abneigung gegen den österreichisch-ungarischen Vielvölkerstaat hegte und sich der dortigen Wehrpflicht entziehen wollte. In München angekommen, meldeten sich Häusler und Hitler bei den Behörden, wobei Häusler seine vollständigen Papiere vorlegte, während Hitler vorgab, über keinerlei Papiere zu verfügen und staatenlos zu sein.
excerpts from rediff columnist Mohan Guruswamy
www.rediff.com/news/2003/jul/14guru.htm
Through most of their history the Baluch administered themselves as a loose tribal confederacy. The Baluch are an ancient people. In 325 BC, after his abortive India campaign, as Alexander made his way back to Babylon through the Makran desert, the Greeks suffered greatly at the hands of marauding Baluchis. The legend has it that they originally came from near Aleppo in Syria and there is much linguistic evidence to suggest that they belong to the same Indo-European sub-group as the Persians and Kurds. They came into Islam under the shadow of the sword of Mohammad bin Qasim's conquering Arab army in 711 AD.
Whatever be their origins, by 1000 AD they were well settled in their present homeland. The poet Firdausi records them in the Persian epic, the Book of Kings, thus: 'Heroic Baluches and Kuches we saw/Like battling rams all determined on war.' As relatively late arrivals in the region, the Baluchis had to battle earlier occupants of the lands such as the Brahui tribes who still abound around Kalat. The Brahui language belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is close to Tamil. Quite clearly, the Brahuis are the only Dravidian survivors in northern India, after the Aryan invasion.
A restless people, the Baluchis naturally pushed eastwards towards the more fertile regions watered by the Indus river, but were halted by the might of the Mughals. But we still have reminders of the many Baluchi incursions in the names of towns like Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan in the Punjab and NWFP. Unlike the Dravidians of Mohenjodaro and Harappa who disappeared without a trace, the Brahuis made one last hurrah when they asserted their power in Kalat.
By the 18th century Kalat was the dominant power in Baluchistan and the Khan of Kalat was the ruler of the entire region. But the Brahuis paid for it by getting assimilated into the majority Baluchis. The Brahui language still survives in small pockets but only by just. My late father who served in British India's Defence Services Staff College at Quetta in the early 1940s would often tell me of hearing local tribesmen serving in the Staff College speaking a language that sounded remarkably like Tamil!
The British first came to the region in 1839 on their way to Kabul when they sought safe passage. In 1841 they entered into a treaty with Kalat. In the wake of Lord Auckland's disastrous invasion of Afghanistan, the British annexed Sind in a mood, Mountstuart Elphinstone said, was that 'of a bully who had been kicked in the streets and then goes home to beat the wife in revenge!' The British annexed Sind in 1843 from the Talpur Mirs, a Baluchi dynasty.
On June 27, 1839 Ranjit Singh died and within 10 years his great prophecy on being shown a map with British possessions in India in 'ek din sab laal ho jayega!' came to be true. After the formal surrender of the Sikhs on March 29, 1849 and the annexation of Punjab, the British now had a long border with the Baluchis. But learning from their disastrous experience with the Afghans they preferred to keep out of harm's way on Baluchi assurances of the inviolability of their borders.
In 1876, the British however forced another treaty on the Baluchis and forced the Khan of Kalat to lease salubrious Quetta to them. The Khan's writ still ran over Baluchistan, but now under the watchful but benign eye of a British minister. That the Khan of Kalat was not considered another insignificant prince was in the fact that he was accorded a 19-gun salute. With security assured and largely unfettered domestic power the Khan led lavish and often eccentric lifestyles. One Khan collected shoes, and to ensure the safety of his collection had all the left shoes locked in a deep dungeon of his fort in Kalat!
Whatever the whimsicalities of the Khans of Kalat, like the rulers of Hyderabad and Kashmir, they enjoyed the greatest degree of autonomy possible under the system established by the British as long as whimsy was within reason and not inimical to British interests. This arrangement prevailed till 1947. The urge to be independent rulers burned equally bright in all three of them. The Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan, went further than Hari Singh of Kashmir and Osman Ali Khan of Hyderabad. He declared independence, while the other two dithered and allowed events to overtake them. Unlike in Hyderabad, it was apparent that the population largely supported the Khan.
The Baluchis, like the Pathans of NWFP, were not too enthused with the idea of Pakistan. In the NWFP the separatist Muslim League led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah was actually rejected in elections. Yet eight months after the Khan's assertion of independence the Pakistanis forcibly annexed Baluchistan. But Baluchi aspirations for an independent state were not quelled completely. In 1973 a war of independence broke out in Baluchistan.
For five long years there was total war. At its peak the Baluchis raised a force of 55,000 combatants. Nearly six Pakistan Army divisions were deployed to fight them. The Pakistan Air Force was also deployed and its Mirage and Sabre fighter jets carried out strikes all over rural Baluchistan. Widespread use of napalm has been documented by scholars like Robert Wirsing of the University of Texas and Selig Harrison. Iran too joined in the military action and Huey Cobra helicopter gunships of its Army Aviation were widely used. By the time the last pitched battle was fought in 1978 5,000 Baluchi fighters and 3,000 Pakistani soldiers had died. Civilian casualties were many times that. The Baluchi war for independence was crushed, but the aspirations still flicker.
Speaking at the 57th session of the Commission of Human Rights at Geneva between March 9 and April 27, 2001, Mehran Baluch, a prominent Baluch leader said: 'Our tragedy began in 1947, immediately after the creation of Pakistan. The colonialist army of Pakistani Punjab forcibly occupied Kalat at gunpoint.' Even now a struggle continues in Baluchistan. Leading Baluchi leaders like Sardar Attaullah Mengal, Sardar Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, heads of the three great Baluch clans, have been leading protests over the economic exploitation of the region's great natural resources to the exclusion of the local people. Marri and hundreds of his supporters are under arrest.
Here is my virtual tour through the city - portfotolio.net/jup3nep/album/72157631887823501
The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı or in Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى) is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign.
As well as a royal residence, the palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments. It is now a major tourist attraction and contains important holy relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword. The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described in Criterion iv as "the best example[s] of ensembles of palaces [...] of the Ottoman period."
Construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. At its peak, the palace was home to as many as 4,000 people, and covered a large area with a long shoreline. The complex was expanded over the centuries, with major renovations after the 1509 earthquake and the 1665 fire. The palace contained mosques, a hospital, bakeries, and a mint. The name translates as "Cannon gate Palace" from a nearby gate which has since been destroyed.
From the end of the 17th century the Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city. Some functions, such as the imperial treasury, the library, and the mint were retained in the Topkapı Palace.
Following the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Topkapı Palace was transformed by a government decree dated April 3, 1924 into a museum of the imperial era. The Topkapı Palace Museum is administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today. The complex is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military. The palace includes many fine examples of Ottoman architecture. It contains large collections of porcelain, robes, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts and murals, as well as a display of Ottoman treasures and jewelry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace
Harem (pronounced [haˈɾem], Turkish, from Arabic: حرم ḥaram "forbidden place; sacrosanct, sanctum", related to حريم ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place; female members of the family" and حرام ḥarām, "forbidden; sacred") refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah and zenana.
The word harem is strictly applicable to Muslim households only, but the system was common, more or less, to most ancient Oriental communities, especially where polygamy was permitted.
The Imperial Harem of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent, mother of Selim II) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail, Alaouite sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
HKFP: Thousands gathered at Edinburgh Place on Wednesday evening calling on G20 countries to raise concerns about Hong Kong at the leaders’ summit on Friday, hours after staging a mass march to foreign consulates to lobby country representatives directly.
Crowds wearing all-black spilt out of the public square, many holding signs that read “Free Hong Kong” and “Democracy Now.”
Organisers, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), issued a statement urging a withdrawal of the government’s suspended extradition bill.
“If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out during the G20 summit, and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people,” it read.
The pro-democracy coalition have led millions on marches over recent weeks against the bill, as demands have evolved into calling for universal suffrage ahead of the July 1 pro-democracy rally.
CHRF manifesto :
"Withdraw the Extradition Bill! Free Hong Kong!
A time when democracy and freedom are universal values that are inviolable.
Hong Kong people had urged for democratisation for over 30 years. When Hong Kong was handed over to China since 1997, as written in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, China promised that Hong Kong can enjoy One Country Two Systems and a high degree of autonomy. The Basic Law also promised universal suffrage to be implemented in the year of 2007 to 2008. But China broke these promises, and gradually intervened deeply in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
Hong Kong people have always insisted on having universal suffrage – to let Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we seem to be further and further away from genuine democracy. In merely 22 years after the hand-over, the One Country Two Systems principle barely survives. During the [legislative] process of the “Extradition Bill”, the Hong Kong Liaison Office blatantly intervened in Hong Kong’s internal affairs and scrapped the promises of [a] high degree of autonomy.
This year, the government decided to put the Extradition Bill through Legislative Council, in order to make all people in Hong Kong, including local citizens and expats, to be potentially extradited to China, or to countries which have less protection on human rights and the rule of law. This will destroy existing protection on human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong and will crack down the last defence to freedom and safety.
In our current political system, Hong Kong does not have genuine democracy. To stop this evil law from passing, 1.03 million followed by 2 million Hongkongers courageously took to the streets in the past two weeks. Some were even cracked down by the police with excessive, disproportionate force and lethal weapons. But the government only gave a shallow apology, without making any tangible changes.
As world leaders meet at the G20 summit, Hong Kong citizens now sincerely urge all of you, including Xi Jinping, to answer our humble questions: Does Hong Kong deserve democracy? Should Hong Kong people enjoy democracy? Can [a] democratic system be implemented in Hong Kong now?
Dear friends from around the world. I believe you have seen through media and the Internet, that Hongkongers spared no efforts to safeguard our freedom. Please bear in mind: if the Extradition Bill passes, when you come to Hong Kong to travel, study or for business, you may face unfair trials. If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out, during the G20 summit and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people."
www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/26/democracy-now-hundreds-gath...
民陣昨晚在中環愛丁堡廣場舉行集會，有數以千計市民出席，大會以英語、普通話、日語等，呼籲包括國家主席習近平等各國領袖關注香港情况，集會人群擠滿愛丁堡廣場，更擠出大會堂對出的龍和道，警員需封閉東西行車線。
Ancient Times
India has a proud tradition of diplomacy, the agency for implementing extroversive interests of a State, since ancient times, barring a few gaps in the vast sweep of time..
Vedas, Smritis,Upanishads, Puranas and commentaries by scholars on Hindu jurisprudence constitute principal sources of ancient Indian thought on State, society, law and philosophy. There might be some dispute about how old these ancient writings are, but Vedas evolved out of the intuitive thoughts of ancient rishis (wise seers), certainly much before 2000 years B.C., Smritis and Upanishads before Buddha, about whose birth and teachings in 6th century B.C., there is no dispute. Smritis are divided into Sutras and Dharma Sastras. Dharma Sastra, also known as Manu Smriti enjoys unquestionable precedence in Indian philosophical and legal thought, inter-state relations and diplomacy.
Commenting on different roles of authorities in a State, Manu stated, "Let the king appoint an Ambassador ; the army depends on its Commander; control of subjects (depends) on the army; the Government of the kingdom on the King; peace and war on the Ambassador".
Vedic literature and Smrtis have treated the State as an individual sovereign unit and also as a component unit of a circle of States called Raj Mandala, to control and regulate relations among them. The protection .and promotion of political, military and economic interests of a State rested on five constituent elements; the Ministers, the kingdom, the fortress, the treasury and the army.
Manu had advanced concepts like befriending the enemy of a hostile neighbour, neutrality, mediation etc. now universally accepted. Commenting on the importance of Ambassadors, Manu states, "The King has to be careful about the details given by the Ambassador, the whole range of inter-state relations and the existence of the State depends on the efficacy of the Ambassadors."
According to him, a high degree of intellectual equipment was necessary for an Ambassador; and in selecting people for diplomatic missions, one must choose persons who are "loyal, honest, skilful, possessing good memory, fearless and eloquent". writings of these and later times emphasised these qualities and added that an envoy must be sweet voiced, persuasive, industrious, well-versed in sciences and possessed of faculty of reading others' thoughts and feelings from their behaviour and appearance etc.
