Author: Kevin Flude

Posted on

St Augustine & the Origins of Christianity in Britain May 27th

Stained glass window showing Baptist of King Ethelred of Kent by St Augustine watched by Queen Bertha. In St Martins Church, Canterbury
Stained glass window showing Baptist of King Ethelred of Kent by St Augustine watched by Queen Bertha. In St Martins Church, Canterbury

This post is about St Augustine and Christianity in Roman and Post Roman Britain. But first:

On This Day

A satirical print of the duel by Charles Williams. showing the duel between Pitt and Tierney on Putney Heath

On May 27th 1798, Prime Minister Pitt, a Tory, meet George Tierney on Putney Heath for a two pistol duel. In the absence of the Whig Leader Charles James Fox, Tierney questioned the Prime Minister’s plan to increase the Royal Navy’s man power. Pitt suggested Tierney’s opposition came about through ‘desire to obstruct the defence of the country’. Tierney objected, the Speaker upheld his complaint. Pitt refused to withdraw the remark. Tierney sent his second to demand satisfaction. Pitt accepted. Both missed their first shots, Pitt shot his second shot vertically up. The seconds stopped Tierney responding. The King was furious that Pitt should put his own pride against the interests of the Country. The other two people are the seconds.

The Cartoon above shows, skinny Pitt on the right, Tierney on the left under the shadow of the Gibbet. Britannia is horrified with the British Lion in the background. Behind them is one of the new Telegraph systems which is conveying news of the duel.

The Augustinian Mission

St Augustine brought Christianity to England, leading the mission sent by Pope Gregory to Canterbury in 597AD. He was the Abbot of a Monastery in Rome before the Pope sent him to convert the Angles. I tell the story of the mission in my post: March-12th-St-Gregory-Punster-Extraordinary/.

Augustine is the patron saint of England and the Anglican Communion. But he is not the person who brought Christianity to Britain. To England, maybe.  Britain. No. The Romans did this. I summarise the evidence in my post on St Lucius, who is claimed to have brought Christianity to Britain in the 2nd Century. Our first martyr was  St. Albans. (see my post on St Albans here.

Feast Day(s) of St Augustine.

We have a variety of days to celebrate St Augustine of Canterbury.  These are according to Google; 26 May (Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholic Extraordinary Form calendar in Great Britain). 27 May (Catholic Ordinary Form calendar). 28 May (Catholic Extraordinary Form calendar outside Great Britain).

Perhaps, like the Venerable Bede he died after Dusk?  (see yesterday’s post.)

Romano-Britain and Christianity

There is good reason to think Christianity was strong in Roman Britain, particularly in towns. There is also some evidence of non-Christian religious centres surviving in the countryside (the Roman word for non-Christians, pagans, comes from the Latin word paganus, which meant someone who lived in the country.)

After the Romans, the Christian Church continued to thrive, with a host of Saints particularly in Cornwall, and Wales. The first substantial eye-witness account of post-Roman Britain, dated to the early 5th Century, concerns the Catholic Bishop Germanus. This shows a battle for souls in Britain not between Christians and Pagans, but between Catholics and other Christians who the Catholic Church targeted as heretics. I talk about this in my post about St Germanus here.

The next insight comes from the conversion of the Irish to Christianity later in the 5th Century. St Patrick’s account gives an eyeyewitness view. What is interesting is that St Patrick’s family were living in a town where aspects of Roman life were still continuing.  After being kidnapped by Irish raiders, St Patrick went on to lead the conversion of the Irish (with the help of St Bridget).  See my post on St Patrick here, St Bridget here.

I cannot see any sense of personality or charisma in the story of St Augustine.  But Welsh history shows him to be an unsympathetic hierarchical character.

Clashes with Celtic Christianity

What many people forget is that St Augustine came to a country with over two hundred years of Christian belief.  So, meetings were held between the British Church and St Augustine, culminating in the Synod of Chester in the early 7th Century.   Seven British Bishops and others prepared for their response to St Augustine’s insistence on the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the contentious issues was the ‘computus’ for deciding the date of Easter. Another was the style of the monks’ tonsure.  But it was a major step for the British churches to align themselves with a foreign ecclesiastical structure.

