Book of Days

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Maconie, Stuart (2008), Pies and Prejudice: In search of the North, Ebury Press, ISBN 978-0091910235 (p. 300-301) Chester's economy had grown steadily from 1550 to c. 1600, not least because in the early 1580s and later 1590s the passage of troops bound for Ireland created more demand for goods and services: although recovery from the plagues of 1603-5 was hampered by national economic difficulties and by recurrent, though limited, local epidemics. Henry was seen as "the coming man", yet his father was still young enough that he could be expected to be Earl of Chester for some years. Undoubtedly one object of the Triumph of 1610 was to gain the attention, and hence the favour, of Prince Henry. But favour for whom? - Lucian the Monk would have seen the City as a mere extension of the Abbey: Bradshaw's Life of Werburgh tries to hang on to the central position through superstition - but both have been undermined by the Norman Earls and eventually the Reformation. The Chester Mystery Plays become a reflection of the appropriation of the ritualistic function of the Abbey by the lay community. "Chester's Triumph" is an expression of both the civic urge to further subsume the church's governance in the name of "Rome" and also an expression of the internal conflict over who governs in the name of the Prince. Perhaps the author of the play saw a continuing shift, first with rebellion against "Rome" and then with rebellion against a London elite. Their boys follow with offerings: one 'a payre of ould hose;' another, 'a fayre bottill;' 'a pipe to make the woode ringe;' and lastly, 'a nutthooke to pull down aples, peares, and plumes, that oulde Joseph nede not hurte his thombes.' Evans collects several techniques of conjuration [ clarification needed] used against the plague: the author mentions a treatise by Kassianos Bassos, a Byzantine Bithynian who lived during the tenth century, in which he describes, step by step, a recipe to finish off the field mice, who are asked to leave the fields on pain of cutting them into seven pieces. [5]

Not suprisingly, in these annals of human stupidity, telly also now features as worthy of commemoration and comment, from the just-possibly historic (first television broadcast made by British prime minister - Anthony Eden April 27 1956), to the amusingly notable (first episode of Dr Who - screened November 23 1963), to the surely-in-anyone's-estimation-utterly irrelevant (the first episode of This is Your Life - July 29 1955).The animals that were most often punished by Thierstrafen were pigs. The work of Evans and Cohen has been used in jurisprudence about animal abuse that is currently debated in the Constitutional Court of Colombia, an institution that has cited this compilation of animal trials to debate animals' capacity and possibility to be subjects of law. [6] [7] those feelings beyond self, on which depend remoter but infinitely greater interests; to kindle and Puritan Nicholas Byfield was preaching at St Peter (c1600-1615) when the "Chester's Triumph" was performed. There is still a copy of a "Breeches Bible" from around 1579 at St Peter. Byfield was a influence on the iconoclast John Bruen. The text of Chester's Triumph in Honour of her Prince can be found on-line. To see a city burnt, or barnes on fire, To see a sonne the butcher of his sire; To see two swaggerers eagerly to strive Which of them both shall make the hangman thrive; To see a good man poore, or wise man hare, To see Dame Virtue overwhelmed with care; To see a ruined church, a preacher dumbe,' &c. But Joy puts her to flight, saying, 'Envy, avaunt! thou art no fit compeere T' associate with these our sweet consociats here; Joy doth exclude thee,' &c.

Henry was not present for the performance - he was at his residence at Richmond on St Georges Day (23rd April) 1610 when the triumph was performed. On the 4th June 1610 Henry took part in a lavish ceremony which celebrated his coming of age and creation as Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. Precedents were remote. England had not witnessed the creation of a Prince of Wales since Henry VIII’s installation in 1504 – some 106 years earlier. Interestingly therefore, Henry was not formally the Prince of anything when the triumph was performed. Jesus descends with his angels, and complains of the injuries men have done to him: how his members bled afresh at every oath they swore, and that he had suffered more from them than from his Jewish persecutors. Interesting trivia about Chambers himself abounds. Both Robert and his brother William were born with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. Their parents attempted to correct this "abnormality" through operations, and while William's was successful Robert was left partially crippled. So while other boys roughed it outside, Robert was content to stay indoors and study his books. At the beginning of 1832, Robert's brother William started a weekly publication entitled Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which soon gained a large circulation. Robert was at first only a contributor, but after 14 volumes had appeared, he became joint editor with his brother, and his collaboration contributed more perhaps than anything else to the success of the Journal. The two brothers eventually united as partners in the book publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers Publishers, which produced such well-known works as Chambers' Encyclopaedia. Chester was endowed by Hugo with two yearly fairs, at Midsummer and Michaelmas, on which occasions criminals had free shelter in it for a month, as indicated by a glove hung out at St. Peter's Church, — for gloves were a manufacture at Chester. It was on these occasions that the celebrated Chester mysteries, or scriptural plays, were performed. Chambers misquotes the original work when he repeats the speech of Mercury - in the work he is "Joves dearest darling".

The book of days

Castellated" is generally taken to mean having towers and "battlements". Chester's City Walls have a few towers but are not generally "castellated" in the sense that they had "merlons" which provided protection for defenders while allowing them to shoot from the gaps between. The reference to "criminals" may not be entirely accurate and may be a confusion. Earl Hugh established three "asyla" in Cheshire and the King's writ did not run to Cheshire, where the Earl enforced the law (save for treason). These asyla were at Hoole Heath near Chester, Overmarsh near Farndon and Rud Heath near Middlewich. These were places to which a felon from any place in England (or Wales) could flee and seek the protection of the Earl. A "glove" (actually a wooden hand) was hung from the end of St Peter's (see Gloverstone) during the time of the fairs. Crimes committed during the course of the fairs were not exempted. The original full title, which the new book now shares, was The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character. For all its exhaustive pursuit of truth and knowledge, the original Chambers did not stint on the oddities: January 23 may have marked the death of William Pitt (1806), but it also provided an excuse for discussions about ale-tasting. Young Chambers finds its own similar conjunctions and amusements. On October 9 1962, Uganda may have gained its independence, but on the same day in 1991: "The first Sumo wrestling tournament to be staged outside Japan began at the Royal Albert Hall, London." In many ways Cheshire stood apart from England. Although the importance of the county’s absence from the Pipe Rolls has been minimized by some scholars, that absence reflects a considerable degree of independence. The king's writ did not run to Cheshire. The chief administrative official, the justice of Chester, was at times neither appointed by the king nor responsible to him. The king derived no benefit from scutages or tallages levied in the county. Royal justices did not visit it; fines and amercements levied there did not reach the king. Only with the Henrician reforms of the 1530s and 1540s, was Cheshire subjected to English justices of the peace (1536), national taxation (1540), and Parliamentary representation (1543). Palatine practices remained in place because they were grounded in a pair of county specific institutions: the county court (presided over by the justice and roughly equivalent to the Queen's Bench) and the Exchequer of Chester (supervised by the chamberlain and roughly equivalent to the Chancery Division), both of which continued in one form or another until 1830. "Chester's Prince" needs to be seen in that context, something which Chambers fails to consider. The apartness should be obvious to any visitor: dominating the Cheshire plain from its perch atop a steep bluff, Beeston Castle guards the southern and eastern approaches to Chester, "all too obviously defending the county from England rather than Wales".

There was never any general ban on the bible during the "middle ages". Production of Wycliffite Bibles would be officially banned in England at the Oxford Synod (1407) in the face of Lollard anticlerical sentiment, but the ban was not strictly enforced and since owning earlier copies was not illegal, books made after the ban were often simply inscribed with a date prior to 1409 to avoid seizure. John Wycliffe (c.1320s – 31 December 1384) does not actually condemn the (York) plays, but rather uses their existence as a justification for the translation of what is now known as " Wycliffe's Bible" (1382 to 1395) into English. Evans' compilation covers trials from the 8th century until the early 20th century. He does not merely list them, but delves into the metaphysical, religious, legal and legislative issues that led humans to make judgments against animals. Cohen, Esther (February 1986). "Law, Folklore and Animal Lore". Past & Present. 110: 6–37. doi: 10.1093/past/110.1.6– via Oxford Academic. Wulfhere (died 675 - for whom the primary source is the Venerable Bede - was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known for certain when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. It is possible that he converted upon his marriage. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that region. His campaigns against the West Saxons led to Mercian control of much of the Thames valley. He conquered the Isle of Wight and the Meon valley and gave them to King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons. He also had influence in Surrey, Essex, and Kent. He married Eormenhild, the daughter of King Eorcenberht of Kent. No issue from this marriage are recorded in the earliest sources. Later sources record five possible children: Coenred, Berhtwald, Werburgh, Wulfad and Ruffin. Wulfhere brought bishop Wilfrid (c. 633 – 709 or 710), to Mercia. It is not clear where Wilfrid was bishop of. It is posssible that St Chad and Wilfrid were rivals at first for the see at York and then for the see at Lichfield.

