Stratford Caldecott, Tutor

SEMINAR 1

TEXT: Bede, HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND PEOPLE

(please refer to the Oxford edition if possible, but it is also available online at the "Medieval Sourcebook" web-site, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html).

Begin with Book 5, ch. 24 (chronological summary + Bede's touching autobiography)

Book 1, ch. 1 (topography of British Isles)

Book 1, ch. 7 (martyrdom of St Alban - Christians in Roman Britain)

Book 1, chs. 21 - 33 St Augustine's mission

Book 2, chs. 9 & 13 (Edwin and Paulinus)

Book 3, ch. 25 (Synod of Whitby)

Cuthbert's Letter on the death of St Bede

Background: Henry Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (Penn State University Press, 1991);

Patrick Wormald's article in Geoffrey Rowell, The English Religious Tradition and the Genius of Anglicanism (Ikon, 1992);

The Jarrow Lectures, in Bede and His World (Variorum, 1994), especially Henry Mayr-Harting, "The Venerable Bede, the Rule of St Benedict, and Social Class" (1976);

Benedicta Ward, The Venerable Bede (Geoffrey Chapman, 1998);

Other works by Bede: e.g. On the Temple (Liverpool University Press, 1995); Homilies on the Gospels (Cistercian University Press, 1991)

TEXT: G.K. Chesterton's BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE (Methuen, 1911, recently republished by Ignatius Press), especially Books I, VII and VIII.

Desire for and possession of earthly power never pleased me overmuch, and I did not unduly desire this earthly rule, but that nevertheless I wished for tools and resources for the task that I was commanded to accomplish, which was that I should virtuously and worthily guide and direct the authority which was entrusted to me.

Once thought to be the founder of the city of Oxford, Alfred (b. 849, ruled 871-899) is best known today for the story of the burning of the cakes. He was one of the greatest of English kings, our local 'Charlemagne' in a way, responsible not only for the military defence against the Vikings and the establishment of the realm of Wessex, but for a minor renaissance of culture. He was himself a man of letters – a lover of poetry and the translator of St Augustine's Soliloquies and of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius into Old English.

Please look up some historical background on King Alfred before reading the poem: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's account are available online (from The Medieval Sourcebook), and a good summary can be found in The Catholic Encyclopedia (www.newadvent.org). See also www.mirror.org/ken.roberts/king.alfred.html.

SEMINAR 3

TEXT: Part 2 of T.S. Eliot's play MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL

The assassination of the Archbishop of Canterbury on 29 December 1170 by soldiers answerable to King Henry II gave England its most popular shrine (cf. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales), and led to the King being scourged at the martyr's tomb as part of his public penance for the deed. This was a defining moment in the relationship of Church and State in England in the pre-Reformation period, and in the formation of England's Catholic identity.

The best known of Eliot's five plays, Murder in the Cathedral has two main scenes, one set about a month before the murder, Becket having returned from exile in France, and the second the scene of the murder itself, in which the four assassins also plead their case to the audience. Becket's Christmas Day sermon of that year forms a poignant interlude between them.

A compilation of key TEXTS on the life and death of St Thomas Becket can be found at www.loyno.edu/~letchie/becket/texts.htm

An overview of his life may be found in The Catholic Enclycopedia (www.newadvent.org),

or (along with information on Henry II) at www.ibiscom.com/becket.htm

Christopher Dawson, Medieval Essays (1953, reprinted by Catholic University of America Press, 2002), especially Ch. 5 on 'Church and State in the Middle Ages'.

TEXT: Walter Daniel, LIFE OF AELRED OF RIEVAULX (Cistercian Publications) chs. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9-13, 29, 32-33, 40-60.

Known especially for his writings on friendship, and known as the 'Bernard of the North' (after St Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercians a century before), St Aelred represents the best elements of the Cistercian Benedictine life, which had such a huge impact on English civilization. He was a mystic, an intellectual and a gifted administrator. He was Abbot of Rievaulx, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, from 1147, and died in 1167.

Supplementary reading: Aelred, The Mirror of Charity (Mowbray, 1962), pp. 132-42.

The Rule of Saint Benedict (there are many editions available).

Chapters on St Aelred in David Hugh Farmer (ed.), Benedict's Disciples (Fowler Wright, 1980)

and in James Broderick, A Procession of Saints (Burns Oates, 1949).

Also recommended, if you can find them:

David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge University Press, 1963); Richard North, Fools for God (Collins, 1987); John Saward, Perfect Fools (OUP, 1980), chapter on the Cistercians; Peter Levi, The Frontiers of Paradise: A Study of Monks and Monasticism (Collins, 1987); Jean Leclercq OSB, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture (SPCK, 1978); Thomas Merton, The Last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (HBJ, 1954)

TEXT: Eamon Duffy, THE STRIPPING OF THE ALTARS (Yale, 1992), Ch. 1 ('Seasons and Signs'), also the section called 'Devotions to the Virgin' on pp. 256-265.

