I have a typical English-person’s obsession with the weather.  After a cold, wet and dismal start to the summer in June, I am so pleased that since early July, we are now in the full glory of a hot sunny English summer.  If you believe in old superstitions, then the next 40 days will be just as glorious as today.  Happy St Swithun’s Day.

St Swithun’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain nae mar

St Swithun from Breviary, Use of Sarum with Norwich variants (‘The Stowe Breviary’), (Norwich, England), between 1322 and 1325), shelfmark Stowe 12 f.273 Feast of Swithun

Notes
Images from the British Library’s collection of Medieval Manuscripts are marked as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions in accordance with the British Library’s Reuse Guidance Notes for the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Early modern images from the British Library

© Essex Voices Past 2013.

Today, 28th December, in medieval and pre-Reformation England was traditionally celebrated as the Feast Day of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents – the day when Herod the Great, hearing of Jesus’s birth, ordered the execution of all Bethlehem’s young male children.  My post today is Medieval/early modern England words and pictures of that biblical event.

Flight into Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents from Prayer
(England, S. E. (St Albans), c.1240) shelfmark Arundel 157 f.5.

Herod, with half-drawn sword, sitting amidst the Massacre of the Innocents
from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?),
between 1310 and 1320) shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.132.

Four miniatures: 1. the Annunciation to the Shepherds; 2. the Adoration of the Magi;
3. the Massacre of the Innocents; 4. the Presentation in the Temple
from Omne Bonum (Absolucio-Circumcisio)
(England, S. E. (London), c. 1360-c. 1375) shelfmark Royal 6 E VI f.8.

Herod overseeing the massacre of the innocents by knights, with a partial bar border including a dancing, hooded grotesque, at the reading for the feast of Holy Innocents
on 28 December from The Stowe Breviary
(England, E. (Norwich), between 1322 and 1325) shelfmark Stowe 12 f.25v.

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The Coventry Carol
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day;
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.

Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Words originally written by Robert Croo in 1534

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All images are from the British Library’s collection of Medieval Manuscripts and are marked as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions in accordance with the British Library’s Reuse Guidance Notes for the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

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Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

Six scenes from the life of Christ from The Howard Psalter and Hours (England, c1310-c1320), shelfmark Arundel 83 f.124.

Miniature of the Magi from Prayer Book (St Albans, England, c1240), shelfmark Arundel 157 f.4.

The Adoration of the Magi from Book of Hours, Use of Sarum (The ‘Neville of Hornby Hours’) (England, (S.E, London?), 2nd quarter of the 14th century, possibly the 4th decade), shelfmark Egerton 2781 f.112.
Adoration of the Magi from Book of Hours (the ‘Harley Hours’), Use of Sarum (England, Last quarter of the 13th century), shelfmark Harley 928 f.5v.

Adoration of the Magi from Book of Hours, Use of Sarum (England, S. E. (London), c. 1440 – c. 1450), shelfmark Harley 2915 f.33.

The Magi from Psalter (England, Central (Oxford), 1st quarter of the 13th century, before 1220) shelfmark Royal 1 D X f.2.

Adoration of the Magi from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?), between 1310 and 1320) shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.112v.

The three Magi before Herod from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia?), between 1310 and 1320) shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.131.

Adoration of the Magi from Breviary, Use of Sarum with Norwich variants (‘The Stowe Breviary’) (England, E. (Norwich), between 1322 and 1325) shelfmark Stowe 12 f.40.

Adoration of Magi from Book of Hours, Use of Sarum (‘The Taymouth Hours’) (England, S. E.? (London?), 2nd quarter of the 14th century) shelfmark Yates Thompson 13 f.94v.

All images above are English drawings from the British Library’s collection of Medieval Manuscripts and are marked as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions in accordance with the British Library’s Reuse Guidance Notes for the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

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We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts, we traverse afar.
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading, Still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light.

