Medieval festival could put town back on tourist map
Peggy Clatworthy
2 October 2007
Tewkesbury Admag
The Companions of the Black Bear, organisers of the annual Tewksbury Medieval Festival say that the turning medieval for the weekend could help put Tewkesbury back on the tourist map. Next year is their 25th anniversary and they want the whole town to join in, making it bigger and better than ever.
They are already planning a number of events leading up the festival weekend of July 12 and 13, and a jousting display and huge procession through the town for the actual weekend.
However they say that they are a very small group, and want other groups and organisations to put on things themselves that could link into the festival. Suggestions include concerts, plays, exhibitions, medieval banquets, competitions, special menus in pubs and restaurants, and as many people as possible in costume.
Spokesman Amanda Thomas said: "We are not looking for authenticity, just something with a medieval flavour, and it can be a small and simple or large as you like. We just want to make it something really special, both for our anniversary and to try and help the town back on its feet after this year's disastrous summer."
They would like to see schools, clubs, shops, businesses, and the general public all getting involved. To start the ball rolling they are holding a public meeting to discuss plans, in the Town Hall on Friday October 26 at 7.30.
It is open to all and they hope that representatives of as many organisations as possible will attend, along with members of the general public. The festival is now widely regarded as the largest in Europe. It attracts participants and visitors from as far away as America, New Zealand and Poland.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
75 medieval entombments excavated in north-western Russia
75 medieval entombments excavated in north-western Russia
1 October 2007
Asian News International
Russian archaeologists have found 75 ancient graves dating from the 15th to the 18th century at the excavation site of the necropolis by Nikolo-Dvorishchenskiy Cathedral in Veliki Novgorod in north-western Russia.
Moscow archaeologist and anthropologist Denis Pezhemsky said, excavation work has been going on since early July, and they were expecting more entombments to be dug out.
Pezhemski said the remnants of the ancient Novgorod dwellers are all kept in sarcophagi, which are of great historical value.
Some tombs are probably family ones, because several people were buried together, he said.
He said the dig also revealed unique pieces of medieval household and fragments of frescoes belonging to the 12th century, a bone stamp, ancient crosses, and buttons, as well as lots of coins kept both in the graves and around them.
"It was purely Novgorodian custom, a part of their culture to leave coins at entombments," Russia Info-Centre quoted Pezhemsky as saying.
1 October 2007
Asian News International
Russian archaeologists have found 75 ancient graves dating from the 15th to the 18th century at the excavation site of the necropolis by Nikolo-Dvorishchenskiy Cathedral in Veliki Novgorod in north-western Russia.
Moscow archaeologist and anthropologist Denis Pezhemsky said, excavation work has been going on since early July, and they were expecting more entombments to be dug out.
Pezhemski said the remnants of the ancient Novgorod dwellers are all kept in sarcophagi, which are of great historical value.
Some tombs are probably family ones, because several people were buried together, he said.
He said the dig also revealed unique pieces of medieval household and fragments of frescoes belonging to the 12th century, a bone stamp, ancient crosses, and buttons, as well as lots of coins kept both in the graves and around them.
"It was purely Novgorodian custom, a part of their culture to leave coins at entombments," Russia Info-Centre quoted Pezhemsky as saying.
Interview with Terry Jones
An enlightened look at the Middle Ages
Colin Covert
4 October 2007
Star-Tribune
When Terry Jones, who studied history at Oxford University, co-directed, co-wrote and co-starred in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," he was lampooning an epoch he understood very well. Post-Python, Jones has created a new career as a medieval scholar with a lighthearted approach to serious academic topics.
His groundbreaking 1980 book, "Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary," argued that the chivalrous hero of the Canterbury Tales was in fact a bloodthirsty killer for hire. The book is now required reading in many university history departments. His follow-up - "Who Murdered Chaucer?" - was a nonfiction whodunnit about the unexplained death of England's greatest medieval author, speculating that he was killed by tyrannical King Henry IV for being a politically troublesome critic. Jones created a history series for the BBC that disputed the popular portrait of the Middle Ages offered by Renaissance historians, contending that damsels were feistier, kings crueler and peasants better educated than their chroniclers let on.
