THE CHILD OF NATURE
LINES ON A PICTURE OF RESTORED GLASTONBURY.
Short-sighted Reason pondered long alone;
Experience and Deduction lent their aid;
They measured well and carefully each stone,
And calculated where each groin was laid;
But still th' elusive vision of the Past
Evaded each attempt to hold it fast!
Then came Imagination, Maid Divine,
And forthwith, wakened from its resting-place,
The Past arose, till pictured line on line
The Abbey stood in all its ancient grace.
Awestruck, they gazed upon that House of Prayer,
Then silently went in, and worshipped there.
Thus, in the places waste and desolate,
Where saintly spirits struggled through the night,
In ages past, you still may find the Gate
Of Heaven open, letting down the light;
Still find on Yniswitrin's altars, pale,
The gleaming vision of the Holy Grail.
JOHN ALLEYNE.
1917.
[Illustration: PLATE III. GLASTONBURY ABBEY.
Conjectural reconstruction of interior (drawn in 1908) as seen from
the north transept, looking towards the Quire. N.B.--The arch in the
foreground, communicating with a supposed western aisle, is an artistic
license. _Frontispiece to Part II._]
THE CHILD OF NATURE
Johannes--who is he? The child of our dreams? Or a name inscribed in
the great roll of those who were, and now are not?
No previous knowledge of surname or circumstance, either in history
or fiction, can be traced as a source of the idea underlying this
dramatisation of a personality in many respects so sympathetic and so
true to nature.
Yet again and again he speaks, or is spoken for, in the writings,
and his simplicity of character is maintained. And he became to
us more than a name, one vested with reality, even as it is said
of a well-known author, that his characterisations dwelt in his
consciousness as living folk. And we never knew when his advent might
be expected, nor what sort of message he would have for us. Frequently
it happened that in sitting down to writing some expectation or desire
would be expressed for information on certain lines, but the script
would negative this expectation, and either give us something new and
quite unexpected, or else, as often happened, take up the thread of a
previous communication broken off several days, or even months before.
"... He ever loved the woods and the pleasant places which lie without
our house. It was good, for he learnt in the temple of nature much
that he would never hear in choro. His herte was of the country and
he heard it calling without the walls and the Abbot winked at it for
he knew full well that it was good for him. He went a-fishing, did
Johannes, and tarried oft in lanes to listen to the birds and to watch
the shadows lengthening over all the woods of Mere.
"He loved them well, and many times no fish had he, for that he had
forgot them ... but we cared not, for he came with talk and pleasant
converse, as nutbrown ale, and it was well.
"And because he was of nature his soul was pure and he is of the
Company that doth watch and wait for the glories to be renewed."
It was in the fourth sitting that Johannes, instead of being the
spokesman, was spoken for.
"Gulielmus de Glaston shall speke ... hath spoken of his tyme, and
Johannes wold speke of hys time. The older tyme wasne known to hym. My
punishment is past, but Johannes is yet in pain."
SITTING XI. 4th January, 1908.
At this sitting Johannes speaks for another, as follows:
"... wold say, 'Seek ye goal and ensue it. Ne walke in circles as
somme doe. Many objects distract ye minde. Seeke one goal and wynne
all.
"JOHANNES DE GLASTON."
In response to a question about two friends:
"Dreme. To them is to dreme, not labour. Seek visions. Be constant in
mind.
"That wych cometh, doe. Wee may not say more. To you is to choose.
Opus spiriti, non opus terrae est. Ye are rich, but not in goodes.
Work at that which comes."
SITTING XVIII. 18th February, 1908.
"Stande ye, and be as waxe in oure hands. Listen, and ye shall heare.
I, Johannes, say soe. Be patient and yielding. Listen for our voices
in choro mid. Ye shall heare them, and much more, but persevere: great
things shall come to pass ere ye join the Company. Goe ye and prosper
for us and you. Wee waite where wee wold bee.
"JOHANNES."
SITTING XXVI. 12th March, 1908.
This communication bears the names of others besides Johannes, but is
included owing to its interesting nature.
"The horloge as ye face the wall lieth on the right, six elles or more
above the floor. The stair in the right towret led from ye cloister to
it, to wind hym every day at matins.
"I, Galfrith, knew in my day. They who came spake in Latin, and not
all knew the wisdom hid in the british tongue, nor eke the saxon. Some
were wrote again, but the fathers were more sought than the Bards and
much was hearsay.
"What do ye long after, my son? The memory of man is but as the
grass that fadeth, and they who would fain translate the word of the
barbarian oft inserted what they desired but would not an they could
(_? translate truly_). The hidden meaning they knew not which looked
for the husk which covered it and soe much was lost for all tyme. The
merlins spoke in what ye call an allegory, but the parable was what
these fathers read, not the mystery.
"Those who would tell you of the glory of our howse all strive
together, Saxon, Norman, and native, so which wold ye have--Norman
base or later Abbey?
