British Museum, Jan. 1852.
SIR,--The late discovery of the remains of a human body in a complete
state of preservation, in St. Stephen's Chapel, has induced me to
send you a brief notice of several similar occurrences recorded by
our early chroniclers and historians. Bede relates that eleven years
after the death of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, the monks took
up his body, expecting to see it reduced to ashes, but found, "all
the body whole, as if it had been alive, and the joints pliable more
like one asleep than a dead person; besides all the vestments the body
had on were wonderful for their freshness and glossness." We learn
from William of Malmesbury that the body was again found incorrupt
415 years afterwards at Durham, and publicly shewn. Lingard gives an
interesting account of the event, taken "from a memoir written at
the time by an eye-witness," in all probability Simeon, the Durham
historian. From this narrative it appears that when the monks removed
the masonry of the tomb, "they beheld a large and ponderous chest,
which had been entirely covered with leather, and strongly secured
with nails and plates of iron. To separate the top from the sides
required their utmost exertion, and within it they discovered a second
chest, of dimensions more proportionate to the human body. It was of
black oak, carved with figures of animals and flowers, and wrapped in
a coarse linen cloth, which had previously been dipped in melted wax,
to exclude the air and damp." By the direction of Turgot, the prior,
"they conveyed the smaller chest from behind the altar to a more
convenient place, in the middle of the choir, unrolled the cloth, and
with trembling hands forced open the lid. Instead of the remains of the
Saint, they found a copy of the Gospels lying on a second lid, which
had not been fastened with nails, but rested on three transverse bars
of wood. By the help of two iron rings, fixed at the extremities, it
was easily removed, and disclosed the body apparently entire, lying
on its right side, on a pallet of silk. At the sight they gazed on
each other in silent astonishment, and then retiring a few paces,
fell prostrate on the floor, and repeated, in a low tone, the seven
penitential psalms. After this preparation, they approached the coffin,
and three of them, by order of the prior, placing their hands under the
head, the feet, and the middle of the body, raised it up, and laid it
on a carpet spread on the floor. It was found to have been wrapped in a
cerecloth of linen. Over this appeared the usual episcopal vestments,
the amice, alb, stole, fanon tunic and dalmatic;--the chasuble alone
was wanting, which had been removed at the former translation in 689.
On the forehead lay a thin plate of gold, or metal gilt, thickly
encrusted with small stones; and a mitre covered the head, round which
had been wound a napkin of purple colour. A cerecloth of the finest
linen adhered so closely to the face, that no part of it could be
loosened, but between the neck and the shoulders the skin was exposed
to the sight and touch. The arms could be moved with ease; the hands
were joined over the lower part of the chest, and the fingers, which
were still flexible, pointed upwards. With the body were found a
chalice, patine, a portable altar, a burse to hold the linen for the
altar, and an ivory comb, with scissors of silver." When the shrine of
St. Cuthbert was plundered and demolished by order of that sacrilegious
scoundrel King Harry the Eighth, the body was still found entire, as
Harpsfield testifies.
Audry, a daughter of Annas, King of the East Angles, and abbess of Ely
Monastery, died A.D. 679, and was buried in a wooden coffin. Sixteen
years afterwards her sister caused her body to be exhumed. It was found
"free from corruption, and all the linen cloths in which the body had
been wrapped appeared entire, and as fresh as if they had been that
very day wrapped about her limbs." Such are the words of the physician
who attended her in her last illness, and who saw the occurrence.
(Bede, B. 4. c. 19).
Wereburge, a daughter of Wulfere, king of Mercia, died about the close
of the seventh century. Her body, according to her own desire, was
interred at Hanbury. Nine years afterwards, in 708, it was taken up
in presence of King Cöelred, his Council, and many bishops, and being
found entire and incorrupt, was laid in a costly shrine. In 875 her
body was still entire; when, for fear of the Danish pirates, it was
removed to Chester, and soon after its translation, fell into decay.
St. Elphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, was barbarously murdered by the
Danes in 1012, and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. Twelve years after
his martyrdom, his body was found entire, and solemnly translated to
Canterbury. The King and Queen, and an incredible multitude of persons
following the procession from London. A long narrative of the event is
amongst the Harleian MSS.
When King Edmund was cruelly slain by the Danes in 870, his head
was carried by the infidels into a wood, and thrown into a brake of
bushes; but being afterwards discovered, it was deposited with the
royal remains at Hoxon, which were soon afterwards conveyed to Bury St.
Edmunds, and there honourably interred. Fifty-seven years rolled on,
when his body was taken up by order of the good Bishop of London; on
which occasion, says the author of Britannia Sancta, "his body, to the
admiration of all, was not only found entire, and without any blemish
of corruption, much more like to one lying in a sweet sleep than one
dead; but also his wounds were found all closed up, and his head united
to the rest of his body, only a slender mark remaining like a red
thread around the neck, testifying their former separation."
Yours, truly,
A BOOKWORM.