Jones will speak about the not-so-dark ages Friday at Augsburg College to benefit Medieval Minnesota, a summer camp at Augsburg for students ages 14 to 17. Proceeds will provide scholarships to the camp.
Q. You write that our view of medieval life is unduly grim because historians maligned the period. It's easy to see why a nobleman might want to burnish his image by commissioning a writer to vilify a predecessor, but who would benefit from a campaign to disparage an era?
A. A very interesting question. Well, in the first place, it would have been the thinkers of the Renaissance, who wanted to establish a break with the past. They also wanted to establish their own sense of importance by belittling what had gone before. This then gets taken up by the promoters of Renaissance culture who are keen to establish its supremacy over the medieval world - particularly since the Renaissance is a backward-looking movement which harks back to the classical world rather than establishing something new.
In the 20th and 21st century, Renaissance values have been adapted to fit the modern capitalist world. The whole myth that there was no sense of human individuality before the Renaissance is part of this attempt to make the present day seem the culmination of human progress, which I don't think it is.
Q. Then how did the unrealistic stereotypes of the noble knight and the ignorant, downtrodden peasant originate and why have they persisted?
A. Well, undoubtedly you did have proud and unfeeling aristocrats who treated the peasants like dirt. Also, the Middle Ages is a wide span of time, and there were times and places where the peasantry would undoubtedly have been downtrodden and ignorant. So there is a basis for all that. But the little bit of history I'm interested in - late 14th century England - saw a rise in education and the pursuit of knowledge amongst ordinary people - partly it was a result of the Black Death and the fact there were so few people around that everyone was questioning everything. But it was a time of intellectual activity amongst all classes. Much more so than today.
Q. Washington Irving, who gave us "Rip van Winkle," apparently also contributed some fabrications that still distort our view of medieval life?
A. Yes. He seems to have been responsible to a large degree for promoting the myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat and that this formed part of Church doctrine. It never did, and people didn't think the world was flat. Chaucer himself talks about "this world that men say is round." There's a fascinating book called "Inventing the Flat Earth" by Jeffrey Burton Russell, which sets the whole story out.
Q. What does this tell us about the trustworthiness of historians, in general? Do you have any advice on how to spot a sound or flawed account of the past? Is there such a thing as history or only histories?
A. Well, I think you're right that there is no such monolith as "history" in the singular. I think every age writes its own histories and I think it's important that they do. It's how we help to define ourselves and to know who and where we are. I don't think there is any rule of thumb to spot distorted history any more than there is to spot distorted news that we read today in the press or watch on TV.
The main thing is to be aware that the makers of "spin" are at work today just as much as they were in the Middle Ages or at any time in human history. It's all a bit like a detective story. We have to look for the motives behind what leaders do rather than take at face value the reasons that they give us. It's just the same with history.
Q. How has your study of the distant past affected your thinking about our present and future?
A. I think my reading of the Middle Ages made me more politically conscious. I see the same people seeking power, and using the same techniques to keep power, whether it be propaganda, media control or religion. The one thing that is certain is that people don't change and the same untruths and reasons for going to war, for example, prevail now as they always did. In the late 14th century, Richard II tried to establish peace with France, but this flew in the face of the interests of those barons who made their money out of warfare, and who were adamantly opposed to Richard and who, in the end, managed to depose and murder him so that they could carry on making money despite the bloodshed and destruction. Nothing changes.
Colin Covert
4 October 2007
Star-Tribune
When Terry Jones, who studied history at Oxford University, co-directed, co-wrote and co-starred in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," he was lampooning an epoch he understood very well. Post-Python, Jones has created a new career as a medieval scholar with a lighthearted approach to serious academic topics.