The importance of Duffy's book is that it succeeded in convincing most historians that the English Reformation was not, by and large, supported at the grass roots of society, but was largely imposed on the English people for political reasons, and vigorously resisted by them wherever possible. The rich texture of popular devotion, which shaped and conditioned English society at every level through liturgy, guild and pilgrimage, is vividly portrayed in the book. Duffy also showed that many of the monasteries were probably not as corrupt as Henry's assessors and subsequent Protestant historians had tended to claim.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was at the heart of Medieval devotion, as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven. Representing the tender and maternal qualities of the Church, the mystical life of intimacy with the Divine, the summit of worldly grace and beauty, she was loved by peasant and king alike. From the reign of Richard II (1377), England was known as 'Mary's Dowry', but the title was probably an ancient one, and sums up the special connection that many of the English felt towards the most blessed of all redeemed creatures.

Supplementary reading: John D. Miller, Beads and Prayers: The Rosary in History and Devotion (Continuum, 2002);T.E. Bridgett, Our Lady's Dowry (Burns & Oates, 1875) or

Hilda Graef, Mary, A History of Doctrine and Devotion (Westminster, Maryland,1965);

H.M. Gillett, Shrines of Our Lady in England and Wales (Walker, 1957); D.J. Hall, English Medieval Pilgrimage (RKP, 1965);

And see http://www.udayton.edu/mary/ for a variety of online resources.

J.T. Fowler (ed.), The Rites of Durham 1593 (Surtees Society, 1902)

Please 'visit' St Mary's Church, Iffley: www.iffley.co.uk

SEMINAR 6

TEXT: Any two chapters of Howard Pyle, THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (rp. Dover, 1968);

Or Alfred Noyes, ROBIN HOOD: A PLAY IN FIVE ACTS (Blackwood, 1926)

Christopher Tyerman, England and the Crusades, 1095-1588 (Chicago & London, 1988);

Maurice Keen, Chivalry (Yale, 1984);

Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World: Europe 1100-1350 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1961), chapters 6 and 7.

These readings will give us an opportunity to discuss some aspects of English culture and its relation to France and Europe at the time of the Crusades. Richard I, the brother of bad King John, who was born in Oxford and who usually returns from the Crusades in disguise at the end of the stories, was one of the greatest symbols of medieval chivalry. The Son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, he belongs to the period of the troubadours, when the stories of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table were circulating around Europe.

Thanks to the presence of the legendary figure of Friar Tuck, we also have an excuse to mention the influence of the Franciscans and Dominicans on English Catholic culture – an important theme that deserves more attention, especially in Oxford where both Orders arrived soon after their founding at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

TEXT: Edmund Colledge OSA and James Walsh SJ (eds), A BOOK OF SHOWINGS TO THE ANCHORESS JULIAN OF NORWICH (Toronto: Pontifical Institute, 1978). Long Version, chs. 1-10, 24-25, 32, 39, 41-43

There are many versions of this classic work of English spirituality, but the one given here is the critical edition. You may wish to consult others, including the modern English rendering by the same editors in Julian of Norwich: Showings (Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist, 1978).

Lady Julian of Norwich (1342-1416?) is one of the most popular of the fourteenth-century English mystics. She lived most of her life in solitude, where in 1373 she received sixteen 'showings' or personal revelations of God's love. She wrote these in a Short Text, and later expanded these after praying and reflecting on them for several years into the Long Text.

Though often neglected in the histories of any nation, because they seldom have a direct influence on political and economic events, the mystics are a vital influence upon, and expression of, cultural development in every age.

David Knowles, The English Mystical Tradition (Burns & Oates, 1961);

C. Pepler, The English Religious Heritage (Herder, 1958);

Anon., The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works (Penguin, 1961), trans. C. Wolters;

Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love (Penguin, 1972), and cf. www.bartleby.com/212/0201.html

For more online resources, see the Medieval Sourcebook or www.umilta.net/bibliogr.html

SEMINAR 8

TEXT: Geoffrey Chaucer, PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES and THE PROLOGUE TO THE SECOND NUN'S TALE

It has been said of Chaucer: "Except ye become as little children’ is the hardest saying ever given to the intellectual world. These are great geniuses, Geoffrey Chaucer not least among them, to whom it was not given in vain."

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London between 1340 and 1345; he died there, 25 October 1400. Well connected in the aristocracy, he was captured in a battle with France and ransomed by the King. Thereafter, he was employed on diplomatic missions. In 1372 he was sent to Italy, where he met the poet Petrarch: this was the turning point in his literary life. Having been a soldier and a diplomat, he was financially unsuccessful back in London, and was only rescued from disaster by occasional royal patronage. He was, however, one of the greatest poets of the time, and The Canterbury Tales (which is incomplete) provides us with one of the most engaging and detailed portraits of the life, social conditions and characters of the time. He was a representative along with Petrarch of the early Renaissance, which was Christian-humanist in tone.