The delegates were advised by a wise hermit to arrive late at the planned meeting with St Augustine to see how he reacted.  If he got up and welcomed them, then he was a fit leader to follow. If he acted imperiously, then he was not worthy.  St Augustine failed the test, the meeting was a failure. And St Augustine cursed the British, which was said to have led to  a military campaign against them by the Anglo-Saxons.  The British lost the subsequent battle of Chester.  It was said that 2000 monks from the nearby monastery of Bangor-in-Dee were slaughtered. This seems like a huge exaggeration, unless the definition of a monk was just loosely people associated with the Monastery..

The battle severed the connections between the British Kingdoms in Cumbria and Scotland from the Kingdoms in Wales and made it very unlikely that the British would ever regain control of Britain from the English.

The two churches were reconciled at the Synod of Whitby (664AD).  For more about the calculations for Easter and the Synod of Whitby look at my post here.

First written on 27th May 3025, revised On This Day added 2026

Posted on

The Venerable Bede Died – May 26th 735AD

A Scribe – possibly the Venerable Bede. Late 12th Century from Lives of St Cuthbert.

He died on the evening of what we would call the 25th. In ancient times, the Day changed at dusk. So for his contemporaries, he died on 26th May. But, as he shares his day with St Augustine, some celebrate the Venerable Bede on May 27th!

Called the Father of English History, the Venerable Bede was an excellent historian. He set the tone and standard for many centuries of English Historiography.  Mostly remembered for the ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’. This provides the most trusted account of the events of the Post Roman, Migration, and Anglo-Saxon periods. But he also wrote on time and bible commentaries. (see below). He is said to be the only Medieval Englishman, other than Chaucer to be read by every generation.

Dante’s Bede

So well regarded is he that he is the only Englishman mentioned in Dante’s Paradiso.  (I have just discovered that there is another Englishman mentioned. But he is the murderer Guy de Montfort, who fled after the battle of Evesham. He then murdered his cousin in a church, and is in hell according to Dante.)

Bede is in Heaven and in the fourth sphere of Prudence. This is the Sun. Dante and Beatrice are surrounded by bright sparks which are the souls of 12 men. These the wise, who illuminate the earth intellectually.

Dante and Beatrice meet twelve wise men in the Sphere of the Sun (miniature by Giovanni di Paolo), Canto 10. (Public Doman via Wikipedia). Pictured are: Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Gratian, Peter Lombard, King Solomon, Dionysius the Areopagite, Orosius, Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Bede, Richard of Saint Victor, Siger of Brabant.

‘Next, see the glowing breath of Isidore of Seville flame out, of Bede, and Richard of SaintVictor, who in contemplation exceeded Man. The one from whom your glance returns to me, is the light of a spirit, who, of profound thought, seemed to himself to reach death too slowly: it is the eternal light of Sigier, who, lecturing in the Rue du Fouarre, syllogised truths that brought him hatred.’

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/DantPar8to14.php#anchor_Toc64099872Bene

Venerable?

He is Venerable. But not only in the general sense of being wise, old and respected, but also in the technical Catholic sense:

‘ a title given to a deceased person who has attained a certain degree of sanctity but has not been fully beatified or canonized.‘ (Oxford Languages)

In 1899, the Catholic Church honoured him with the title of Doctor of the Church. This title is given to someone holy who has contributed to the theology of the Church.

He is considered by some to be the best historian in olden times, only equalled by Herodotus (said Thomas Carlyle). Thucydides surely says I! (Note: Herodotus is known as the ‘Father of History’ for his storytelling and breadth of the scope of his attention. While Thucydides didn’t tell tales, he concentrated on empirical evidence and so is known as the Father of Scientific History).

A Good Historian?

Bede is so good because he checked his sources and had access to a wide range of books. He even had a line to the Vatican so he could check his facts with Vatican records. This in the 8th Century! The Venerable Bede is the polar opposite of Geoffrey of Monmouth, (writing in the 12th Century). If Bede mentions a person or an event then they are accepted as part of the story of the English. By contrast, if Geoffrey of Monmouth mentions a person or event, without further corroboration, then historians tend to consider it a story, myth or simply made up by Geoffrey.

But, the truth is not so straightforward. Bede is not without his biases. Nor were his sources always reliable. And he is not above accepting myth, legends and miracles as fact.  Geoffrey also has access to some, probably, oral traditions. So that some (but which?) of his many tales of the Kings of Britain may hold considerable historical information.