His groundbreaking 1980 book, "Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary," argued that the chivalrous hero of the Canterbury Tales was in fact a bloodthirsty killer for hire. The book is now required reading in many university history departments. His follow-up - "Who Murdered Chaucer?" - was a nonfiction whodunnit about the unexplained death of England's greatest medieval author, speculating that he was killed by tyrannical King Henry IV for being a politically troublesome critic. Jones created a history series for the BBC that disputed the popular portrait of the Middle Ages offered by Renaissance historians, contending that damsels were feistier, kings crueler and peasants better educated than their chroniclers let on.
Jones will speak about the not-so-dark ages Friday at Augsburg College to benefit Medieval Minnesota, a summer camp at Augsburg for students ages 14 to 17. Proceeds will provide scholarships to the camp.
Q. You write that our view of medieval life is unduly grim because historians maligned the period. It's easy to see why a nobleman might want to burnish his image by commissioning a writer to vilify a predecessor, but who would benefit from a campaign to disparage an era?
A. A very interesting question. Well, in the first place, it would have been the thinkers of the Renaissance, who wanted to establish a break with the past. They also wanted to establish their own sense of importance by belittling what had gone before. This then gets taken up by the promoters of Renaissance culture who are keen to establish its supremacy over the medieval world - particularly since the Renaissance is a backward-looking movement which harks back to the classical world rather than establishing something new.
In the 20th and 21st century, Renaissance values have been adapted to fit the modern capitalist world. The whole myth that there was no sense of human individuality before the Renaissance is part of this attempt to make the present day seem the culmination of human progress, which I don't think it is.
Q. Then how did the unrealistic stereotypes of the noble knight and the ignorant, downtrodden peasant originate and why have they persisted?
A. Well, undoubtedly you did have proud and unfeeling aristocrats who treated the peasants like dirt. Also, the Middle Ages is a wide span of time, and there were times and places where the peasantry would undoubtedly have been downtrodden and ignorant. So there is a basis for all that. But the little bit of history I'm interested in - late 14th century England - saw a rise in education and the pursuit of knowledge amongst ordinary people - partly it was a result of the Black Death and the fact there were so few people around that everyone was questioning everything. But it was a time of intellectual activity amongst all classes. Much more so than today.
Q. Washington Irving, who gave us "Rip van Winkle," apparently also contributed some fabrications that still distort our view of medieval life?
A. Yes. He seems to have been responsible to a large degree for promoting the myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat and that this formed part of Church doctrine. It never did, and people didn't think the world was flat. Chaucer himself talks about "this world that men say is round." There's a fascinating book called "Inventing the Flat Earth" by Jeffrey Burton Russell, which sets the whole story out.
Q. What does this tell us about the trustworthiness of historians, in general? Do you have any advice on how to spot a sound or flawed account of the past? Is there such a thing as history or only histories?
A. Well, I think you're right that there is no such monolith as "history" in the singular. I think every age writes its own histories and I think it's important that they do. It's how we help to define ourselves and to know who and where we are. I don't think there is any rule of thumb to spot distorted history any more than there is to spot distorted news that we read today in the press or watch on TV.
The main thing is to be aware that the makers of "spin" are at work today just as much as they were in the Middle Ages or at any time in human history. It's all a bit like a detective story. We have to look for the motives behind what leaders do rather than take at face value the reasons that they give us. It's just the same with history.
Q. How has your study of the distant past affected your thinking about our present and future?
A. I think my reading of the Middle Ages made me more politically conscious. I see the same people seeking power, and using the same techniques to keep power, whether it be propaganda, media control or religion. The one thing that is certain is that people don't change and the same untruths and reasons for going to war, for example, prevail now as they always did. In the late 14th century, Richard II tried to establish peace with France, but this flew in the face of the interests of those barons who made their money out of warfare, and who were adamantly opposed to Richard and who, in the end, managed to depose and murder him so that they could carry on making money despite the bloodshed and destruction. Nothing changes.
Processus contra Templarios to be published by the Vatican this month
Long, dark night ends for Templar monks
6 October 2007
New Zealand Herald
The mysteries of the Order of the Knights Templar could soon be laid bare after the Vatican announced the release of a crucial document which has not been seen for almost 700 years.