"Ye see the howse in its first condition, and like a falling lace,
the dremes of later men obscure it. The first dreme improved--it was
complete, and the grete church as it stood when Jocelyn came is what
ye wish.
"Then, when they were building at Welles, we were jealous of our
howse, and certain masons coming on holiday across the causeway which
led straight across the marsh, did tell us we were lacking. They sedde
our howse was over smalle for our community, and the choir thereof was
not long enow for our processions and for the brethren to sitte at
the service of the church--for we were three hundred and forty-seven
in number. And moreover the towre was too lowe for beauty. And Wells
being new and faire with carven stone, our Abbot was moved to beautify
our howse. Soe he that was at enmity with Jocelyn, made friends that
day, and the Bishop with a fair company came on a white palfrey and
did dine with us. And so was our choir enlonged and afterwards the
towre was beautifyed with certain panelling, and this although our
coffers were much in need because the body of the church was newly
yfinished by very faire art.
"Ye belle Towre that was burnt and new builded was pulled downe
because it was falling (on) ye cloister, for it was sunken in the
foote."
The above being far from clearly written, a repetition of the last
sentences was asked for.
"Nay, my sonne. Have I not told? And ye would know of ye belle-towre.
It was not. I have sedde it was pulled downe and ne heard of. The
gabell was yfinished like unto Welles, and the clock and certain
belles did hang there.
"ONE OF THE COMPANY.
"_My name_ JOHANNES GLASTON.
"_Ego Frater_ PETRUS LIGHTFOTE
(_qui horologium deditet dedicavit_)."
SITTING XXXVII. 23rd September, 1908.
"We have sat in the grate gallery under the west window and watched
the pylgrims when the sun went downe. It was in truth a brave sight,
and one to move the soul of one there. The orgayne that did stande in
the gallery did answer hym that spake on the great screene, and men
were amazed not knowing which did answer which. Then did ye bellows
blowe and ye ... man who beat with his hands upon the manual did
strike yet harder, and all did shout Te Deums, so that all ye town
heard the noise of the shouting, and ye little orgaynes in ye chapels
did join in the triumph. Then ye belles did ring and we thought hyt
must have gone to ye gates of Heaven. But we know not now, for there
were sinnes, and the frailties and pomps of men are not meet for the
ear of Hym that dwelleth in the heavens."
(Here follows a reference to a certain Radulphus, whose story had been
previously given.)
"More we will serche in the great army of past things--they are soe
hard to find."
SITTING XL. 15th October, 1909 (shortly after the excavation of the
corner of the vault beneath the refectory).
"... He fell full sore and lay as one dead, and the King was right
merrie. 'See,' he said, 'how heavy lies the good ale on this poor
roysterer.'
"And my Abbot did make penances full sore and many, so that Johannes
had need of drink and good cheere to help his weakness. '(O) for the
full bowle,' quoth he, '... for one good drink; there is so much
amiss.'
"And ye have found the place wherein I lay, and even now the scent of
good ale hangs round the floores. I go, who have told ye. Peccavi!'
"'Well,' saith Father Abbot, 'ye have disgraced us before ye Kinge,
and he will not remember us in the day of our adversity.'
"'Nay,' saith Johannes, 'but the Kinge, who was of an evil choler,
was afterwards right merrie because of poor Johannes and the vat of
good ale. Alas! That soe much of good ale was squandered for a King's
pastime!' Whereat there went more Paternosters and much penance in
claustro. Ye have it. What more wold ye?"
The foregoing was very difficult to decipher, and its substance
so entirely different from anything we might have expected, that
practically nothing could at the time be made of it. It was therefore
asked for again.
"I have told ye. Why ask me more? They who brought the vat of ale
pulled hym uppe with a rope, for ye King called for more brown ale
such as we in ye Abbey were wont to brew. Ye rope broke, and ye King
was merrie, and this I say, gainsay who may, it was not Johannes and
ye ale which destroyed our faire Abbey, but ye lust of ye King and ye
haste which (he had for the possession) of our house.
"Why did they say that I who soe loved my Abbey, had compassed its
ruin? I didde paternosters for that which wasne my sinne. Ye rope it
broke. Hee was the misdoer.
"Ye Guesten Hall was over against the Monks' Hall, and there were, as
you say, great screenen between the two tables, and ye Abbate hadde
his high table, and likewise ye Kinge had his, but they had an screne.
The Kinge's party did royster in their cuppes.
"What of ye Hall? Faire tapestry and carven oake, and six high
windowes in the syde of him, and one faire windowe in ye gables,
and under hym a gallery where were singing men to please the King's
majestie, and cunning minstrelsie. Ye pulpitte was silent--not
homilies, but the brethren did list to songs of prowess and pleasure
instead of paternosters. But in that pollution was death to our howse,
for the Kinge did lust after our meats and wines and (cared) not to
save us from (the coming doom); and he whom we trusted, the great
Cardinal, was falling, although we knew it not. 'Wait,' said our
Abbot, 'he is our friend who made me Abbot. Ask hym to our house.'"