G.K. Chesterton, Chaucer (Faber & Faber, 1932);

D.J. Hall, English Medieval Pilgrimage (RKP, 1965)

Online: www.bartleby.com/212/index.html#7

We will view a video from the National Gallery, London: The Wilton Diptych

TEXT: Langland, VISIONS FROM PIERS PLOWMAN, trans. Nevill Coghill (Phoenix, 1949)

The poet William Langland (1333-1399?) was a contemporary of Chaucer's, but completely different in style and tone. To quote The English Way: 'Chaucer represents all that England had learned from its three centuries of incorporation in Continental culture [since the Norman Conquest of 1066]. He is a courtier and a scholar who looks at the English scene with the humorous detachment of a man of the great world. He clothed the courtly tradition in an English dress and gave the common Englishman a right of entry into the cultivated society which had hitherto been the monopoly of clerks and knights.' Langland's, by contrast, 'is a voice from another world – the submerged world of the common English – a voice that is by turns harsh and pitiful and comic' – but always authentic. Whereas Chaucer looked to sunny Italy, Langland's poetry is darker and more Nordic. He shows us the world of the Black Death and the great wars with France, and the poor people of the Peasants’ Revolt. His is a prophetic voice, denouncing the corruption of Church and State at the end of the Middle Ages, and calling for a return to sacred order.

Christopher Dawson, Medieval Essays (Sheed & Ward, 1953, rp Catholic University of America Press, 2002), Ch. 12, 'The Vision of Piers Plowman'; Ch. 2 of Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars ('How the Plowman Learned his Paternoster').

TEXT: Thomas More, DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION (Sheed & Ward, 1951) - Introduction to whole book, then Book 1, chs. 1-5 and Book 3, chs. 24-27.

'Thomas More rose from humble origins to achieve the highest political and judicial office of England, second only to that of the king. He was recognized throughout early sixteenth-century Europe as one of the great lawyers, Christian humanists, and classical scholars of his day'. Once in the King's service, More commanded Henry VIII's friendship and trust, finally becoming Chancellor in 1529, at the age of fifty-one.'

'He resigned on May 16, 1532, the day after Henry VIII and Cromwell manipulated the Parliament to take away the traditional freedom of the Church, a freedom that had been written into English law since the Magna Carta. At issue was the survival of the Church as well as the nature of law and the scope of the state's legitimate authority. More was executed on July 6, 1535, and canonized on May 19, 1935.'

(The above is taken from www.d-holliday.com/tmore/bio.htm.)

In 1504 John Fisher was made Chancellor of Cambridge and Bishop of Rochester. In 1527 he became chaplain to the new king, Henry VIII, and confessor to the queen, Catherine of Aragon. He stood high in the favour of Henry, who proclaimed that no other realm had any bishop as learned and devout. Arrested for the same reason as More, John Fisher was beheaded at East Smithfield on the morning of 22nd June 1535. His head was stuck on a spike on London Bridge where it stayed for two weeks before being thrown into the river and replaced by that of Thomas More. His body was buried in the churchyard of Allhallows, Barking, but was later moved to be buried alongside that of Thomas More in St Peter ad Vincula by the Tower of London.

Louis L. Martz, Thomas More: The Search for the Inner Man (Yale, 1990);

Alvaro De Silva, The Last Letters of Thomas More (Eedmans, 2000), esp. Introduction;

Brendan Bradshaw and Eamon Duffy (eds), Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of Bishop John Fisher (CUP, 1989);

Richard Rex, The Theology of John Fisher (CUP, 1991)

Online: www.apostles.com/johnfisher.html

Background: J.J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People (Blackwell, 1984);

William Cobbett, A History of the Protestant Reformation, abridged by Hugh Arnold (Fisher Press, 1994).

SEMINAR 11

England's Christian identity – an identity now very much in question – is bound up with that of Europe as a whole, but has distinctive traits of its own. Subject to successive waves of invasion, conversion and reconversion, England's ethnic identity is very diverse, and its relationship to the mainland (as an island kingdom frequently at war) ambiguous at best. Its Catholic roots, and the allegiance of its people to the Holy See of Rome, go deep, and through the court of Charlemagne its Catholic culture influenced the rest of Christendom at a crucial moment in the history of the Continent. But the traumas of the English Reformation were also profound, and their effects far-reaching.

SEMINAR 12

ICONOCLASM IN THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI AND ELIZABETH 1

Puritanism Unleashed – The Prayer Book – Persecution and Compromise

SEMINAR 13

BYRD, CAMPION, SOUTHWELL, SHAKESPEARE, CRASHAWE, WARD

*Read about the life of St Edmund Campion, for example in the online Catholic Encyclopedia.

SEMINAR 14

NEWMAN, THE OXFORD MOVEMENT AND CATHOLIC RESTORATION
The Victorian Revival of Catholicism

On Bishop Challoner (1691-1781), see:

SEMINAR 15

MANNING, PUGIN AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

Peter C. Erb, A Question of Sovereignty: The Politics of Manning's Conversion (Atlanta: Pitts Theology Library, 1996. A version of this can be found online at:

SEMINAR 16

THE LITERARY REVIVAL AND A NEW APOLOGETICS

On Chesterton you can do your research on the following web-sites: