Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Saturday 9 August 2014

Toponymy. Or Not Toponymy. That Is The Question. Them's Fighting Words ! The Politics Of Place Names.




Image: THE RAD TRAD


Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit ?

An interesting debate has begun on the excellent Blog THE RAD TRAD
as to whether or not it is more correct, or otherwise, to say Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. You will find the Article, headlined "Spiritus vel Spiritus", on the Post for Thursday, 7 August 2014.

Why not pop over and say your "four penny worth" ?




In addition, and on the same point, should it be:

Myanmar or Burma ?

Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf ?

Persia or Iran ?

Is one politically correct and the other politically incorrect ?

Is one BBC-speak and one not ?

Is it important ?

Does it matter ?


Deutsch: "Betende Hände" (Studie zu einer Apostelfigur des "Heller"-Altars).
English: "Praying Hands" (study for an Apostle figure of the "Heller" Altar).
Artist: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).
Date: Circa 1508.
Current location: Albertina, Vienna, Austria.
Source/Photographer: gallery.euroweb.hu
(Wikimedia Commons)


Zephyrinus read a most interesting Article, recently, in STARS AND STRIPES
which majored on the same theme as above.

It included the observation that some geographic names don't just tell us where we live, or where we're going.

It went on: They are also a political statement, or, in the eyes of some, a politically incorrect one.

They may not spark a war of the worlds, but they can cause a war of words.

It would appear that, last week, Japan slapped monikers on 158 previously un-named islands off its shores. Five of them are part of a cluster that both China and Japan claim and is itself the subject of a name dispute: Is it the Senkaku Islands (Japanese term) or the Diaoyu Islands (Chinese term) ?

Perhaps we all should just Pray more than we do for Peace around the world ?





Westminster Abbey. (Part Three.)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.



King Edward's Chair,
Westminster Abbey,
London, England.
Date: 2002.
Source: Own work.
Author: Kjetil Bjørnsrud.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Royal Weddings at Westminster Abbey:

11 November 1100: King Henry I of England was married to Matilda of Scotland;

4 January 1243: Richard, Earl of Cornwall (later King of Germany), brother of King Henry III of England, to Sanchia of Provence (his second wife). Sanchia was sister of Eleanor of Provence, Henry III’s Queen.

9 April 1269: Edmund of Crouchback, 1st Earl of Leicester and Lancaster, son of King Henry III was married to Lady Aveline de Forz;

30 April 1290: Joan of Acre, daughter of King Edward I was married to the 7th Earl of Gloucester;

8 July 1290: Margaret of England, daughter of King Edward I was married to John II, son of Duke of Brabant;

20 January 1382: King Richard II of England was married to Anne of Bohemia;

27 February 1919: Princess Patricia of Connaught was married to Capt the Hon Alexander Ramsay;

28 February 1922: The Princess Mary, daughter of King George V was married to Viscount Lascelles;

26 April 1923: The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), second son of King George V, was married to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later to become Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother);

29 November 1934: The Prince George, Duke of Kent, son of King George V was married to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark;




English: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Photo taken during a visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth) was married to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh (then Lt Philip Mountbatten, RN), in Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947.
Afrikaans: Koningin Elizabeth II van die Verenigde Koninkryk. Die foto is geneem tydens 'n besoek deur haar aan die NASA se Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, VSA.
Photo: 8 May 2007.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/queen_egress_8.html
Author: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
(Wikimedia Commons)


20 November 1947: Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II), elder daughter of King George VI, was married to the Duke of Edinburgh (who was Lt Philip Mountbatten, until that morning);

6 May 1960: Princess Margaret, second daughter of King George VI was married to Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Earl of Snowdon);

24 April 1963: Princess Alexandra of Kent was married to the Hon Angus Ogilvy;

14 November 1973: Princess Anne, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II was married to Captain Mark Phillips;

23 July 1986: Prince Andrew, Duke of York, second son of Queen Elizabeth II was married to Miss Sarah Ferguson;

29 April 2011: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, was married to Miss Catherine Middleton.



The Duke of Cambridge at the wedding of Lady Melissa Percy.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, married Miss Catherine Middleton (now the Duchess of Cambridge) in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011.
Photo: 22 June 2013.
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thematthewslack/9114449529/
Author: TheMatthewSlack
(Wikimedia Commons)



The British Royal Family, on Buckingham Palace balcony,
after Prince William and Kate Middleton were married.
Kate Middleton wears a wedding gown by Sarah Burton.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, married Miss Catherine Middleton
(now the Duchess of Cambridge) in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011.
Photo: 29 April 2011.
derivative work: Blofeld Dr.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Westminster Abbey is a Collegiate Church, governed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, as established by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1560, which created it as the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter, Westminster, and a Royal Peculiar under the personal jurisdiction of the Sovereign. The members of the Chapter are the Dean and four Canons Residentiary, assisted by the Receiver General and Chapter Clerk. One of the Canons is also Rector of Saint Margaret's Church, Westminster, and often also holds the Post of Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

In addition to the Dean and Canons, there are. at present, two full-time Minor Canons, one is Precentor, and the other is Sacrist. The Office of Priest Vicar was created in the 1970s for those who assist the Minor Canons. Together with the Clergy and Receiver General and Chapter Clerk, various Lay Officers constitute the College, including the Organist and Master of the Choristers, the Registrar, the Auditor, the Legal Secretary, the Surveyor of the Fabric, the Head Master of the Choir School, the Keeper of the Muniments and the Clerk of the Works, as well as twelve Lay Vicars, ten Choristers and the High Steward and High Bailiff.

The forty Queen's Scholars, who are pupils at Westminster School (the School has its own Governing Body), are also members of the Collegiate.