This passage was again very difficult to decipher, and before anything
had been made of it I asked for it again. J.A. was without any idea of
its contents.
"I did say there were windowes six in ye grete Halle, and a grete one
at the gables, wherein were singing mennes. I didde sayye that the
Kinge lusted after our Howse and (was covetous) of our good cheere,
fit for a Kinge's majestie. This proved the ruin of our howse, for hee
who made our Abbot was himself falling from greatness, and could give
us no help--hee, the Cardinal of Ipswich.
"But ne'er was it Johannes and ye ale!"
SITTING XLII. 18th April, 1911.
The foundations of the chapel of St. Dunstan at the west end of the
Lady Chapel had been brought to light, and were evidently of mixed
date--the original probably very early.
_Q. by F.B.B. "Who built St. Dunstan's Chapel?"_
"Edgarus ybuilded long syne. Radulphus hoc opus restoravit. After hym
ye fyre yburned yt. Then he was a capella in muro.[35]
[35] The remains lie on the line of the wall (now removed) which
divided the Inner from the Outer Bailey.
"They say we hadde not hys bonen, but they lie, for we hadde the
leg-bones of hym, and certain smalle bones which they took to
Canterbury, and Johannes knoweth it of old tyme long syne. They did
open the tombe and tooke them backe. What mean they who said we
hadde them not? They all knew it, and the pilgrimmes did come from
Canterbury by ye old horse-way to venerate them.
"Roof yfallen! Hee of the gatehouse dwelt therein, and it wasne
Capella--vae mihi! Went! Ye King commanded! Because we all who should
obey were meek. And soe it was not.
"JOHANNES DE GLASTON."
SITTING XLIX. 29th July, 1911.
This little fragment came quite spontaneously and without anything to
lead up to it.
"At night the sound of many waters refreshed ye parched soil. From
tower and from the high roofes the sound came like the sound of
waterfloods, and the gargoyles shouted each to each, and the cloisters
whispered comfort and refreshment as we lay under the dormer roofe in
parched and sultry nights.
"I who speak mind me of the glory of sound even now, and I ever loved
the waters and the mere, and the voices that whispered around me.
Therefore went I a-fishing on the mere, and the glories of nature were
yet more glorious than the Te Deums in choro. Therefore loved I the
rain on our hundred roofs, and the myriad voices that came from the
waterspouts.
"I didde sleepe on the south side, hard by the great gabell, and soe
heard I the sound whilst others slept. Vai mihi, that it is departed!
and the voices are heard no more."
SITTING L. 30th July, 1911.
Although neither of us was aware of the fact, this sitting was destined
to be the last of the series. Except for a few occasions in 1912, it
proved impossible to continue these experiments. But Sitting XLIX. ends
with a message of farewell, and so, it will be seen, does the last of
the series. And in some respects the substance of the writing is a sort
of review of the part played by Johannes, and offers an explanation of
the related influences which is full of interesting suggestion.
"Simple he was, but as a dog loveth his master, so loved he his Howse
with a greater love than any of them that planned and builded it.
They were of the earth--planners and builders for their great glory,
nor ever, though honest men, for the glory of God. But Johannes,
mystified and bewildered by its beauty, gave it his heart, as one
gives his heart to a beloved mistress; and so, being earthbound by
that love, his spirit clings in dreams to the vanished vision which
his spirit-eyes even still see.
"Even as of old he wandered by the mere and saw the sunset shining
on her far-off towers, and now in dreams the earth-love part of him
strives to picture the vanished glories, and led by the masonry of
love, he knows that ye also love what he has loved, and so he strives
to give you glimpses of his dreams.
"Simple child of Nature--loving her, he knew not why; but loving her
yet more deeply because he knew not why he loved. He was not meant to
be a priest of the choire, and it harassed him sometimes overmuch.
Child of Nature! He loved freedom, and was happier in the orchard, and
by the mere, than performing the rituals of the choir.
"Men loved him for his love, but ofttimes his Prior comprehended not,
and mistaking the outward show in which he failed, for lack of that
inner worship which they could not feel, they made him do penances
for which their backs were more fitted. Then ye should know who would
understand him aright, and read his inner meaning.
"He would tell you what he saw, but how can he describe it? It was
beautiful, and his soul rejoiced as he would have you also rejoice,
but he could not tell you why. It was good. It was pleasing to the
eye, and through the eye his soul was uplifted, in an age when souls
were grovelling.
"It was lovely, and he knew it, but when ye ask, 'What was it like
unto?' he cannot tell you. It was heavenly--so was the sunset--and the
shadows on the mere--but he could not paint these nor reproduce them
for you.