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav’n replies

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Words by Reverend John Henry Hopkins (1820-1891),
written c1857 (or c1863)

We three kings of orient are,
One in a taxi one in a car,
One on a scooter beeping his hooter,
Following yonder star.

Alternative words remembered from my childhood
author unknown

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following

– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.

Transcription of Tudor Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts (1526-7)

Commentary
Line 1:  We are now in the next year of the churchwardens’ account i.e. 1526-7.

Line 4:  The May i.e. May Day.

Line 5: Michaelmas Day is 29^th September.  Originally a medieval Catholic Saint’s day for St Michael, the Archangel, over time Michaelmas become one of the English legal system’s quarter days for paying landlords their rent.

Line 16: Wax for the rood light.  The 14 pounds of wax detailed here is probably for the entire year.  This is quite a substantial weight so the rood-light (i.e. the candle in front of the rood) must have been quite large.  The rood was the cross at the entry to the chancel and often had images of the Virgin Mary on one side and St John on the other side.  No evidence survives as to what Great Dunmow’s pre-Reformation rood looked like.  As the church was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, it is likely that the pre-Reformation rood also contained the images of St Mary and St John.  Sadly, very few English medieval roods survived the Reformation.

Line 21: corpraxis a cloth on which the host and the chalice was placed on during Mass.

Line 26: ob [in the money column] Latin abbreviation – short for obolus. One-half old penny.

Line 32: Sanctus bell (small hand-held bells).

Easter week in late medieval Great Dunmow
Line 22: The sepulchre represented the tomb of Christ and was used (or created) in many medieval/pre-Reformation English Catholic churches during Easter week.  From Good Friday until Easter Sunday, the church’s consecrated religious items were hidden in their sepulchre and a man was set to watch over the sepulchre night and day until Easter morning.  During the reign of Henry VIII, in Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts, there are numerous references to pins, nails, lights and canopies for the sepulchre, along with payments to the sepulchre’s watcher.  Watching over the sepulchre was a serious duty for the men of the parish as there are also references for charcoal for the fires burnt by these watchers.
 

 ‘Three Holy Women at the Tomb, facing the text used to celebrate Easter mass’ from the Augsburg Sacramentary (Augsburg, Germany, 2^nd or 3^rd quarter 11^th century),
shelfmark Harley 2908  fos. 53v-54, © British Library Board.

 ‘Resurrection of Christ, at the beginning of Easter prayers’ from The Stowe Breviary (Norwich, England, between 1322 and 1325), shelfmark Stowe 12  f. 87,
© British Library Board.

 ‘Resurrection of Christ, from a liturgical text for Easter’ from A Dominican Antiphoner (North France, 1^st quarter of the 14^th century),
shelfmark Yates Thompson 25 f. 1, © British Library Board.

 ‘Resurrection of Christ, at the reading for Easter’ from Epistolary of the Sainte-Chapelle (Paris, 2^nd or 3^rd quarter 14^th century),
shelfmark Yates Thompson 34 f. 84,  © British Library Board.

 Volvelle for calculating Easter and other movable feasts (England, 2^nd half of 15^th century), shelfmark Harley 941 f. 29v,  © British Library Board.

All digital images from the British Library’s Online Images archive appear by courtesy of the British Library Board and may not be reproduced (© British Library Board).

Notes about Great Dunmow’s churchwarden accounts
Great Dunmow’s original churchwardens’ accounts (1526-1621) are kept in Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), Chelmsford, Essex, D/P 11/5/1.  All digital images of the accounts within this blog appear by courtesy of Essex Record Office and may not be reproduced. Examining these records from this Essex parish gives the modern reader a remarkable view  into the lives and times of some of Henry VIII’s subjects and provides an interpretation into the local history of Tudor Great Dunmow.

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following
– Index to each folio in Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts
– Great Dunmow’s Churchwardens’ accounts: transcripts 1526-1621
– Tudor local history
– Pre-Reformation Catholic Ritual Year

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.