Bede’s Influence on English History

Bede followed Gildas (A British Monk writing in the 6th Century) in wondering why God allowed the native Christian Britons to be defeated by the foreign Pagan English.  Gildas assumed God was punishing the Britons because of the evil deeds of their so-called Christian Kings.  Bede extends this to argue that God is punishing the Britons for not trying to convert the English to Christianity. God knows that the English, when converted, will be much better Christians than the Britons seems to be Bede’s understanding.

This starts a histographical trend for the English to think of themselves as the chosen people. By contrast, the Britons (Welsh, Scots and Irish) are feckless Barbarians (they thought).  Bede concentrates on the English. Countless generations of Historians have either left out the Britons, or demeaned them in their histories of England and indeed of Britain.

For example, most histories of Kings, deal only with England. They either begin with William the Conqueror or Alfred the Great and omit any British, Welsh, Scots or Irish Kings. Except, of course, for my book on the Kings and Queens of Britain. This starts with the largely legendary Kings of Britain, and includes some Welsh and Scottish Kings.  To buy it, you will find details of it here.

So Bede is a great historian without whom we would have an even less clear idea about what happened in the centuries following the Roman Period.  He also, contributed to an Anglo centric view of history. He was writing in Northumberland at the Monastery of Jarrow. So is more sympathetic to Northumbria than to Wessex, Mercia, and the British Kingdoms.

Bede’s Books

He wrote over 60 books. One was about the theological science of computus. In particular, the dating of Easter. The British Church had one method, the Catholic Church another. This contributed to a series of confrontations between the 2 Churches. And was only finally resolved at the Synod of Whitby in the favour of the Catholic Church.

Bede was instrumental in making Dionysius Exiguus idea of dating from the birth of Christ as the standard system. He also thought the Catholic calculation that Jesus was born 5000 years ago was wrong. He used the Bible to calculate the more ‘correct’ date was was 3952 BC.  Archbishop Ussher in the 17th Century took Bede’s calculation and improved it and suggested the proper date was 4004 BC.

For more about Dionysius Exiguus and the division of time, see my post here.

First Written on May 26th 2025, revised and Dante expanded 2026

Posted on

Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling May 25th

Today, is the Day to go Cheese Rolling in the Cotswold!  Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling takes place near Birdlip in Gloucestershire. For at least the last 200 years, people have gone to the top of the Hill, sent a Double Gloucester Cheese rolling down the hill at up to 70 miles an hour. Then chased after it despite the steep slope. Its mayhem. Watch the video above.

The cheeses are specially made, and encased in a wooden frame so they can survive the plummet down hill. The cheese is let go and the runners chase after it. They do not have to get to the bottom before the cheese but before anyone else. It is mayhem as the slope is so steep that most people fall down, Some roll head over heels countless times. There are many injuries too. There are various group races, men, women, boys, girls etc.

The race was originally on Whitsun Monday and part of country games (the wake) such as:

Grinning for the cake
Jumping in the bag
Chattering for a bladder of snuff by old women.

But it was cancelled as it became too rowdy, but the cheese rolling survived. It may be a ‘ceremony of record’ in which locals hold an event to maintain ancient rights of public access. (like beating the bounds).

Uffington Cheese Rolling

Uffington, famous for its white horse, had its cheese rolling.

Satellite view of the Uffington White Horse, Public Domain, Wikipedia

For more information on Cooper’s Hill cheese rolling, see this web site:

https://www.cotswoldshideaways.co.uk/whats-on/event/coopers-hill-cheese-rolling-26th-may-2025

For more of my posts on the frolics of May see here:

First Published on May 26th 2025, revised with help from ‘The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain’ by Charles Kightly 2026

Posted on

Whitsun

Pentecost by Giotto and Workshop, probably about 1310-18, National Gallery

Today, is Whitsun or Pentecost. (Sun, May 24th 2026). It is celebrated on the 7th Sunday after Easter, 50 days after the Crucifixion. The Day the Holy Ghost descends on the disciples.  According to one of my teachers, it gave the disciples the power of expression and turned them from grieving Disciples to self-confident Apostles.   They could now begin to spread the Christian message.

The week following is called Whitsuntide. It was one of three holiday weeks enjoyed by the medieval peasants. The villein had to work on the Lord’s land (desmesne) in exchange for the use of farm land. But this week he was free of that obligation.