"Those others, the great add simple, are passed and gone to other
fields, and they remember not save when the love of Johannes compels
their mind to some memory before forgotten.
"Then through his soul do they dimly speak, and Johannes, who
understands not, is the link that binds you to them.
"Learn and understand.
"WE WHO ARE THE WATCHERS.
"Farewell."
SITTING LI. (First of new series.) 26th January, 1912.
No previous questions asked.
"HÆREWITH the Dane hath learned the greater wisdom. Many gods there
be, but though many names, the principles are but two--Good and Evil,
Love and Hate. Therefore, when he slew the Saxons, he knew not that he
followed Evil, but repenting long since, he hath embraced Love, which
is Good, and his task is easy. Therefore is he of the brotherhood,
working with a glad heart to expiate for ever the evil he once did,
and therefore in constant labour there in the joy of Heaven.
"'Purgatorio' would some of the brethren say, but the Purgatorio
is Paradise, if the intent be perfect and the suffering has no
half-heartedness. For awhile there is joy in sins, but only till the
day cometh. Run the race with a whole heart, not as the lukewarm ones.
Happiness is in the extremes, but the only joy which lasts for ever
and grows for ever is the joy of striving for the Good.
"Thus was it of the beneficial influence of Glastonbury."
"Hærewith the Dane hath spoken--once warrior, now striving ever for
the good. Be not faint-hearted; strive your utmost--therein lies
happiness. Labour, and even suffering, make Paradise, not Purgatorio.
Thus have I spoken."
(_Influence changes._)
"Up cometh Johannes, weake by reason of long syne. What wold ye? Ye
have founden our Church, and ye holy places where my unworthy feet
have trod, and the Hall where some did talk of Glaston and some did
eat that they might be strong for God's ordinances. And ye have found
ye lytell chapple where our most holy ones did lie. Enow, what think
ye?
"Ye walle with the postern, and ye courtyard over against the
graveyard and the antechamber cometh, and beyond hym the Grete Chambre
wherein the folk did gather upon the feasts. Then cometh the grete
Kitchen and over agaynst (hym) the well-chamber in the courtyard is
ygone, but ye well is there, but yfilled. Certain rude men did go
down hym to find ye Treasure, but found yt not, tho' they drew off
the water nigh twenty cubits. Then cast they in the walls and filled
him up because Johannes Parsons the cowherd fell in and was slayn,
whereat they said, 'The spirit of our Abbot is abroad and hath ytaken
vengeance.'
"Then ycometh the grete Kyng's Gate into ye inner courtyarde wherein
were no trees but only a grete passage-way of paving.
"And he was high of roofe, nigh forty feet, yvaulted, and over hym
a chamber, and ye door in ye side dydde leade to apartments for the
laity. And soe to the Kitchen court, but ye almoner John Bryan dydde
live over the grete gate and a porter did dwell at his call on ye
south side. There too was a turret and a grete bell the which was
ringed for the meals in the King's Chambre. But he is all gone long
syne--heu mihi!"
* * * * *
"I dydde it not, God wot, not I! Why cling I to that which is not? It
is I, and it is not I, butt parte of me which dwelleth in the past and
is bound to that whych my carnal soul loved and called 'home' these
many years. Yet I, Johannes, amm of many partes, and ye better parte
doeth other things--Laus, Laus Deo!--only that part which remembreth
clingeth like memory to what it seeth yet."
SITTING LIV. 17th August, 1912.
"Johannes now very far away: far, in that the force is weake: even
soe may be within you and yet farre away, for the strength is as the
distance; the one changeth as the other. Wee wold saye much, but the
weakness here is strength gathered for other duties. All, he cannot
do. What wold ye?... The stones written in his memory as he knew them?
What are real, and what are in his dreme, he knows not[36].... It
cease(th) ... and yet it remayneth in him ever the same. What wold he
tell you?--cannot read your wishes."
[36] A possible source of error in the communications, which may
describe occasionally as still existing, things which have perhaps been
rooted out by vandals of modern date.
"Digged ye--what dig ye for by the towre of the stairway to the
lodgings of the laymen where of late they put those who were sick?
From ye passage and stayre that leadeth from ye Cloyster to the old
Kirkeyarde open to hym, and there was a doore in ye passage way and
a staire four-square. Yt opened to the lay-housen. On the floor the
lay-chamber for foregathering and above hym the dormitory and lytell
chambere above, with doores from ye stayre to each and on ye south
side a doore down to the Refectorium misericorde, and one into the
gallery under ye window that looketh west, and the courtyarde of
flagged stone and the Guesten Hall. So yt was. And the passage way of
our Lord Abbot opened from ye wall to ye yarde from ye Abbot's covered
walk yvaulted in stone."
SITTING LXI. 9th December, 1912.
In answer to a question:
"This have I told ye. I slept beneath the roof where lay those (who)
were fleshy and weighty. So it was ordained that we should doe.