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There were fairs at Midsummer (which lasted a week) and Michaelmas (which was shorter). Their origins are uncertain: from an early period the monks of St. Werburgh's claimed that Earl Hugh (d. 1101) had granted them the right to hold a fair on the three days around the feast of St. Werburg's translation on 21 June. Almost certainly, however, the fair was reorganized in the 1120s by Ranulph I, who provided new regulations governing its hours of opening. The origins of the Michaelmas fair are even more obscure. Its detailed descriptions of key historical events, the life and times of people, both great and infamous, and long forgotten customs of cultures from every corner of the world, Animals, including insects, faced the possibility of criminal charges for several centuries across many parts of Europe. The earliest extant record of an animal trial is often assumed to be found in the execution of a pig in 1266 at Fontenay-aux-Roses. [1] Newer research, however, suggests that this reading might be mistaken and no trial took place in that particular incident. [2] Notwithstanding this controversy, such trials remained part of several legal systems until the 18th century. Animal defendants appeared before both church and secular courts, and the offences alleged against them ranged from murder to criminal damage. Human witnesses were often heard, and in ecclesiastical courts the animals were routinely provided with lawyers (this was not the case in secular courts, but for most of the period concerned, neither were human defendants). If convicted, it was usual for an animal to be executed or exiled. However, in 1750, a female donkey was acquitted of charges of bestiality due to witnesses to the animal's virtue and good behaviour while her co-accused human was sentenced to death. [3] Book cover from The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals written by Edward Payson Evans

Chambers implies that the various "Triumphs" replaced the mystery plays. In truth, the triumphs were relatively rare, never appear to have been repeated once performed and in no case appear to have been given at the mayor's own expense. The only instance of a major performance after the discontinuation of the Mystery Plays is that of the Triumph given in homage to the Prince of Wales as discussed in more detail below. In Oxford, May Day morning is celebrated from the top of Magdalen College Tower by the singing of a Latin hymn, or carol, of thanksgiving. After this the college bells signal the start of the Morris Dancing in the streets below. In the same way, it is through the trials of pigs that not only the direct author of the crime is recognized, but there could also be "accomplices", as in the case of the village of Saint-Marcel-le-Jeussey in 1379, in which two herds of these animals were said to have rioted and expressed the approval of an infanticide committed by other pigs; although the pigs found guilty of homicide were sentenced to execution, thanks to the request of the owner of the two herds to the Duke of Burgundy, the animals accused of complicity were pardoned. [5] The Statute of Henry VIII of 1511-12 required that "All Men under the Age of Forty Years shall have Bows and Arrows, and use Shooting; certain Persons excepted". Signage at St Peter's in Chester states that it remained a guild church even after the Fraternity of St George was dissolved.

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The Pacific King and the MilitantPrince?: Representation and Collaboration in the Letters Patent of James I, creating his son, Henry, Prince of Wales]; The "interdiction" referred to is probably " De heretico comburendo" ("Regarding the burning of heretics", 2 Hen.4 c.15) a law passed by Parliament under King Henry IV (Henry Bolingbroke) in 1401, punishing heretics with burning at the stake. This law was one of the strictest religious censorship statutes ever enacted in England. A new version of Chambers Book of Days was published by Chambers Harrap in 2004. [2] The Book of Days (1864) [ edit ] Antichrist" the subject of the next play, was also a much expected character in the middle ages. He performs the miracle of self-resurrection, to deceive the kings who ask for proofs of his power; and brings all men to worship and sacrifice to him. Enoch and Elijah come from Paradise to expose their sin, and, after a long disputation, are martyred, Michael the archangel coming at the same moment and killing Antichrist, who is carried off by two demons; the martyrs rising and ascending with Michael. 'Doomsday' forms the last of the series, in which a pope, emperor, king, and queen are judged and saved; while a similar series confess their various sins, and are turned into hell. The queen says: 'Fie on pearls! fie on pride! Fye on gowne! fye on hyde! (skin) Fye on hewe! fye on gayde! (gold) Thes harrowe me to hell.'