Ramayana and Mahabharata
The well-known Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata (of which Bhagwat Geeta is a component) which had origins earlier than Buddha paid great attention to the institution of diplomacy and envoys and their functions. They contain numerous references to the use of diplomatic agents in trying to peacefully settle disputes; for example,
In Ramayana, before the declaration of war between the forces of Rama, the Aryan King and Ravana, the Demon King, Hanumana was sent as a diplomatic messenger to persuade Ravana to return Rama's wife Seeta whom Ravana had abducted. The mission failed, but when Ravana sentenced Hanumana to death and ordered his execution, Ravana's younger brother Vibhishana pleaded that the order be revoked, since according to the law in force, it was not permissible to kill envoys and messengers. The sentence of death was reduced to a lesser punishment.
Before the final declaration of war between Rama and Ravana, another effort was made through Angada who was sent as a diplomatic messenger.
In Mahabharata also, Lord Krishna was sent on a diplomatic mission on behalf of Pandavas to the Court of Duryodhana to avoid the wholesale war between the two princely families. When an attempt was made by Duryodhana's supporters to assault envoy Krishna, it was emphatically and successfully argued that the person of the Duta (diplomatic messenger) was inviolable and therefore could not be assaulted or punished. A diplomat had to be treated with high dignity and respect.
After the period covering the Vedic and epic literature, a variety of principles on International relations. diplomatic practices and methods, means of reconciliation and arbitration, principles of war were developed and perfected.
An interesting concept was the Chakravartini Raja (Universal Monarch) whose suzerainty or protection, after wars, if necessary, was acknowledged by surrounding kings. It is quite akin to the modern-day super-power rivalry, with their pacts, doctrines and areas of influence.
The knowledge and art of diplomacy like other knowledge and wisdom, which was considered sacred was imparted through the institution of an Ashram (a hostelry where the teacher and his disciples stayed together) and other institutions. The technique of imparting Vidya (knowledge) through the institution of guru-sishya parampara (teacher-student tradition) continues in India even now, in the field of music, dancing, painting and other areas.
Kautilya's Arthsastra
A significant document, recovered in the early years of this century (20th), is the Artha Sastra (an exhaustive treatise and manual on statecraft and diplomacy). It is a prose work in 15 books authored by Kautilya, also known as Chanakya and Vishnu Gupta, who was the principal counselor - adviser of Emperor Chandra Gupta Maurya and was composed around 300 B.C. It shows close acquaintance with the administrative and the diplomatic methods of Hellenistic States, particularly in Syria and Egypt and is a distilled quintessence of various schools on this subject which then existed in India. The institution of diplomatic envoys is dealt in Book-I, Chapter XVI. Whether the diplomatic mission is ad hoc or permanent, the mission had to follow well accepted principles in inter-state relations. Adoption of appropriate 'diplomatic language' was considered important in dealings between rulers and kings. Guda lekha (code language) was adopted for diplomatic correspondence.
The classification of Ambassadors, his qualifications, status, immunity, duties, salary etc. are discussed in great details. A successful Adviser (Minister) was deemed suitable for the
post of .Ambassador, a practice followed by many nations now for important Missions. Of course, there was no paraphernalia like Minister/Counselor, First Secretary etc and the Missions may not have been of permanent duration in all States.
The envoys had the following four classifications ( similar to those adopted et the Vienna Congress of 1815 etc.):
(a) Duta (Ambassador Extraordinary);
(b) Nisrishtartha (Minister Plenipotentiary);
(c) Parimitarhah (Charge d'Affaires); and
(d) Sasanarhah (Diplomatic Messenger / Special Envoy).
The grading of rank and status varied with the degree of responsibility entrusted in the diplomatic agent (as in modern times). Kautilya also deals with the methods and principles that are to be adopted by a diplomatic agent in fulfilling his mission. He categorises the missions as madhyama (mediatory), udasina (neutral), vijigishu (conquering the king) and ari (enemy). He also gives detailed instructions on the institution of intelligence network and the role of spies, which was necessary for the maintenance of internal security and for efficient and successful conduct of foreign relations. The intelligence reports and those from envoys were double checked and analysed.
There were women spies in the garb of wives, courtesans and even prostitutes, ascetics etc. Techniques for finding out the weakness of enemies and ways to exploit it (blackmail), were well delineated. Other measures included collection of information, dis-informatlon, and if necessary use of force to eliminate enemies. The concept of Raj Mandala i.e. Inter-state relations, was further elaborated and detailed strategies explained. The concept of treaty was widely practiced in inter-state relations.
Kautilya observes:
"One shall make an alliance with a king who is stronger than one's neighbouring enemy; in the absence of such a king, one should ingratiate oneself with one's neighbouring enemy, either by supplying money or army or by ceding a part of one's territory and keeping oneself aloof; for there can be no greater evil to kings than alliance with a king of considerable power, unless one is actually attacked by one's enemy."
"When the advantages derivable from peace and war are of equal character, one should prefer peace; for disadvantages such as loss of power and wealth, sojourning and sin are ever attending upon war."
"A king who is situated between two powerful kings, shall seek protection from the stronger of the two or one of them on whom he can rely; or he may make peace with both of them on equal terms."
For the purpose of settlement of disputes, four methods were advocated, namely, 'sama', 'dana', 'bheda', and 'danda'. Sama (conciliatory approach) should be the first step in tackling a dispute or problem, followed by appeasement (dana); when it failed then effort to create division and drive a wedge between the opponents (bheda) was prescribed. The use of force (danda) was to be employed as the last resort when all other methods had failed.
According to Artha Sastra, the State should follow a six-fold policy with other States: (1) Sandhi (treaty of peace); (2) Vigrah (war); (3) Asana (neutrality) (4) Yana (marching) - presumably a threat; (5) Samsrya (alliance ) and (6) Dwidibhava (making peace with one and end war with another).
The wealth of contribution by Kautilya to the science of diplomacy, statecraft, administration, management is stupendous and invaluable and deserves a greater attention and study in our days. It is clear that in ancient India, the concepts of statecraft and diplomacy was an organised discipline for advancing a nation's interests through peaceful means.