"Soe I remember those stayres for my fatness. But it availed me not,
tho' my father Prior recommended it oft. Alas! I waxed more fat.
"Not that my belly was my god. I wot not! But I was cheery and
troubled not, save for services in ecclesia, for better loved I the
lanes and the woods where walked I much--with weariness because of my
weight.
"So said I, 'It is the Lord's will. Somme be made fat, and somme be
lean'; and this I said to they that jibed, that the gates of Heaven
are made full wide for all sorts, so that none created should stick
within the portall. This I said, for they vexed me with their quips.
"I would remind me of many things. Half do I remember--yet the lytell
things only. The greate ones (stick) even as I myself stuck in the
portal by reason of their trick, and Johannes, as once before, cannot
rayse themme and lies beneath their weight. I wold explain but must
gaine strength....
"I was ever soe: of a merry heart, when like to melte in tears. So
was I made. It was not my fault. Light of thought, save the thoughts
I could not speak; and the light jests comme again to me. Glad soule!
Had I but turned my soul to the things that were greate, I should not
be now a child among the toys. But I was never meant to be a monk.
They placed me here in choro, when I would have drawn the sword...."
EXTRACT FROM SCRIPT OBTAINED 15TH SEPTEMBER, 1912.
"But one waiteth, even Johannes, whose body, scattered to the winds
of Heaven, once lay in the cemetery of the monks, hard by the east
side of the Chapel of St. Michael in the midst of the graveyard. What
matter? He lives yet in the universal Memory, and speaks and acts
through every channel in which the Universal Life flows.
"Yet when he is himself, he speaks well, as he was wont in the rude
times that are as yesterday."
In these brief yet pregnant passages the author's philosophy is brought
to a focus. Humbling the arrogance of the individual mind, because it
denies that the mere mechanism of the human brain can ever _originate_
idea, it yet raises the little limited self to the consciousness of a
possibility, awful and beautiful, of a contact with something greater
than itself, and yet akin; and to the dignity of a mystical fellowship
in which isolation ends, and Past and Present are seen as parts of a
living whole; points in the circumference of a circle whose radius
is Life beyond these limitations. Our little mechanism we may attune
to respond to the needs, the pleasures, and the interests of our own
fragmentary span; or, disdaining these, we may harmonise it to the
thought which is pictured on the great outward sweep of the circle
of Memory, recorded there by the lives of those of far distant times.
Then will these records live again for us and through the gates of
our soul will pour, from the living source of Idea, their ordered
recollections. Not by our own power, but through the unseen Gate of the
subconscious mind, will these memories link themselves with ours--not
through the evocation of the "spirit" of Johannes, but by the power of
the Universal Spirit, whose life permeates all the regions of Time, and
in Whom we and Johannes, and all who are in mental kinship with his
thought, are as one.
THE GARGOYLE.
In mid-June, 1908, whilst the work of excavation was still in its
preliminary stage, J.A. and F.B.B. were both at Glastonbury. At the
western end of the little town, at a fork in the road, stands the
lesser of the two surviving mediæval churches, that which is locally
known as St. Benedict's, but which is in reality dedicated to Benignus,
a companion of St. Patrick when he came to Glastonbury in the fifth
century. This church was erected on the site of a much older chapel,
by Abbot Richard Bere, whose arms and initials appear over the north
porch. It has a fine western tower of the regular Somerset type, and
on the cornice of the belfry are several carved gargoyles, the most
prominent position, in the centre of the west side, being occupied by
a piece of carving which, when seen from the west, as one approaches
the town, has the appearance of a well-executed head of an Abbot,
with a tall jewelled mitre and lappets. The face is bold, and full of
character, rather long, with level brows and austere expression.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.]
From the narrowness of the road, on nearer approach, a side view of
the carving can only be obtained by turning the head up at a somewhat
uncomfortable angle; and probably for this reason the extraordinary
fact had apparently quite escaped attention that this was in reality
no human head at all, but a peculiar grotesque animal, with extended
neck, crouching against the wall in a manner peculiar to gargoyles, and
with a high arched back like a fighting cat, garnished with knobbly
vertebræ. It was J.A. who first noticed this, and called F.B.B.'s
attention to it. Both were naturally much interested, though, of
course, it was the excavation work at the Abbey which was the chief
object of attention at the time, and this was quite a side-issue.
Shortly afterwards a sitting was held, and the following is the record:
SITTING XXXII. 16th June, 1908.
_Q. by F.B.B._ "_With reference to the sculptured boss on Saint
Benedict's tower, which from different points of view appears as an
Abbot's head and as a grotesque animal: was this intended for a joke?_"
_A._ "Wee know not the quips of they who worked for us and did
sometimes bee rude to them in powers. We builded Benedicts. Wee know
not what they wrought soe only the church was faire and sound for ye
people. The greate workmen and ye masons of repute played noe such
pranks in our Abbey church, we wot.