Whit Monday was a Bank Holiday until 1972. But was then replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday. This was on the last Monday in May and so does not vary unknowably like Whitsun. ( 16 May 2027, 4 June 2028).

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto in Santa Maria Novella, Florence
By Sailko – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Andrea_di_bonaiuto,_via_veritas,_chiesa_trionfante_17.JPG, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=189631337

Giotto’s painting shows the Apostles with their halos in the chamber. There are 12 of them, St Matthias having replaced the dead, Judas. The Holy Spirit is represented by the little dove in the centre of the Ceiling. The narrative is carried by the two men in the foreground leaning towards each other. We imagine them saying something like ‘What’s all this about! Galilean nonentities, lost their guru and yet, confident, speaking authoritatively to all and sundry? ‘

Giotto was a forerunner of the Renaissance. According to the great Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) who wrote about the advances in painting achieved by Italian artists:

‘that very obligation which the craftsmen of painting owe to nature, who serves continually
as model to those who are ever wresting the good from her best and most beautiful features and striving to counterfeit and to imitate her, should be owed, in my belief, to Giotto, painter of Florence, for the reason that, after the methods of good paintings and their outlines had lain buried for so many years under the ruins of the wars, he alone, although born among inept craftsmen, by the gift of God revived that art, which had come to a grievous pass, and brought it to such a form as could be called good.‘

The miracle was that this boy, a poor shepherd with no training in art, was able to show nature its true face.

‘One day [the artist] Cimabue, going on business from Florence to Vespignano, found Giotto, while his sheep were feeding, drawing a sheep from nature upon a smooth and solid rock with a pointed stone, having never learnt from anyone but nature.’

Moving towards Perspective

One of the points Vasari is making is that Byzantine Art had lost the use of perspective, something the Romans knew. Paintings had become cartoon-like spaces with no real three-dimensionality. Groups of people seemed to be standing on each other’s shoulders. If you look at the painting above you will the room the Apostles are in has the beginnings of a realistic space, the rafters slope down to a vanishing point. The Apostles are ranged convincingly around the space. Their faces are rounded and realistic. They are separated from the outside world by a dividing wall. And two dudes at the front are convincingly on the ground, rather than hovering in midair (though I might have cropped the photo too closely!)

It would be over one hundred years before photo realistic portraits and realistic perspective paintings were rediscovered, but Giotto showed the way.

For more on Giotto see my post here. And on Italian art and perspective my post here

First published on June 8th 2025, revised 2026

Posted on

Frankin’s Day, Late Frosts & May Lore May 21st

Apples. Unsplash photo by Sydney Rae
Apples. Unsplash photo by Sydney Rae

Frankin was a Devon brewer who was put out of business by Cider makers. So he sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for 3 days of frost from May 21st. He hoped the cold would destroy the apple blossom and ruin the Cider Crop.

In fact, today is warm and sunny. It seems to me to be the day to cast my clouts out. (see my post clouts and casting here.) We started with very nice May weather, and then it went wintery. But we have had a few warm days now and I have just put all my winter and spring coats and wolly socks away. But I haven’t yet got the short-sleeved shirts out of underbed storage. Frankin’s legend is another warning about cold weather in May . We have also heard about the Ice saints such as St Pancras who are supposed to bring icy weather to mid May.

Cold Sheep

Sheep farmers are also warned to beware cold weather in May:

‘Shear your sheep in May
You’ll shear them all away.’

The poor sheep will die in thunder and lighting:

‘Thunder in May
Frightens the Summer Away‘

Green Jean and Marrying in May

Marrying in May is also supposedly unlucky (and I did see a bare shouldered bride regretting her dress choice on a cold day in Stratford-upon-Avon!).

‘Married in May and kirked in green
Both Bridge and Bridgroom won’t long be seen
O’ Marriage in May
Bairns die in decay’

This was recorded in 1892. Green is an unlucky colour in Scotland for wedding dresses, and there are a number of ghostly Green Ladies in Scottish Castles such as Wemsyss. Here she is called ‘Green Jean’. She is beautiful, tall, slim lady with a long dress of green who swishes as she glides bu startled observers.

For more on Wemsys Castle and Green Jean look here. But note that you only face death if you marry in May AND wear a green wedding dress.

My research suggests many people ignore this advice:

Screen shot of DuckDuckGo search engine results for search ‘Green Wedding Dresses’

Thanks again to Charles Kightly’s delightful ‘The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore’. You might like to buy it here. (no kickback to me!).