During the Buddhist period and later, many rulers entrusted delicate and strategic missions to diplomatic agents for the security of the State and for the maintenance of friendly relations. During the reign of Indian King Bindusara, Delmachos was sent as an Ambassador by King Antiochos of Syria and Dinyosius as an Ambassador by King Ptolmy of Egypt (298 BC - 273 BC). Emperor Ashoka (273 BC - 232 BC) established diplomatic relations with the Kings of Ceylon (Srl Lanka), Syria, Egypt, Macedon, Cyrene and other countries. During the 7th century AD, there were diplomatic relations between the Indian King Pulkesin II and Shah of Persia, Khosru Parwez. There is evidence of diplomatic relations between King Harasha Vardhana of India and the Imperial Court of China.
Medieval Period
During the medieval period of Indian history, as in earlier times, diplomatic relations were maintained among States in the Indian sub-continent, as well as with States beyond it. The Afghan and Turks rulers based in Delhi and other places , maintained diplomatic relations with States in Central Asia, Persia, Arab world, Asia minor, Greece, Levant and even with States in Tibet and China. The Kingdoms of South of India on the West Coast, maintained diplomatic relations with States along Arabian Sea Littoral and Indian Ocean littoral in Africa. The ones on the East-Coast and South, maintained relations with Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaya; some of these countries were conquered and colonised by the Kings of South India.
The Moghuls maintained diplomatic relations with most of the states mentioned earlier and in the later stages received envoys from European states like Portugal, France , Britain, Holland, etc. During the period of struggle for the Indian Empire between the Titular Moghul Emperors and other Indian States on one hand and the British, Portuguese, French and other naval based European powers on the other hand, the Indian kings, like Hyder Ali, Tlpu Sultan and others maintained diplomatic relations with countries in the Arab world, Ottoman Sultans and European powers in order to obtain support in political and financial areas and others like defense technology and training expertise and techniques.
British Period
During the British rule over India and in the region, the conduct of international relations became a responsibility of the British Crown and policies were formulated In London. It may, however, be reiterated that, like the Moghuls earlier, the British had also modified the existing system of administration, following from the days of the Mauryan Empire. In regard to collection of revenue, maintaining law and order and administering justice etc they only superimposed the British system over it. Even the system of administering a district was based on the Moghul Sarkar system, which was headed by a Faujdar - a military officer, representing the provincial governor.
After experimentation, the district head was designated a Collector, who was given the powers of the Faujdar for maintaining peace and order and of Amalguzar for collecting revenue and looking after the peasants. The system became and continues to be the lynch-pin of administration In India. The police system modified and expanded from the old Moghul Daroga system, finally blossomed as it exists now after the Police Act of 1861. The earlier senior district and police officers were British. In late l9th century, top revenue and judicial administration was devised, based on Macaulay Committee Report, and run by Officers recruited through competitive examinations - many years ahead of England, where entry to Civil Services was by patronage.
The Indianisation of Civil Services seriously started only after 1917, when the number of Indian entrants through competition was increased to 50%. The middle and low level officers in all departments were recruited partly through examinations, but mostly through patronage. From this cadre of trained Indian Civil Servants, some of whom were also seconded to the Political and External departments of the Government of India, emerged the nucleus of bureaucrats who formed the Diplomatic Service, known as the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) after Independence in 1947. The gap after the departure of the British Civil Servants and the extra requirements to meet the sudden expansion of India's representation abroad, was filled by special recruitment from retired Defence Services Officers, Scions of princely and ruling native States, those who had studied abroad, etc.
K.Gajendra Singh ;Nairobi, Kenya ;April.1988
A few years ago, early on Saturday morning, I tried to enter St Dunstan's, with no luck. It was locked fast.
Which was a shame, as it looked a very interesting church from the outside, and with its location, just outside the city gate on the crossing of two main roads.
Anyway, I logged this away in my meory banks, detirmed to go back one day. And for a change this Heritage Weekend, we returned to Canterbury not once, but twice. And on the second day was rewarded with entry to three of the city churches.
St Dunstan is most famous for being the final resting place of Sir Thomas More's head, in the family tomb of his wife. There is fine glass commemorating this.
Some minor work is being carried out at the rear of the church, so a return will be needed to see the full restored church.
------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated to a former Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan's stands outside the city walls. There is structural evidence of the Norman period, but most of the church is fourteenth century. The west tower dates from this time and is very oddly proportioned - about twice the height that its width can really cope with. The south chapel is constructed of brick and was completed in the early sixteenth century. It contains monuments to the More family and is the burial place of St. Thomas More's head, - brought here by his daughter after his execution. The family home stood opposite the church where its brick gateway may still be seen. There are two twentieth-century windows of note in the chapel, by Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Canterbury+2
-------------------------------------------------
St. Dunstan's is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.
The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.
Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978 and was canonised soon after his death, becoming the favourite saint of the English until he was supplanted by Thomas Becket.[2] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but his tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.
In 1174, when Henry II began his penitential pilgrimage in reparation for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he changed his clothing into sackcloth at St. Dunstan’s Church and began his pilgrimage from here to Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral on foot.
His daughter Margaret secured the release of Thomas More's head from its spike on London Bridge and brought it back to the family tomb of her husband William Roper.[4] The Roper family lived nearby off what is now St Dunstan's Street. What remains of their home is called Roper Gate, marked with a commemorative plaque, it is all that survives of Place House. The Roper family vault is located underneath the Nicholas Chapel, to the right of the church's main altar. It was sealed in recent years, according to Anglican tradition. A large stone slab marks its location to the immediate left of the chapel's altar. Three impressive stained glass windows line the chapel, the one behind the altar depicts in brilliant detail the major events and symbols in the life of the Saint. Another of the windows commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canterbury to pray with the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The window displays the arms of the Archbishop's diocese and the Pope. Plaques mounted on the walls explain the veracity of the relic of the Saint's head, the sealing of the vault which contains it, and the life of the Saint, including a prayer he wrote.
St Dunstan’s has six bells, hung for change ringing in the English style, the heaviest weighing 13cwt (approx. 675 kg). Due to the unusual narrowness of the belfry, the bells are hung in a two-tier frame.
