Glastonbury, the Templars and the Sovran Cloth E-Book

Juliet Faith

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

This exciting book sheds new light on the Grail stories and the arrival of Christianity to Somerset. It illustrates important links between Glastonbury and the Celtic settlement at Old Lammana in Cornwall; and examines old tales of an object of great importance - known as 'the Sovran cloth' - secretly hidden at both places. The author reveals that Henri de Blois, Abbot of Glastonbury, assisted in the transmission of the Grail stories, and that his family line were in possession of the Shroud and first exhibited it at Lirey in France in 1356. She also examines why there was such great importance placed on oral traditions in ancient times, and what importance these traditions hold for present-day historians. Finally, recent examination of the Templecombe panel reveals why it is believed the Templars may have brought the Shroud to England for safekeeping in 1307. Richly illustrated and compiled using original research, this book is sure to appeal to everyone interested in the Knights Templar and their Somerset history.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Introduction

‘The Son of Man on Mendip’ (An Old Somerset Poem)

The Shroud of Turin – The True Burial Shroud of Christ?

1 The Arrival of Christianity in South-West Britain

Archaeological Surveys at Lammana • A Modern Mystery • Celtic Origins • Early Trade in the South-West • The Legends • A Tale Told: The Importance of Oral Tradition

2 Henry De Blois – Prodigy of the Twelfth Century

Glastonbury • The Vetusta Ecclesia or Old Church • The Library at Glastonbury

3 The Quest Begins

Constantinople • The Shroud Vanishes • The Grail Emerges

4 Glastonbury and the Grail: Myth or Reality?

The Sovran Cloth at Glastonbury • A Fragment of Perlesvaus at Wells Cathedral Library • The Chapel Perilis and the Perilis Bridge

5 Did the Shroud come to Somerset during the Middle Ages?

Templecombe • When Could the Shroud have Come to Somerset? • Outhouse or Ritual Chapel?

6 The Templars, the Idol and the Grail

An Idol in the Form of a Head • The Grail in Somerset

Appendix

Joseph of Arimathea: Mystery Man of the Gospels (A Paper by Ed Prior)

Did Joseph of Arimathea Really Exist? • Why Would Joseph of Arimathea and Others Leave Judaea? • Joseph and Company to Europe? • Ancient Sources on the Spread of Christianity • The von Harnack/Scavone Theory that Joseph Never Came to Britain: A Series of Clerical Errors • Archaeological or Other Literary Evidence for an Early Christian Presence in Britain? • Further Intriguing Hints that Someone from Jesus’s Inner Circle Came to Britain

‘The Hallows’ by Maddie Prior, from the CD ‘Arthur the King’

Bibliography

Copyright

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many of those who helped with the research of my previous book, The Knights Templar in Somerset, have again enthusiastically helped and supported me with the material for this book.

My special thanks go to retired NASA scientist and Shroud scholar Ed Prior, who I met when he visited England in 2010 to lecture about Joseph of Arimathea and the Turin Shroud. I did not feel that I had researched Joseph of Arimathea fully enough to deal at length with the vexed question, ‘Did Joseph bring Christianity to England?’ Therefore, Ed has written a special ‘paper’ to be included in this book on my behalf (see Appendix). Ed has been researching Joseph of Arimathea for many years, and is working on his own book about early Christianity. I am greatly honoured that he has taken the time and trouble to write for this book; for this I owe him a debt of gratitude.

Special thanks once again to Shroud researcher and international author Rex Morgan, with whom I have been ‘comparing notes’ on the activities of the Knights Templar in England. Rex and I met last year on his visit to this country, and I am most grateful that he has made his early research available to me. One chapter of this book includes the fascinating research that he and his team conducted in the 1980s concerning the Templecombe Panel.

Thank you once again to Barbara Birchwood Harper and Daniel Agee of the Looe Old Cornwall Society, who gave me some enlightening information on the connections between Looe Island and Glastonbury Abbey. Daniel has written several very interesting essays on the Cornwall/Glastonbury connection.

Thank you also to Paul Ashdown, whose own research work in some ways touches on my own, and has provided some interesting insights.

Many thanks to my friend and neighbour Becky, for her delightful illustrations. Also to Ken Macfarlane for freely giving his time to take photographs for the book, not to forget Elizabeth Blaymires, who popped through my letterbox an old folk poem recited to her by her grandmother when she was a child in 1948, entitled ‘The Son of Man on Mendip’.

Others who have assisted either directly or indirectly are: Kevin Spears, Wells Cathedral Librarian; Tom Bree; Susan Hannis; Clive Wilkins; Dr Simon Johnson; Dr Harvey Thompson; the staff at Glastonbury Abbey; the staff at Winchester Cathedral, and the Hospital of St Cross; the staff at Looe Museum and Glastonbury Abbey.

Also, my thanks to all those who have offered time and support in many other ways during the writing of this book.

Last but not least my special thanks to Fi Bannister, who has walked the sacred places with me, and encouraged and supported me in many ways over the past few years; Harvey Thompson, who is ‘on the path’; and my sons Tristan and Tobias, who have shared all the highs and lows that my research entails!

INTRODUCTION

Since time immemorial, Glastonbury has acted as a magnet for pilgrims, saints, sinners and tourists alike. It appears that many are drawn to the place for some reason unknown to themselves. Many, if not most, are seeking something, but what? Perhaps they seek to find or understand the elusive Grail?

Here at Glastonbury we find stories that tell of Joseph of Arimathea visiting Somerset as a tin merchant, accompanied by the boy Jesus; legends of King Arthur; whispers of a faery realm within the Tor; and the ruins of what was arguably once the greatest abbey in England. There are tantalising tales of the cup of the Last Supper, hidden in the Chalice Well, and whispers of fragments of the shroud of Christ once venerated at a Perilis Chapel.

In researching this book, I wanted to explore whether there was any truth behind these tales: were they mere fabrication, or could it be that once, long ago, someone or something of unique and sacred importance arrived in England and found its way to Somerset?

Since writing my previous book, The Knights Templar in Somerset, I found I was certainly not alone in my beliefs – others had been thinking in a similar way, and several have contacted me to tell me about their own research and ideas. As a consequence of this, I have been fortunate enough to meet and spend time with both Shroud scholar and international author Rex Morgan, and Ed Prior, retired NASA scientist and Shroud scholar. Rex has shared his research on the Templecombe Panel with me, while Ed has imparted his knowledge of Joseph of Arimathea in a special ‘appendix’ section of the book.

‘The Somerset Tradition’, Glastonbury Abbey. (Courtesy of Ken Macfarlane)

Their ideas reinforced my own conviction that there could indeed be a connection between the mysterious legends of the Holy Grail and the relic known as the Holy Shroud of Turin, and these grail legends led to the heart of my home county, Somerset, and most especially to Glastonbury.

Perhaps the legends and folk memories which have been passed down to us through the ages are more than just stories; within them we may find an ancient memory of a much greater, more mysterious and inspirational truth …

Juliet Faith, 2012

‘THE SON OF MAN ON MENDIP’

(An Old Somerset Poem)

The Son of Man on Mendip

He walked among the fern

Against the blackness of the down

He saw the heather turn.

The Son of Man on Mendip

Gazed down the glistening tide

Beyond the sprinkled Islands

Where the grey lagoons spread wide.

For Joseph was a tinman

Who sailed the Western sea

And brought his young companion

Across to Eggarley.

Where amid the golden orchards

Whose scent the silence thrills

The Lamb of God in beauty trod

Our Avalonian hills.

The Son of Man on Mendip

He gave the folk no sign,

But talked and walked with such as worked

The led and coalmine.

He knew the old Nine Barrows,

The swallets and the droves,

As well as, on far southern slopes,

He knew the orange groves.

As summer passed to autumn,

He marked the changing days.

The blood red wicken berries

In Ebbor Gorge ablaze.

The crocus in the meadows,

The gold upon the wheat,

And snow-white bog cotton

Bent to those gentle feet.

The Son of Man on Mendip

He breathed the common air

And so folk tell by word of mouth,

He played at Priddy Fair.

For Joseph was a tinman

Who dealt in dyes and ores.

Trading from torrid Nazareth

To Somerset’s green shores.

On Easter morning

When the clouds be rolled away,

And climbing Maesbury beacon

The young sun brings the day,

They that be simple hearted

That nothing ill have done,

A wondrous sign may witness

The Lamb against the sun.

THE SHROUD OF TURIN – THE TRUE BURIAL SHROUD OF CHRIST?

Much of this book is concerned with a presumed burial linen or shroud of Jesus, and the importance that it had historically, and may still have for us today. I therefore decided that it was prudent to give a short synopsis of the only real contender for the title the ‘true burial Shroud of Jesus’; that is the cloth known today as the Shroud of Turin.

Sceptics delight in commenting that there were once many presumed ‘Shrouds of Christ’. Certainly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were known to be about fifty contenders for the shroud, some examples of which still survive to this day, such as the one displayed in the church of Notre Dame de Chambery, which is a watercolour on fabrici.

The Lier Shroud, commissioned by a member of the Savoy family,ii is believed to have been be painted by Durer in 1516. As a historical record it is of great interest, but is clearly the work of an artist.

However, what these ‘shrouds’ do tell us, from strange details on each, is that there were attempts to copy an original cloth with a figure imprinted upon it, but with very limited success.

The idea that the shroud which Joseph of Arimathea provided to wrap the body of Jesus in, after his crucifixion 2,000 years ago, could survive to this day appears to be an incredible and unlikely idea. However, in Turin Cathedral there is an ancient piece of linen which may be that very cloth.

The Shroud of Turin is a 14-feet long piece of linen bearing on it the shadowy imprint – both front and back – of a bearded, crucified man. The figure bears witness to the biblical accounts of Jesus’s Passion and crucifixion. We know that the Shroud of Turin is not a drawing, not a painting, and not a photograph, but to date we do not know with certainty how it was made.

This subtle, sepia-coloured image shows a man who has been beaten, scourged, speared in the side and crucified. The cloth contains bloodstains – real human blood – and, horrifyingly, traces of human muscle tissueiii from the appalling wounds he sustained. The blood flow from the wound in the side indicates a mixture of blood and fluid. Doctors agree that the fluid is plasma, caused either by a puncture wound to the heart or from a build up of fluids in the chest cavity caused by the trauma of flogging, and are entirely consistent with medical reality.iv

The shroud also contains pollens from the Middle East and Europe, burn marks, limestone from Jerusalem, water stains and traces of anointing spices. Each of these elements tell their own story; they indicate that the shroud traveled from place to place, collecting evidence along the way of where it was housed or displayed during its long history.

Dr Max Frei, a Swiss botanist and criminologist, took samples from the surface of the Shroud of Turin in 1976. His findings revealed pollens from many different species of plants, which provide evidence that the shroud had been present in the Holy Land, Europe and Turkey. His findings confirmed Ian Wilson’s theories as to where the Shroud had historically been located at different points in history. In 1981, Frei had identified further pollens, fifty-seven varieties in total. These confirm that the shroud had been present in France and Italy, near the Dead Sea, Palestine, Anatolia and Constantinople, to name but a few. Some of these pollens were from plants which are now extinct.v

Very interestingly, around the head area of the man on the shroud was found a cluster of pollens from the thorn plant Gundelia Tourifortii, which grows in the vicinity of Jerusalem. This finding provides evidence for the ‘crown of thorns’, or more likely a crude cap of thorns, which the Bible tells us was placed on Jesus’s head to mock him. In fact, all the wounds found on the body of the man in the shroud, concur precisely with the Gospel descriptions of Jesus’s Passion and crucifixion.

The infamous carbon–14 dating of 1988, which declared the Shroud of Turin to be of medieval origin and therefore a fake, has almost unanimously been discredited.

It appears that the laboratory samples for the testing were taken from a corner of the shroud, where documentary evidence shows us that it was held up for display over the centuries. Not only would this area have been contaminated, but recent findings presented by sindonologists Joe Marino and the late Sue Benford, confirmed by research from Scientist Raymond Rogers, show the sample taken for the carbon–14 dating to be a medieval re-weave.

But the mystery still remains, how was the image formed? Despite years of exhaustive study (the Shroud of Turin is the most studied artifact on the planet) and many different theories being put forward, science still cannot conclusively tell us how it came to be.

The image is a photographic negative, and was only clearly revealed to us with the advent of photography. In 1898, an Italian photographer, Secondo Pia, photographed it for the first time and was astonished to find that his negative plate showed an incredibly life-like image – a far cry from the ghostly negative that can be seen on the cloth. Moving forward in time, the next astonishing event occurred as Scientist Dr John Jackson, of the US Air force Academy, placed a picture of the image into a VP–8 image analyzer, and incredibly the image on the shroud leapt into 3D relief. This was a unique occurrence; amazingly, it appears that the shroud is somehow encoded with 3D information!

The latest scientific view, and one that caught the newspaper headlines recently, is that the image on the Shroud was formed by a sudden, very short burst of ultraviolet radiationvi, though not radiation as we understand it. Incredibly, this burst of radiant light was only enough to mark the surface fibrils of the cloth.

Dr John Jackson, a member of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP)vii team, put forward the hypothesis some years ago that light, or radiation, had formed the image on the cloth. Most of STURP’s findings have now been published in scientific journals.

Recent research carried out by a British doctor, Andrew Silverman, has produced some awe-inspiring and plausible possibilities. Dr Silverman’s research, based upon quantum theory, suggests that matter, space and time are interrelated, with mind being the key mover in reality. He suggests that matter, space and time became separated at the time of the ‘Big Bang’. Mind, he hypothesizes, is eternal, with no beginning and no end. The thought here is that Jesus, as a uniquely enlightened being, was able to somehow exert mind over matter, and, after his death, was able to leave an imprint on the shroud to illustrate to us that we are all capable of potentially greater actions than we believe. On several occasions in the Gospels, Jesus is recorded as becoming radiant in some way. Silverman sites the theories of Erwin Schrodinger, one of the founders of quantum theory.viii

The Crucifixion; Reredos, Winchester Cathedral. (Courtesy of Ken Macfarlane)

Dr Silverman suggests that the blood from the corpse soaked into the shroud before the image was formed, that is whilst Jesus’s body lay on a stone slab in the tomb. He believes that the body was upright, suspended in the air, when radiant light was somehow projected onto the cloth and the image formed on the shroud:

On the Shroud of Turin, there is evidence that the dead body of a man who had suffered torture and crucifixion arose into a vertical position before momentarily shining brighter than the sun. The implications of this are considered for our understanding of space, time, matter and gravity. Also the implications are considered for our understanding of the nature of humanity and sentient awareness in general. It is considered whether these two lines of enquiry might one day lead to a unified understanding of the nature of existence itself.ix

ENDNOTES

i

Wilson I.,

Shroud

. p.11/12 (Bantam, 2010)

ii

Morgan, R. (Ed.),

Shroud News

, No.113 (April 1999)

iii

Nitowski, Dr E., ‘The Body of Christ’,

Shroud News

, No.100 (February 1997)

iv

The Shroud of Turin has been studied by various medical men, amongst whom were surgeon Dr Pierre Barbet; Dr David Willis; Dr Robert Bucklin, and Dr Antony Sava. All agree that the wounds and blood flows of the man in the shroud are medically correct. (

See

Ian Wilson,

The Shroud

(2010) and

The Blood and the Shroud

(1998). Frale, B.

The Templars and the Shroud of Christ

)

v

Morgan, R.,

Shroud Guide

(The Runciman Press, 1983)

vi

Pi di Lazarro, (Ed.),

Journal of Imaging Science and Technology

, (July/August 2010)

vii

Shroud of Turin Research Project. In 1978, a team of research scientists were granted round-the-clock access to the Shroud of Turin in an attempt to try and discover how the image had been formed. The team, comprising of some of the worlds finest scientific minds, was led by Dr John Jackson

viii

Silverman, Dr Andrew,

The Light that Shone in the Darkness

,

www.lightoftheshroud.com

ix

Ibid

.