A book, Processus contra Templarios, will be published by the Vatican's Secret Archive on October 25 and promises to restore the reputation of the Templars, whose leaders were burned as heretics when the order was dissolved in 1314.
The Knights Templar were a powerful and secretive group of warrior monks during the Middle Ages. Their secrecy has given birth to endless legends, including one that they guarded the Holy Grail.
Recently, they have been featured in films including The Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The order was founded by Hugues de Payns, a French knight, after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. Its headquarters was the captured al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, which lent the Templars their name.
But when Jerusalem fell to Muslim rule in 1244, rumours surfaced that the knights were heretics who worshipped idols in a secret initiation ceremony.
In 1307, King Philip IV of France, in desperate need of funds, ordered the arrest and torture of all Templars. After confessing various sins their leader, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.
Pope Clement V then dissolved the order and issued arrest warrants for all remaining members. Ever since, the Templars have been thought of as heretics.
The new book is based on a scrap of parchment discovered in the Vatican's Secret Archives in 2001 by Professor Barbara Frale. The long-lost document is a record of the trial of the Templars before Pope Clement and ends with a papal absolution from all heresies.
Frale said: ``I could not believe it when I found it. The paper was put in the wrong archive in the 17th century.''
The document, known as the Chinon parchment, shows that the Templars had an initiation ceremony which involved ``spitting on the cross'', ``denying Jesus'' and kissing the lower back, navel and mouth of the man proposing them.
The Templars told Pope Clement that the initiation mimicked the humiliation that knights could suffer if they fell into the hands of the Saracens, while the kissing ceremony signalled their total obedience.
The Pope concluded the entrance ritual was not truly blasphemous, as alleged by King Philip. However, he was forced to dissolve the order to keep peace with France and prevent a schism in the church.
``This is proof that the Templars were not heretics,'' said Frale. ``The Pope was obliged to ask pardon from the knights. For 700 years, we have believed that the Templars died as cursed men and this absolves them.''
6 October 2007
New Zealand Herald
The mysteries of the Order of the Knights Templar could soon be laid bare after the Vatican announced the release of a crucial document which has not been seen for almost 700 years.
A book, Processus contra Templarios, will be published by the Vatican's Secret Archive on October 25 and promises to restore the reputation of the Templars, whose leaders were burned as heretics when the order was dissolved in 1314.
The Knights Templar were a powerful and secretive group of warrior monks during the Middle Ages. Their secrecy has given birth to endless legends, including one that they guarded the Holy Grail.
Recently, they have been featured in films including The Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The order was founded by Hugues de Payns, a French knight, after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. Its headquarters was the captured al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, which lent the Templars their name.
But when Jerusalem fell to Muslim rule in 1244, rumours surfaced that the knights were heretics who worshipped idols in a secret initiation ceremony.
In 1307, King Philip IV of France, in desperate need of funds, ordered the arrest and torture of all Templars. After confessing various sins their leader, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.
Pope Clement V then dissolved the order and issued arrest warrants for all remaining members. Ever since, the Templars have been thought of as heretics.
The new book is based on a scrap of parchment discovered in the Vatican's Secret Archives in 2001 by Professor Barbara Frale. The long-lost document is a record of the trial of the Templars before Pope Clement and ends with a papal absolution from all heresies.
Frale said: ``I could not believe it when I found it. The paper was put in the wrong archive in the 17th century.''
The document, known as the Chinon parchment, shows that the Templars had an initiation ceremony which involved ``spitting on the cross'', ``denying Jesus'' and kissing the lower back, navel and mouth of the man proposing them.
The Templars told Pope Clement that the initiation mimicked the humiliation that knights could suffer if they fell into the hands of the Saracens, while the kissing ceremony signalled their total obedience.
The Pope concluded the entrance ritual was not truly blasphemous, as alleged by King Philip. However, he was forced to dissolve the order to keep peace with France and prevent a schism in the church.
``This is proof that the Templars were not heretics,'' said Frale. ``The Pope was obliged to ask pardon from the knights. For 700 years, we have believed that the Templars died as cursed men and this absolves them.''
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