Bermondsey Abbey, although far from being the grandest monastic building in the country, was still very important. And a very important abbey needs a very important relic. A relic of the True Cross, or Holy Rood, was held at Bermondsey and as expected miracles were attached to such an important item, including that of William, the Earl of Morton who, in 1118, was miraculously released from the Tower thanks to the Holy Cross. That is to say chances are he was guilty and got away with it unexpectedly. Nevertheless William believed so firmly in the miracle that in 1140 he relinquished a life of leisure and became a monk at Bermondsey. The belief in relics was so widespread and so ingrained that the disabled would travel for miles and miles for a cure. Reliquaries would have crutches and sticks piled up against them from the cured. Long pilgrimages could and did often leave families destitute. Relics were very varied and included such things as the bones of saints, the Holy Lance used to stab Jesus on the cross and, I kid you not, the Holy Foreskin (as many as 18 different establishments claimed to have the Holy Foreskin at the same time in the Middle Ages). With the Reformation came the wholesale destruction of these so called false idols and the Relic of the True Cross at Bermondsey was cast to the flames on 26th September 1538 on the orders of Thomas Cromwell and Hugh Latimer. Of course after anything of monetary value was removed. Reliquaries could be either small and simple or incredibly ornate and large depending on the wealth of the establishment that held them. Ive included some pictures of surviving relics from elsewhere to give an idea of what it may have looked like.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 08:05:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015