[Illustration: "REBUS[37] MEA."]
[37] _I.e._, the Abbot's "rebus" (F.B.B.). A _rebus_ is the enigmatic
equivalent of a name. Many of these are known to have been adopted
by Bishops and other ecclesiastics of note. In the case of Bere, the
significance is obvious. Where a name ended in "ton," as Morton,
Pereton, etc., a "tun," or barrel, has been used to complete the
rebus.
SITTING XXXIII. 17th June, 1908.
"I, Johannes Lory, Master mason of ye Guild of St. Andrew, carving of
ye gargoyle of St. Benedick, came downe from my laddere and walked,
for it was colde and in Octobere. Then turning backe I saw my worke
was like unto our Abbot, and soe I carved anew and made it proper. Of
a truth it was our Abbot, and soe sayd they who looked. It was not my
intent, but soe it was, and methinks our goode master ye Abbot knew
not. Of a veritie it was most like, and soe wee left it.
"Seek it of a morning when the sun shines not; ye shal see the more
truthfully. I meant no despyte, God wot."
SCRIPT OBTAINED AT OXFORD. F.B.B. AND J.A. (Present, B. Blackwell and
Miss D. Sayers.) 25th August, 1917.
No previous questions. After a short passage in Latin, which cannot be
deciphered:
"Wolsey the Cardinal housing me with the King, and did appoint me
Abbot, olde man that I was.
"Here was the Hall that he builded in this town in Chancellorium.
"I have said I came to Oxford, and Wolsey the Cardinal did make me
Lord Abbot in ye Hall that he had builded. I was old and infirm, and
came not on my palfrey, but they carried me on my litter, and soe I,
the old man, did become Abbot in mine old age. Would God I had not
been so; then had my death been otherwise.
"Know ye the Hall which he ybuilded? It was where ye now lie.
"I came not on ye palfrey. At ye Abbey of Westminster I lay a long
tyme, for I was sick. And with ye Cardinal came I to Oxford, and he
made me Abbot, I not willing. I sleeped at Westminster. There saw
I the King and would know why he desired me for a friend, I being
Treasurer of mine Abbey. And soe yt was to be."
The day before this sitting (Friday, 24th August) I was in the Bodleian
during the morning, and looked at Dugdale's _Monasticon_, from which
I made the following extract: "On Beere's death, 47 monks devolved
the election of their Abbot to Cardinal Wolsey, who declared Richard
Whiting, then Chancellor of the House, their Abbot." I had not shown
this to J.A., nor had there been any reference to Whiting in our
conversation. The reference to this episode in the script obtained on
the following day would therefore seem to involve an element of pure
mental telepathy, of an entirely subconscious nature since the matter
was not in my thoughts at the time of the sitting.--F.B.B.
SITTING XVA. 1st February, 1908
This record has not been included in the general series, as the
subject-matter proved to be quite foreign to anything hitherto
appearing, or having reference to Glastonbury. It is given as a
specimen of the "intrusions" which from time to time broke the
continuity of the main subject of the writings.
First, a spiral coil was drawn, followed by some letters or characters
not possible to decipher. Next a lozenge or rectangle; then a larger
oblong surmounted by a semicircle, as if to indicate a domed building,
a ramped line running at an angle therefrom; and finally, a cross. Then
the following:
"IBERICUS, who wandered hither bringing strange gifts and treasure.
Watch ye, for out of the wish it is created, and out of the myth will
come the solid truth. Mystery of Faith and of Matter! Out of a thought
all things were created, and out of a thought will old-time things
renew their being.
"ONE OF THE CONTROLLERS
OF THINGS THAT ARE.
A THOUGHT IN BEING."
Next followed more vague pencillings, and several lines of quite
undecipherable script, the only two words legible being CONSTANTINUS
and JUSTINIAN. The writing clears up towards the end of the page, and
proceeds thus:
"... who followed the Phoenician keels to far-off Isles of the Sea
whose treasure was great; whom Phaedrus took in his ship to seek for
safety and merchandise in one. Phaedrus gained much tin, and left
him on these shores, a Prince among them, marrying Yseuguilt their
Princess, and they the forebears of a royal line. (Of) the countries
of the Iberi and Kymri they sat upon the thrones, and gave the world
the Name that lives in all the nations.
"Who am I? One that sojourned with them from Capernaum through the
Isles of Greece and past the straits which Pharos lighted to stormy
seas and black rocks where the metals be.
"North, the settlement Tintagella; south, the river mouths, and inland
to the forest-lands and the marshes where the rising of the sun. There
builded he a Temple such as was of old in Judah, and there he reigned.
Thus was I, O man! my name Phocis the Mariner."
In tracing on a map of Cornwall the course indicated in the script,
east from the coast between Tintagel and Padstow, my finger lighted on
a village on the fringe of Bodmin moor, marked "Temple." Neither I nor
J.A. were conscious of the existence of this place-name, nor could we
recall our attention having been at any time directed to it.