First Published May 21st 2026

Posted on

Titus Oates flogged from Aldgate to Newgate  May 20th 1685

Titue Oates & Popish Plot. Set of playing cards themed on the Plot c1679 after a design by Francis Barlow

This post is about Titus Oates and the Popish Plot but first more on May 20th

On This Day

On May 20th Castor was mortally wounded. Castor and his brother Pollux raped and abducted Phoebe, and her sister Hilaira. Their betrothed attacked the twins, and ran Castor through. Jupiter, Pollux’s father, saved Pollus, who cried

‘Father, hear my words:
That heaven you grant me alone, share between us
Half will be more, then, than the whole of your gift.’

So Jupiter saved Castor and allowed the divine Twins to change places in Mount Olympus alternately. For more about the Gemini, read my piece on heteropaternal superfecundation and the Twins.

1609 – Shakespeare’s sonnets published in London, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. The sonnets are endlessly controversial, as to how autobiographical they are.

1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets released ‘Rock Around the Clock’

1964 – Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias. This was the key experimental evidence of the Big Bang theory.

Titus Oates

He was a con-man. He accused leading Catholics of participating in a plot to kill King Charles II and restore a Catholic monarchy.  Among his targets were the Queen, and the King’s Brother’s wife.

Titus Oates had a complicated past. He was a Baptist who turned to the Church of England on the Restoration of King Charles II. He studied at Cambridge. But was accused of being a ‘Great Dunce’ and never took his degree. His next about turn saw him in St Omer to train as a Jesuit. He accused a man, whose job he wanted, of sodomy. Then, he became a Naval Chaplain. But he was, himself, accused of buggery and dismissed from the Navy. He was received into the Catholic Church while, at the same time, he wrote a series of anti-Catholic Pamphlets. He made accusations against over 500 people. This became known as the Popish Plot.

As a result, twenty-two people were executed. Some were ‘Hanged, Drawn and Quartered’ because of Oates’ baseless accusations.  The Diarist, Samuel Pepys, was caught up in the anti-Catholic frenzy. Pepys was Secretary of the Navy during the Plot and was close to the Catholic, James, Duke of York. He was accused of selling secrets to the French. Awaiting trial for treason, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Eventually, he was able to clear himself and resume public life. (read this article on the /the-plot-against-pepys/.

Whipped from Aldgate to Tyburn

Old Print of Samuel Pepys

It was only with the accession of James II that the climate of opinion changed. Then Titus Oates was found guilty of perjury.  Perjury was not punishable with death, so Oates’ punishment was a long-drawn-out affair instead. He was sentenced to be imprisoned for life. And ‘whipped through the streets of London for five days a year for the remainder of his life.’

Oates was put in the pillory at Westminster Hall, where passers-by pelted him with eggs. He was again pilloried the next day in the City.  On the third day, stripped, tied to a cart, and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate. The following day he was whipped from Newgate to Tyburn. (Source Wikipedia)

However, when the Catholic King, James II was deposed and replaced by the joint Protestant monarchs William and Mary in 1689, Titus Oates was released and given a pension.  He died in 1705.

For Pepys at the Execution of Charles I see my post here.

First Published in 2024, republished in 2025, On This Day added 2026

Posted on

Beheading of Anne Boleyn May 19th 1536

Old Print showing the beheading of Anne Boleyn

The beheading of Anne Boleyn began at 8am with her speech.

‘Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it.

I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the King and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord.

And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.’

She was blindfolded. She knelt down, putting her neck on the block and repeated:

‘To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul.’ The French Swordsman then chopped off her head.

Recorded by Edward Hall (spelling modernized)

Henry ViiI had allowed his wife the mercy of a French expert swordsman from English Calais. According to a letter from William Kingston to Thomas Cromwell:

‘And then she said “I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck,” and put her hand about it laughing heartily.‘

For more see: https://www.hevercastle.co.uk/news/19th-may-anniversary-of-anne-boleyns-execution

Here is a slightly annoyingly American youtube feature recreating what Anne Boleyn might have looked like. (adverts may preceed it from which I derive no advantage!).

You might like to read about Queen Elizabeth I’s nicknames for her chief advisers, here.