The fifth bell of the ring is one of the oldest Christian church bells in the world, believed to have been cast in 1325 by William le Belyetere, making it nearly 690 years old as of 2014 [5]
The bells were removed from the tower in 1935 so that a concrete structural beam could be fitted to the tower. At this time the bells were retuned by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and rehung in the present frame in 1936.
The bells are rung on Friday evenings for practice, and Sunday mornings for the service, by the St Dunstan’s Society of Change Ringers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Dunstan%27s,_Canterbury
----------------------------------------------
ir Thomas More (/ˈmɔːr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3]
More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded. Ahead of his execution, he was reported saying his famous words: "I die the King's good servant, but God's first."
Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] The Soviet Union honoured him for the 'Communistic' attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia.
Born in Milk Street in London, on February 7, 1478, Thomas More was the son of Sir John More,[9] a successful lawyer and later judge, and his wife Agnes (née Graunger). More was educated at St Anthony's School, then considered one of London's finest schools.[10] From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, as a household page.[11]:xvi Morton enthusiastically supported the "New Learning" (now called the Renaissance), and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford (either in St. Mary's Hall or Canterbury College, both now gone).[12]:38
More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek. More left Oxford after only two years—at his father's insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery.[11]:xvii[13] In 1496, More became a student at Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, when he was called to the Bar.
According to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.[14][15] Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London and joined in the monks' spiritual exercises. Although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year.[11]:xxi
In spite of his choice to pursue a secular career, More continued ascetical practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin and occasionally engaging in flagellation.[11]:xxi A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints.
More married Jane Colt in 1505.[12]:118 She was 5 years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured.[12]:119 Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature.[12]:119 The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John.[12]:132
Going "against friends' advice and common custom," within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends.[17] He certainly expected a mother to take care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an "economic union",[18] he chose a rich widow, Alice Harpur Middleton.[19] More is regarded not getting remarried for sexual pleasure, since Alice is much older than himself, and their marriage possibly had not been consummated.[18] The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, which, due to his good public reputation, he easily obtained.[17] Alice More lacked Jane's docility; More's friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a "hook-nosed harpy."[20] Erasmus, however, called their marriage happy.[12]:144
More had no children from his second marriage, although he raised Alice's daughter from her previous marriage as his own. More also became the guardian of two young girls: Anne Cresacre would eventually marry his son, John More;[12]:146 and Margaret Giggs (later Clement) would be the only member of his family to witness his execution (she died on the 35th anniversary of that execution, and her daughter married More's nephew William Rastell). An affectionate father, More wrote letters to his children whenever he was away on legal or government business, and encouraged them to write to him often.[12]:150[21]:xiv
More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time.[12]:146–47 His eldest daughter, Margaret, attracted much admiration for her erudition, especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.[12]:147 More told his daughter of his pride in her academic accomplishment in September 1522, after he showed the bishop a letter she had written:
When he saw from the signature that it was the letter of a lady, his surprise led him to read it more eagerly … he said he would never have believed it to be your work unless I had assured him of the fact, and he began to praise it in the highest terms … for its pure Latinity, its correctness, its erudition, and its expressions of tender affection. He took out at once from his pocket a portague [A Portuguese gold coin] … to send to you as a pledge and token of his good will towards you.[21]:152
More's decision to educate his daughters set an example for other noble families. Even Erasmus became much more favourable once he witnessed their accomplishments.[12]:149
A portrait of More and his family was painted by Holbein, but it was lost in a fire in the 18th century. More's grandson commissioned a copy, two versions of which survive.
In 1504 More was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth, and in 1510 began representing London.[22]
From 1510, More served as one of the two undersheriffs of the City of London, a position of considerable responsibility in which he earned a reputation as an honest and effective public servant. More became Master of Requests in 1514,[23] the same year in which he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor.[24] After undertaking a diplomatic mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York, to Calais and Bruges, More was knighted and made under-treasurer of the Exchequer in 1521.[24]
As secretary and personal adviser to King Henry VIII, More became increasingly influential: welcoming foreign diplomats, drafting official documents, and serving as a liaison between the King and Lord Chancellor Wolsey. More later served as High Steward for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1523 More was elected as knight of the shire (MP) for Middlesex and, on Wolsey's recommendation, the House of Commons elected More its Speaker.[24] In 1525 More became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with executive and judicial responsibilities over much of northern England.
More supported the Catholic Church and saw the Protestant Reformation as heresy, a threat to the unity of both church and society. More believed in the theology, polemics, and ecclesiastical laws of the church, and "heard Luther's call to destroy the Catholic Church as a call to war."[25]
His early actions against the Reformation included aiding Wolsey in preventing Lutheran books from being imported into England, spying on and investigating suspected Protestants, especially publishers, and arresting anyone holding in his possession, transporting, or selling the books of the Protestant Reformation. More vigorously suppressed the travelling country ministers who used Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament.[citation needed] It contained controversial translations of certain words; for example, Tyndale used "senior" and "elder" rather than "priest" for the Greek "presbyteros", and some of the marginal glosses challenged Catholic doctrine.[26] It was during this time that most of his literary polemics appeared.
Rumours circulated during and after More's lifetime regarding ill-treatment of heretics during his time as Lord Chancellor. The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe, who "placed Protestant sufferings against the background of... the Antichrist",[27] was instrumental in publicising accusations of torture in his famous Book of Martyrs, claiming that More had often personally used violence or torture while interrogating heretics. Later authors such as Brian Moynahan and Michael Farris cite Foxe when repeating these allegations.[28] More himself denied these allegations:
Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'so helpe me God.'[12]:298
However, More writes in his "Apology" (1533) that he only applied corporal punishment to two heretics: a child who was caned in front of his family for heresy regarding the Eucharist, and a "feeble-minded" man who was whipped for disrupting prayers.[29]:404 During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[12]:299–306 Moynahan has argued that More was influential in the burning of Tyndale, as More's agents had long pursued him, even though this took place over a year after his own death.[30] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy; about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[31] His biographer Peter Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning".[12]:298
John Tewkesbury was a London leather seller found guilty by Bishop of London John Stokesley[32] of harbouring banned books; he was sentenced to burning for refusing to recant. More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[33]
Modern commentators are divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. Some biographers, including Ackroyd, have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time. Others have been more critical, such as Richard Marius, an American scholar of the Reformation, believing that persecutions were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions, including More's zealous and well-documented advocacy of extermination for Protestants.[29]:386–406
Some Protestants take a different view. In 1980, More was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, despite being a fierce opponent of the English Reformation that created the Church of England. He was added jointly with John Fisher, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".[5] Pope John Paul II honoured him by making him patron saint of statesmen and politicians in October 2000, stating: "It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience... even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time".
As the conflict over supremacy between the Papacy and the King reached its apogee, More continued to remain steadfast in supporting the supremacy of the Pope as Successor of Peter over that of the King of England. In 1530, More refused to sign a letter by the leading English churchmen and aristocrats asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and also quarrelled with Henry VIII over the heresy laws. In 1531, Henry had isolated More by purging most clergy who supported the papal stance from senior positions in the church. Parliament's reinstatement of the charge of praemunire in 1529 had made it a crime to support in public or office the claim of any authority outside the realm (such as the Papacy) to have a legal jurisdiction superior to the King's. In 1531, a royal decree required the clergy to take an oath acknowledging the King as "Supreme Head" of the Church in England. As a layperson, More did not need to take the oath and the clergy, after some initial resistance, took the oath with the addition of the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows." However, More saw he could not render the support Henry expected from his Lord Chancellor for the policy the King was developing to support the annulment of his marriage with Catherine. In 1532 he petitioned the King to relieve him of his office, alleging failing health. Henry granted his request.
In 1533, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the Queen of England. Technically, this was not an act of treason, as More had written to Henry acknowledging Anne's queenship and expressing his desire for the King's happiness and the new Queen's health.[34] Despite this, his refusal to attend was widely interpreted as a snub against Anne, and Henry took action against him.
Shortly thereafter, More was charged with accepting bribes, but the charges had to be dismissed for lack of any evidence. In early 1534, More was accused of conspiring with the "Holy Maid of Kent," Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment, but More was able to produce a letter in which he had instructed Barton not to interfere with state matters.[citation needed]
On 13 April 1534, More was asked to appear before a commission and swear his allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession. More accepted Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but, holding fast to the teaching of papal supremacy, he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the kingdom and the church in England. More furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused the oath along with More. The oath reads:[35]
...By reason whereof the Bishop of Rome and See Apostolic, contrary to the great and inviolable grants of jurisdictions given by God immediately to emperors, kings and princes in succession to their heirs, hath presumed in times past to invest who should please them to inherit in other men's kingdoms and dominions, which thing we your most humble subjects, both spiritual and temporal, do most abhor and detest...
With his refusal to support the King's annulment, More's enemies had enough evidence to have the King arrest him on treason. Four days later, Henry had More imprisoned in the Tower of London. There More prepared a devotional Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation. While More was imprisoned in the Tower, Thomas Cromwell made several visits, urging More to take the oath, which he continued to refuse.
On 1 July 1535, More was tried before a panel of judges that included the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley, as well as Anne Boleyn's father, brother, and uncle. He was charged with high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy and was tried under the following section of the Treasons Act 1534:
If any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates …
That then every such person and persons so offending … shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.[36]
More, relying on legal precedent and the maxim "qui tacet consentire videtur" (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent), understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Thomas Cromwell, at the time the most powerful of the King's advisors, brought forth the Solicitor General, Richard Rich, to testify that More had, in his presence, denied that the King was the legitimate head of the church. This testimony was characterised by More as being extremely dubious. Witnesses Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer both denied having heard the details of the reported conversation, and as More himself pointed out:
Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had always so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, … that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy Councillors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other account at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.
The jury took only fifteen minutes, however, to find More guilty.
After the jury's verdict was delivered and before his sentencing, More spoke freely of his belief that "no temporal man may be the head of the spirituality". He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the usual punishment for traitors who were not the nobility), but the King commuted this to execution by decapitation. The execution took place on 6 July 1535. When he came to mount the steps to the scaffold, he is widely quoted as saying (to the officials): "I pray you, I pray you, Mr Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, I can shift for myself"; while on the scaffold he declared that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first."
Another comment he is believed to have made to the executioner is that his beard was completely innocent of any crime, and did not deserve the axe; he then positioned his beard so that it would not be harmed.[39] More asked that his foster/adopted daughter Margaret Clement (née Giggs) be given his headless corpse to bury.[40] She was the only member of his family to witness his execution. He was buried at the Tower of London, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in an unmarked grave. His head was fixed upon a pike over London Bridge for a month, according to the normal custom for traitors. His daughter Margaret (Meg) Roper rescued it, possibly by bribery, before it could be thrown in the River Thames.[citation needed]
The skull is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, though some researchers[who?] have claimed it might be within the tomb he erected for More in Chelsea Old Church (see below). The evidence,[clarification needed] however, seems to be in favour of its placement in St Dunstan's, with the remains of his daughter, Margaret Roper, and her husband's family, whose vault it was.[citation needed]
Among other surviving relics is his hair shirt, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.[41] This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who until 1983 lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon. It is now preserved at Syon Abbey, near South Brent.
HKFP: Thousands gathered at Edinburgh Place on Wednesday evening calling on G20 countries to raise concerns about Hong Kong at the leaders’ summit on Friday, hours after staging a mass march to foreign consulates to lobby country representatives directly.
Crowds wearing all-black spilt out of the public square, many holding signs that read “Free Hong Kong” and “Democracy Now.”
Organisers, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), issued a statement urging a withdrawal of the government’s suspended extradition bill.
“If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out during the G20 summit, and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people,” it read.
The pro-democracy coalition have led millions on marches over recent weeks against the bill, as demands have evolved into calling for universal suffrage ahead of the July 1 pro-democracy rally.
CHRF manifesto :
"Withdraw the Extradition Bill! Free Hong Kong!
A time when democracy and freedom are universal values that are inviolable.
Hong Kong people had urged for democratisation for over 30 years. When Hong Kong was handed over to China since 1997, as written in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, China promised that Hong Kong can enjoy One Country Two Systems and a high degree of autonomy. The Basic Law also promised universal suffrage to be implemented in the year of 2007 to 2008. But China broke these promises, and gradually intervened deeply in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
Hong Kong people have always insisted on having universal suffrage – to let Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we seem to be further and further away from genuine democracy. In merely 22 years after the hand-over, the One Country Two Systems principle barely survives. During the [legislative] process of the “Extradition Bill”, the Hong Kong Liaison Office blatantly intervened in Hong Kong’s internal affairs and scrapped the promises of [a] high degree of autonomy.
This year, the government decided to put the Extradition Bill through Legislative Council, in order to make all people in Hong Kong, including local citizens and expats, to be potentially extradited to China, or to countries which have less protection on human rights and the rule of law. This will destroy existing protection on human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong and will crack down the last defence to freedom and safety.
In our current political system, Hong Kong does not have genuine democracy. To stop this evil law from passing, 1.03 million followed by 2 million Hongkongers courageously took to the streets in the past two weeks. Some were even cracked down by the police with excessive, disproportionate force and lethal weapons. But the government only gave a shallow apology, without making any tangible changes.
As world leaders meet at the G20 summit, Hong Kong citizens now sincerely urge all of you, including Xi Jinping, to answer our humble questions: Does Hong Kong deserve democracy? Should Hong Kong people enjoy democracy? Can [a] democratic system be implemented in Hong Kong now?
Dear friends from around the world. I believe you have seen through media and the Internet, that Hongkongers spared no efforts to safeguard our freedom. Please bear in mind: if the Extradition Bill passes, when you come to Hong Kong to travel, study or for business, you may face unfair trials. If you believe in values like democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law like we do, please, we urge all of you to voice out, during the G20 summit and defend our rights together with Hong Kong people."
www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/26/democracy-now-hundreds-gath...
民陣昨晚在中環愛丁堡廣場舉行集會，有數以千計市民出席，大會以英語、普通話、日語等，呼籲包括國家主席習近平等各國領袖關注香港情况，集會人群擠滿愛丁堡廣場，更擠出大會堂對出的龍和道，警員需封閉東西行車線。
Here is my virtual tour through the city - portfotolio.net/jup3nep/album/72157631887823501
The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı or in Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى) is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign.
As well as a royal residence, the palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments. It is now a major tourist attraction and contains important holy relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword. The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described in Criterion iv as "the best example[s] of ensembles of palaces [...] of the Ottoman period."
Construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. At its peak, the palace was home to as many as 4,000 people, and covered a large area with a long shoreline. The complex was expanded over the centuries, with major renovations after the 1509 earthquake and the 1665 fire. The palace contained mosques, a hospital, bakeries, and a mint. The name translates as "Cannon gate Palace" from a nearby gate which has since been destroyed.
From the end of the 17th century the Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city. Some functions, such as the imperial treasury, the library, and the mint were retained in the Topkapı Palace.
Following the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Topkapı Palace was transformed by a government decree dated April 3, 1924 into a museum of the imperial era. The Topkapı Palace Museum is administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today. The complex is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military. The palace includes many fine examples of Ottoman architecture. It contains large collections of porcelain, robes, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts and murals, as well as a display of Ottoman treasures and jewelry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace
Harem (pronounced [haˈɾem], Turkish, from Arabic: حرم ḥaram "forbidden place; sacrosanct, sanctum", related to حريم ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place; female members of the family" and حرام ḥarām, "forbidden; sacred") refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah and zenana.
The word harem is strictly applicable to Muslim households only, but the system was common, more or less, to most ancient Oriental communities, especially where polygamy was permitted.
The Imperial Harem of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent, mother of Selim II) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail, Alaouite sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.
Here is my virtual tour through the city - portfotolio.net/jup3nep/album/72157631887823501
The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı or in Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى) is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign.
As well as a royal residence, the palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments. It is now a major tourist attraction and contains important holy relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword. The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described in Criterion iv as "the best example[s] of ensembles of palaces [...] of the Ottoman period."
Construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. At its peak, the palace was home to as many as 4,000 people, and covered a large area with a long shoreline. The complex was expanded over the centuries, with major renovations after the 1509 earthquake and the 1665 fire. The palace contained mosques, a hospital, bakeries, and a mint. The name translates as "Cannon gate Palace" from a nearby gate which has since been destroyed.
From the end of the 17th century the Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city. Some functions, such as the imperial treasury, the library, and the mint were retained in the Topkapı Palace.
Following the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Topkapı Palace was transformed by a government decree dated April 3, 1924 into a museum of the imperial era. The Topkapı Palace Museum is administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today. The complex is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military. The palace includes many fine examples of Ottoman architecture. It contains large collections of porcelain, robes, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts and murals, as well as a display of Ottoman treasures and jewelry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace
Harem (pronounced [haˈɾem], Turkish, from Arabic: حرم ḥaram "forbidden place; sacrosanct, sanctum", related to حريم ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place; female members of the family" and حرام ḥarām, "forbidden; sacred") refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah and zenana.
The word harem is strictly applicable to Muslim households only, but the system was common, more or less, to most ancient Oriental communities, especially where polygamy was permitted.
The Imperial Harem of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent, mother of Selim II) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail, Alaouite sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.
An autographed letter signed by the prolific author George A Birmingham (the nom-de-plume of the Rev James Owen Hannay) in which he mentions that he cares more for "Bindon Parva" than anything else he has written.
George A. Birmingham (1865-1950)
George A. Birmingham was the pen name of James Owen Hannay (born 16th July, 1865; died 2nd February, 1950), Irish clergyman and prolific novelist.
Hannay was born in Belfast and educated at Methodist College Belfast from 1883-1884 before attending Trinity College, Dublin. He was ordained in 1889 as a Church of Ireland (Anglican) minister and from 1904 served as rector of Holy Trinity Church, Westport in County Mayo.