As to the identity of the royal traveller, the script does not yield a
definite statement. If the name is there, it is to be feared that it is
irrecoverable owing to the hopelessly obscure nature of the writing in
the undeciphered portion. He came from Capernaum, and he came--or was
it Phædrus?--seeking for safety and merchandise in one. Can we identify
his Princess? Yseuguilt, or Yseult, is one perhaps of many, but it
may be that some record is yet extant of a Cornish Yseult who married
an Eastern prince or merchant. And what have the antiquaries to say
of Temple? Whence did this little place derive its interesting name?
Was it merely from a house of the fraternity of the Templars, or from
some far older and now half-mythical tradition, lost in the mists of
antiquity?
In a script dated 24 April, 1918, the following passage occurs:
"The flow of spiritual forces is westward, following and impelling
the forces of material things. By a law of revolution reinforced from
all points in the spiritual universe, this movement is universal.
This being so, the material things first appear, working on a motive
very often in itself most mundane and from your point of view most
unspiritual. Thus they whose habitation was in Crete, revisiting the
memories and traditions of others of the same race and civilisation
which long before had been impelled westward beyond the great
continents of America to the shores of Asia, and thence onwards
through the desolate tracts of Asia to the great Mediterranean basin,
still continued the interminable route ever westward beyond the gates
of Hercules to the islands where the fire-drawn metals be: so, as
mundane influences impelled them, great immigration was induced by
the want of metals for the embellishment of temples, the hardening
of bronze for warlike purposes and, in short, for the many needs
of man's development in civilisation and knowledge. But soon the
spiritual forces which developed and sustained this immigration had
deeper objects in view. They followed and transformed it by removing
mundane influences, and a great spiritual development arose in the
places in which their instruments had prepared the soil, Phocis of
the race of Crete trading with Poseidon and seeking Tyrian purple,
was thus brought in contact with them who worshipped the One God in
contradistinction to the many.... This paved the way for the building
of a Temple in his settlement of Tintagella.... Thus first arose
that measurement and design which were afterwards as accurately
reproduced by that further advance which culminated in the temple of
Glastonbury....
"And Tintagella was the ancient place of the shrine of the High God.
So the Temple, a reproduction, accurate in every measurement was
reproduced at Glaston on this foundation....
"Phocis was Phocis--a centre and nucleus, a focus rightly named but in
himself but a merchant prince of Poseidon and Eubeia."[38]
[38] This seems written in defence of the feminine form "Phocis"
used in the original. This is the right Greek form for the country,
whereas "Phocas" would be the proper form in which to designate a man
of Phocis. A correspondent had raised this point in a letter to F.B.B.,
but J.A. was totally unaware of it.
THE STORY OF EAWULF
_Note_.--During excavation alongside the south aisle footing of the
nave, in continuation of the work on the south-west tower footings, an
interment of a curious nature was encountered. The skeleton lay in the
clay just outside the wall, and the head was protected by a "dropstone"
having a cylindrical hollow, open at the neck, in which lay the skull.
Between the legs of the skeleton was a second skull, but broken. At the
foot was a flat stone laid across, and against it on the further side a
number of leg-bones, etc. The following was written shortly after the
discovery:
SITTING XXXIV. 19th September, 1908.
"Radulphus Cancellarius, who slew Eawulf in fair fight, did
nevertheless suffer by his foeman's seaxe, which broke his bones
asunder.[39] He, dying after many years, desired that they who loved
him should bury him without the church where he was wont to feed the
birds in his chair. The sunne did shine there, as he loved it, for his
blood was cold." "It is strange, yet wee know it is true. The head of
Eawulf was (there). As they digged around his body they knew not that
the head of Eawulf fell, and so lay betwixt his feet. And thus have ye
found it.
[39] The right forearm was afterwards found to be fractured.
"I, Gulielmus, I knew the old church that Radulphus did pull downe,
and much lieth beneath the floor of ye newe church. Search estward of
where ye now digge and ye shall find much, and of the old work made
they the vaults, and some are deeper. Be not deceived by appearances.
Under where ye now think is the end of all, there will be seen very
deep walls of the older church. None knew of them, and they were not
destroyed. Seek also north of the said cutting: there is somewhat
there ye might not know of."
_Q. "Why was the head of Radulphus protected by a dropstone, when the
body was not enclosed?"_
_A._ "Soe he wished it. Let the worms of the earth devour my poor body
with all its sinnes, saith he. Mine head did ever fight against the
body. It is the best part of me. See ye, saith he, that ye protect it!
That foul body--let hym go, saith hee."