On This Day

1649 – England declared a Commonwealth by Parliament – and stays a republic for eleven years. (see my post on the execution of Charles 1st)

1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte and his expeditionary force leave France to invade Egypt. The idea was to reduce British influence in the Eastern Mediterranean and in India. But Nelson defeated the French Navy in the Battle of the Nile and Napoleon returned to France to take over control. The British took over the booty the French had seized and the Rosetta Stone came to the British Museum.

1962 – Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.

Published in 2024, and revised in 2025, 2026

Posted on

Sentenced to Death for Extortion by an accusation of Sodomy May 16th 1719

Mast head of the St James Evening Post (June 1719)
Mast head of the St James Evening Post (June 1719), the paper that carried the accusation of Sodomy

On 16th May 1719, the St James Evening Post (later called the Evening Post) reported on the Guilty Verdict returned against ex-servants Stephen Margrove and John Wood. The two men were accused of extorting money by threatening to expose George Smith as a sodomist (then punishable by death).

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Archive gives details of the case. This took place in the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields (near what is now Trafalgar Square), on 18th, January 1718. George Smith told the Court that:

‘ the Prisoners came up to him (and John Wood took him hold by the Collar of his Coat) and demanded his Money, and said if he would not give it them they would take away his Life and swear Sodomy against him; that by means of this Violence, and being under a Terror, and in great-Fear he gave them what he had in his Pocket.’

But they wanted more and forced Smith to take them to his Master’s House in Golden-Square. Here, he gave them another Guinea, to add to the 22 shillings they had already extorted.

The Accusation of Sodomy

Margrove and Wood protested that Smith: ‘came up to Wood while he was making Water, and took hold of his Yard, using some unseemly Expressions, whereupon he (Wood) called out a Sodomite‘.

At this accusation, Smith ‘fell on his Knees, and begg’d them not to expose him‘ and gave them the money. So, the accused argued it could not be ‘robbing on the High Way‘ because their victim gave them the money.

The Defence

The Court held that the threats, and violence they used made them guilty of Violent Robbery. The men called witnesses to their good employment record, but were unable to show any evidence of ‘how they spent the last 6 Months of their Lives.’ And so the Jury found them Guilty, and the judge put on the Black Cap to pronounce the death sentence.

The Verdict

On the 8th of June 1719 10 people, 7 men and 3 women were sentenced to hang, but 5 were reprieved. Wood, aged 22, and Margrove, aged 21, were however, executed. Rictor Norton in ‘Homosexuality in 18th Century England has more details, including the confessions of the two extortionists.

For a tale about Body snatchers look to the bottom of my post here:

On This Day

1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc. Joan was executed in Rouen in 1431. In 1449 Rouen was liberated from the English, and Joan’s mother and brothers petitioned the Pope for a repeal of her condemnation for heresy. She was officially exonerated on 7 July 1456, She became a ‘folk-saint’ particularly for soldiers but it took until Pius X proclaimed her venerable on 8 January 1904. The Decree of Beatification formally passed on 24 January 1909. World War 1 saw her leading the French army to war, and Sainthood followed.

1929 – the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place. Charlie Chaplin and Warner Brothers were given honorary awards.

First Published in 2024, and republished in 2025, 2026

Posted on

Mercury’s Day & Long tailed Tits. May 15th

Mercury-Hermes, antique fresco from Pompeii (Wikipedia)@

May 15th in Rome was the feast of Mercury. Mercury was ‘the god of boundaries, commerce, communication (including divination), eloquence, financial gain, languages, luck, thieves, travellers, and trickery; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld.’ (wikipedia). Mercury is married to Maia the Goddess of May.

Ovid, in his almanac poem Fasti clearly has reservations about him. He mixes up Mercury’s roles as God of commerce and eloquence with his roles as God of thieves and trickery. In this extract, Ovid describes a trader, outwardly praying for his sins to be forgiven but in fact planning to continue to cheat his customers. The trader washes his goods in Mercury’s sacred spring, sprinkling with damp laurel. And yet plans to continue cheating guys customers.