Participation in language revival activities in Mayo and defence of the Gaelic League in the Church of Ireland Gazette led to Hannay being co-opted onto the League's national executive body in December 1904. His personal network of Irish Irelanders included Gaelic League President Douglas Hyde and the principal ideologue of the emergent Sinn Féin movement, United Irishman editor Arthur Griffith. They were sympathetic to Hannay desire for a "union of the two Irish democracies", Catholic in the south and Protestant in the north. In the north, in Ulster, he saw a potential ally in Lindsay Crawford, Grand Master of the new Independent Orange Order. He regarded the breakaway Order, like the Gaelic League as "profoundly democratic in spirit" and independent of "the rich and the patronage of the great".
Hannay's defence of Crawford's opposition to the clerical control of education in Ireland, however, strained his relations with Irish nationalists, and it was a position that had little support in their own church. The Church of Ireland Gazette dubbed Crawford "the solitary champion of secularism in the Synod. Hannay withdrew from the Gaelic League in the wake of ongoing protests about the tour of his successful play General John Regan.
Hannay became rector of Kildare parish from 1918 to 1920, and after serving as chaplain to the Viceroy of Ireland, he joined the British ambassadorial team in Budapest in 1922. He returned to officiate at Mells, Somerset from 1924 to 1934, after which he was appointed vicar of Holy Trinity Church in the London suburb of Kensington where he served from 1934 to his death in 1950.
James Hannay enjoyed sailing, and was taught the rudiments by his father and grandfather in Belfast. When he was based in Westport, his financial success of his writing enabled him to purchase a boat. He bought a Dublin Bay Water Wag. In recognition of Hannay, the Water Wag Club of Dun Laoghaire returned to Westport and Clew Bay in 2016. In the frontispiece of his book The Inviolable Sanctuary Burmingham includes a picture of the Water Wag.
Publications
· The Seething Pot (1905)
· Hyacinth (1906)
· Benedict Kavanagh (1907)
· The Northern Iron (1907)
· The Bad Times (1908)
· Spanish Gold (1908)
· The Search Party (1909)
· Lalage's Lovers (1911)
· The Major's Niece (1911)
· The Simpkins Plot (1911)
· The Inviolable Sanctuary (1911)
· Priscilla's Spies; The Red Hand of Ulster (1912)
· Do (1913)
· General John Regan: A Play in Three Acts (1913)
· The Adventures of Dr. Whitty (1913)
· Connaught to Chicago (1914) [also printed as From Dublin to Chicago]
· The Lost Tribes (1914)
· Gossamer (1915)
· Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories (1915)
· The Island Mystery (1918)
· Our Casualty (1919)
· Up the Rebels! (1919)
· Inisheeny (1920)
· Good Conduct (1920)
· Lady Bountiful (1921)
· The Lost Lawyer (1921)
· The Great-Grandmother (1922)
· A Public Scandal (1922)
· Fed Up (1923)
· Found Money (1923)
· King Tommy (1923)
· Send for Dr Grady (1923)
· The Grand Duchess (1924)
· Bindon Parva (1925)
· The Gun-Runners (1925)
· Goodly Pearls (1926)
· The Smuggler's Cave (1926)
· Lady of the Abbey (1926)
· Now You Tell One: Stories of Irish Wit & Humour (1927)
· Fidgets (1927)
· Ships and Sealing Wax (1927)
· Elizabeth and the Archdeacon (1928)
· The Runaways (1928)
· The Major's Candlesticks (1929)
· Murder Most Foul! (1929)
· The Hymn Tune Mystery (1930)
· Wild Justice (1930)
· The Silver-Gilt Standard (1932)
· Angel's Adventure (1933)
· Two Fools (1934)
· Love or Money (1935)
· Millicent's Corner (1935)
· Daphne's Fishing (1937)
· Mrs. Miller's Aunt (1937)
· Magilligan Strand (1938)
· Appeasement (1939)
· Miss Maitland's Spy (1940)
· The Search for Susie (1941)
· Over the Border (1942)
· Poor Sir Edward (1943)
· Lieutenant Commander (1944)
· Good Intentions (1945)
· The Piccadilly Lady (1946)
· Golden Apple (1947)
· A Sea Battle (1948)
· Laura's Bishop (1949)
· Two Scamps (1950)
Other works
· The Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism (1903) from his Donnellan Lectures
· The Wisdom of the Desert (1904)
· Irishmen All (1913)
· The Lighter Side of Irish Life (1914)
· Golden Sayings from George A. Birmingham (1915)
· Recollections of Sir Jonah Barrington (1918)
· A Padre in France (1918)
· An Irishman Looks at His World (1918)
· A Wayfarer in Hungary (1925)
· Spillikins: Essays (1926)
· Can You Answer This? A Question Book (1927)
· Do you Know Your History? A History Questions Book (1928)
· Pleasant Places (1934)
Here is my virtual tour through the city - portfotolio.net/jup3nep/album/72157631887823501
The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı or in Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى) is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign.
As well as a royal residence, the palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments. It is now a major tourist attraction and contains important holy relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword. The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described in Criterion iv as "the best example[s] of ensembles of palaces [...] of the Ottoman period."
Construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. At its peak, the palace was home to as many as 4,000 people, and covered a large area with a long shoreline. The complex was expanded over the centuries, with major renovations after the 1509 earthquake and the 1665 fire. The palace contained mosques, a hospital, bakeries, and a mint. The name translates as "Cannon gate Palace" from a nearby gate which has since been destroyed.
From the end of the 17th century the Topkapı Palace gradually lost its importance as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city. Some functions, such as the imperial treasury, the library, and the mint were retained in the Topkapı Palace.
Following the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Topkapı Palace was transformed by a government decree dated April 3, 1924 into a museum of the imperial era. The Topkapı Palace Museum is administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today. The complex is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military. The palace includes many fine examples of Ottoman architecture. It contains large collections of porcelain, robes, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts and murals, as well as a display of Ottoman treasures and jewelry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace
Harem (pronounced [haˈɾem], Turkish, from Arabic: حرم ḥaram "forbidden place; sacrosanct, sanctum", related to حريم ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place; female members of the family" and حرام ḥarām, "forbidden; sacred") refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah and zenana.
The word harem is strictly applicable to Muslim households only, but the system was common, more or less, to most ancient Oriental communities, especially where polygamy was permitted.
The Imperial Harem of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent, mother of Selim II) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail, Alaouite sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.