_Q. "How did Eawulf come to be buried there, and who was he?"_
_A._ "Know ye not Eawulf, the Yarl of Edgarley, of royal blood, who
harried the Norman, and would have slain Turstinus?[40] A doughty
Saxon he, and one who said that Glaston was builded by the Saxon, and
Saxon it should remain. So he was buried in Glaston, and not in his
own chapel at Edgarley.[41] The holy men of Glaston, they who were of
Saxon blood, suffered much through his violence in their behalf, and,
God wot, through no rebellion of their own; and they had their reward,
for a Saxon[42] again was Abbot for a time."
[40] Radulphus Cancellarius. This we supposed, at first, to refer to
the great Radulphus or Ralph (FitzStephen), who was responsible for the
rebuilding of the Abbey Church after the great fire of 1184; but this
would be eighty-three years after the time of Turstin, first Norman
Abbot (1082-1101). Malmesbury tells us of the trouble that ensued from
the tyrannical methods of Turstin, and the slaughter of the monks by
hired soldiers. But the story of Eawulf is new.
[41] Eawulf, Yarl of Edgarley. The name was quite unknown to us.
Edgarley is about a mile out of Glastonbury on the south-east. There
is an ancient chapelry there, dedicated to St. Dunstan. Subsequent
reference to the old English Chronicles brought to light the following
entry under date A.D. 885:
"Eanwulf, Earl of _Somerton_, buried in Glastonbury Abbey." Somerton is
about six miles from Glastonbury on the same side as Edgarley--_i.e._,
south. This is interesting, as suggesting a family name perpetuated for
some six generations, or about 200 years, in the district.
[42] Turstin, whose violence caused his dismissal by the King, and
exile for a time to Normandy, was succeeded by Herlewin, whose Saxon
name receives interesting corroboration by the script.
SITTING XXXVII. 23rd September, 1908.
_Q. "How is the great difference in date between Radulphus and Eawulf
to be explained? We cannot reconcile this."_
_A._ "Wee know not your dates, nor the tymes gone by; but this we
know--Eawulf and Radulphus[43] did fight, and the Norman did slay the
Saxon. This is fact, as we know it. Be sure of your own tymes and look
at Domesday for light.
[43] Written "Turstinus."
"We remember (Radulphus) was an hundred years and three when he went
to hys fathers:--hale and of a good visage even then--but hys bones
did grieve him (by reason of) ye payne in them. Soe did he seek ye
sunne. More we will serche in the great army of past things. They are
soe hard to find!
"That wych is hidden will be found out and all ye Abbaye is at your
hands; but serche. Alle three churches are open to ye, and one whych
was of old time in the midst of the nave of ye newe--not much, for
Turstinus did remove ... them when he builded anewe the Norman
churche" (_i.e._, built the new Norman church.--F.B.B.).
_Q. "Did Eawulf lead the assault in the fight? How did it come about?"_
_A._ "Old men have strong anger, but youth should have spared him.
More we know not,--we wil serche."
The script here breaks off into the description (already given) of the
pilgrims' procession at sunset, with the music of organs and bells.
SITTING XLII. 18th April, 1911.
The problem of the dates was left for further consideration, and
remained in abeyance for two and a half years. At this sitting other
matters of early history had been touched upon, and it occurred to
F.B.B. to ask a question as to Radulphus and Eawulf.
_Q. "Please explain the apparent discrepancy of dates in the story of
Radulphus and his fight with Eawulf."_
_A._ "Ne Radulphus of Henry the King" (_i.e._, FitzStephen,
1184.--F.B.B.). "Radulphus the Treasurer was Norman of the time of
Turstinus--annos One Thousand and Eighty-seven. Ralph was hee. Eorwulf
of Edgarley, old in years, was wroth because the soldiers of Turstinus
did slay the Saxon monks. Ralph the Norman knight and Treasurer of
Turstinus, slew him. Who was hee? Radulphus FitzHamon--as wee wot, an
evil man."
_Q. "Where was Ralph FitzStephen--of Henry II.--buried?"_
_A._ "Ralph, ye cousin of ye King, dyed as we deem, at
Wincastre--there yburied. Chancellor of Angleland was he."
_Note._--The two foregoing answers were now read, but unfortunately
the first was incorrectly interpreted, as the writing was a little
difficult. F.B.B. made the mistake of thinking that it implied that
Ralph of Turstinus was FitzStephen (though the sense is clear enough on
further inspection), and consequently asked as follows:
_Q. "Why do you say that Ralph, treasurer of Turstinus, was Ralph of
King Henry?"_
(Here the influence changes and a masterful "personality" of whom we
have had previous experience, controls the utterance.)
_A._ "Rede. I said it not. I said not 'Ralph of the King Henricus,'
but 'Ralph ye Norman.' Taedet damnosum. Lege!--IMPERATOR.
"Audi me, barbari stultissimi! Ego Imperator, qui feci
interpretationes pro anima insularium.--CAESAR."[44]
[44] Which may be freely translated as: "Listen to me, you very dull
barbarians!--to me, the Emperor, who have been trying to make these
things clear to the minds of you islanders."