Book V: May 15: Ides

On the Ides, the Senate founded for you, (Mercury) a temple facing
The Circus: since then today has been your festival.
All those who make a living trading their wares,
Offer you incense, and beg you to swell their profits.
There is Mercury’s fountain close to the Capene Gate:
It ís potent, if you believe those who’ve tried it.
Here the merchant, cleansed, with his tunic girt,
Draws water and carries it off, in a purified jar.
With it he wets some laurel, sprinkles his goods
With damp laurel: those soon to have new owners.
And he sprinkles his hair with dripping laurel too,
And with that voice, that often deceives, utters prayers:
‘Wash away all the lies of the past’ he says,
‘Wash away all the perjured words of a day that’s gone.
If I’ve called on you as witness, and falsely invoked
Jove’s great power, hoping he wouldn’t hear:
If I’ve knowingly taken the names of gods and goddesses,
In vain: let the swift southerlies steal my sinful words,
And leave the day clear for me, for further perjuries,
And let the gods above fail to notice I’ve uttered any.
Just grant me my profit, give me joy of the profit I’ve
made:
And make sure I’ll have the pleasure of cheating a buyer.’
Mercury, on high, laughs aloud at such prayers,
Remembering how he himself stole Apollo’s cattle.

Bird of the Month

Long tailed Tit by Thomas Bewick (18th Century)

I saw a small but great exhibition on birds today at the Weston Library in Oxford, which inspired me to find a bird story for May.

The long tailed tit produces a marvellous nest. The outer shell is of thick moss and camouflaged with lichen. The binder is sticky spider silk and gossamer, which fixes the nest to tree forks or thorny bushes (such as gorse). This allows the nest to stretch, which allows it to accommodate as many as 12 to 16 chicks. The lining is an insulated bed of up to 2,000 feathers. There is a tiny entry via a small hole at the top of the dome.

Long tailed Tit nest (wikimedia)

Mating is over by May, unsuccessful birds often then find relatives and help them bring up their offspring. Pairs are monogamous.

  • 1536 – Anne Boleyn, faces charges of treason, adultery and incest.  She is condemned to death by beheading but is allowed a French swordsman rather than a London axeman. See my post on the beheading of Anne.
  • 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Earl of Bothwell. A mysterious decision.  Firstly, he probably arranged the murder of her previous husband, Lord Darnley.  Secondly, was Mary forced into the marriage after he raped her? Subsequntly the married couple, lost in battle, after a hug they never saw each other again. She ended up imprisoned in England. He died after 10 years tied to a stake in a dungeon in Denmark.
Posted on

Edward Jenner, First vaccination, May 14th,1796

The Temple of Vaccinia at Dr Edward Jenner’s House and Garden in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. (‘watercolour’ from a photo)

Edward Jenner returned to Berkeley, Gloucester having finished his medical training in London.  (Jenner trained as a surgeon under John Hunter is St George’s Hospital, London) He noticed that milkmaids did not get smallpox. There had also been other experiments in use of cowpox. On May 14, 1796 he took cowpox pus from the hand of milkmaid Sarah Nelmes and placed it into a small cut on James Phipps’ arm. Phipps was Jenner’s gardner’s son. Sarah caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom. Blossom’s skin hangs on the wall of the St George’s Medical School library, now in Tooting, London.

The first vaccinations were done in the small hut above, which Jenner nicknamed the Temple of Vaccinia. It has just reopened after conservation work supported by public grants. The museum is at The Chantry, once Jenner’s home. It includes the Physic Garden, the Old Cyder House, and the Temple of Vaccinia. It opened in 1985. Jenner gave his inoculations free and did not patent the idea. ~Jenner chose Vaccinia because vacca is the latin word for cow.

After inoculating James Phipps with cowpox, Jenner took some smallpox and put it into a cut on James Phipps arm but Phills did not catch smallpox. This is, perhaps, not the most ethical way to proceed, but Jenner was proved right and now the world has virtually eradicated Small pox.

Inoculation and Variolation

Jenner himself was inoculated with a dose of smallpox as a 13 year old boy. This was called Variolation. Smallpox affected between 20 and 30% of the population, but if a small dose was taken from an infected patient and given to someone without an infection, the chance of death was 1-2%. But the person was prevented from further infection. 30% of people with smallpox died, so given how prevalent smallpox was it was a wise gamble. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose brother died of smallpox, was disfigured by smallpox. In Turkey she witnessed inoculation, and had her 5 year old son inoculated. On its success she promoted inoculation in England.

Jenner’s insight was that cowpox was similar to smallpox, although not deadly, and if given to people it gave immunity to the smallpox, without the risk of death.

First Published May 14th 2026