The two Minor Canons, as well as the Organist and Master of the Choristers, are most directly concerned with Liturgical and Ceremonial matters.


PART FOUR FOLLOWS


Friday 8 August 2014

Pray For The Suffering Peoples (Christian And Non-Christian) Of The Middle East.






Deutsch: "Betende Hände" (Studie zu einer Apostelfigur des "Heller"-Altars).
English: "Praying Hands" (study for an Apostle figure of the "Heller" Altar).
Artist: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).
Date: Circa 1508.
Current location: Albertina, Vienna, Austria.
Source/Photographer: gallery.euroweb.hu
(Wikimedia Commons)



Allegri : Miserere (Psalm 50). Tallis Scholars.






Allegri: Miserere.
Available on YouTube at
http://youtu.be/YDOENZediM8.



The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Psalm 51 (Greek/Catholic numbering: Psalm 50), traditionally referred to as the Miserere, its Latin incipit, is one of the Penitential Psalms.

It begins: "Have mercy on me, O God". The Psalm's opening words in Latin, Miserere mei, Deus, have led to its being called the Miserere Mei or even just Miserere. It is often known by this name in musical settings. The Psalm is frequently used in various Liturgical traditions because of its spirit of humility and repentance.


Westminster Abbey. (Part Two.)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.



The Great North Door,
Westminster Abbey.
Photo: 10 November 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Telemaque MySon.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Confessor's Shrine subsequently played a great part in his Canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was largely finished by the architect Henry Yevele, in the reign of King Richard II. King Henry III also commissioned a unique Cosmati Pavement in front of the High Altar (the Pavement has recently undergone a major cleaning and conservation programme and was re-dedicated by the Dean at a Service on 21 May 2010).

King Henry VII added a Perpendicular Style Chapel, dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary, in 1503 (known as the Henry VII Chapel). Much of the stone came from Caen, in France (Caen stone), the Isle of Portland (Portland stone) and the Loire Valley region of France (tuffeau limestone).

In 1535, the Abbey's annual income of £2,400 – £2,800 (£1,280,000 to £1,490,000 as of 2014), during the Assessment attendant on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, rendered it second in wealth only to Glastonbury Abbey.

King Henry VIII assumed direct Royal Control in 1539 and granted the Abbey the status of a Cathedral by Charter in 1540, simultaneously issuing Letters Patent, establishing the Diocese of Westminster. By granting the Abbey Cathedral Status, Henry VIII gained an excuse to spare it from the destruction or dissolution which he inflicted on most English Abbeys during this period.

Westminster Diocese was dissolved in 1550, but the Abbey was recognised (in 1552, retroactively to 1550) as a second Cathedral of the Diocese of London until 1556. The already-old expression "robbing Peter to pay Paul" may have been given a new lease of life when money meant for the Abbey, which is dedicated to Saint Peter, was diverted to the Treasury of Saint Paul's Cathedral.



English: The Great West Door,
Westminster Abbey.
Deutsch: Westportal der Westminster Abbey.
Photo: 16 September 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Cum Deo.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Abbey was restored to the Benedictines, under the Catholic, Mary I of England, but they were again ejected, under Elizabeth I, in 1559. In 1560, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a "Royal Peculiar" – a Church responsible directly to the Sovereign, rather than to a Diocesan Bishop – and made it the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter (that is, a Church with an attached Chapter of Canons, headed by a Dean.) The last of Mary's Abbots was made the first Dean.

It suffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by Puritan iconoclasts, but was again protected, by its close ties to the State, during the Commonwealth period. Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a gibbet at Tyburn.



English: The Liber Regalis, showing Richard II and Anne of Bohemia.
Čeština: Liber Regalis - Richard II. a Anna Lucemburská.
Date: 14th-Century.
Source: http://www.history.ac.uk/richardII/images/liber2.jpg
Author: Unknown English painter.
(Wikimedia Commons)


On her arrival, in December 1381, Anne of Bohemia was severely criticised by contemporary chroniclers, probably as a result of the financial arrangements of the marriage, although it was quite typical for Queens to be viewed in critical terms.

The Westminster Chronicler called her "a tiny scrap of humanity", and Thomas Walsingham
related a disastrous omen upon her arrival, where her ships smashed to pieces
as soon as she had disembarked.

Nevertheless, Anne and King Richard II were married in Westminster Abbey on 22 January 1382. Tournaments were held for several days after the Ceremony, in celebration. They then went on an itinerary of the Realm, staying at many major Abbeys along the way.

In 1383, Anne of Bohemia visited the City of Norwich, where, at the Great Hospital, a ceiling comprising 252 black eagles was made in her honour.

Anne's wedding to Richard II was the fifth Royal Wedding in Westminster Abbey, and was not followed by any other Royal Wedding in Westminster Abbey for another 537 years.

They were married for twelve years, but had no children. Anne's death from plague, in 1394, at Sheen Manor, was a devastating blow to Richard, whose subsequent unwise conduct lost him his Throne.

Richard married his second wife, Isabella of Valois, on 31 October 1396.



English: Chapter House,
Westminster Abbey,
London.
Deutsch: Kapitelhaus der Westminster Abbey in London.
Photo: 12 February 2011.
Source: Own work.
Author: Aiwok.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Abbey's two Western Towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland stone, to an early example of a Gothic Revival design. Purbeck marble was used for the walls and the floors of Westminster Abbey, even though the various tombstones are made of different types of marble. Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th-Century under Sir George Gilbert Scott.

A Narthex (a Portico or Entrance Hall) for the West Front was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the Mid-20th-Century, but was not built. Images of the Abbey, prior to the construction of the Towers, are scarce, though the Abbey's official website states that the building was without Towers, following Yevele's renovation, with just the lower segments, beneath the roof level of the Nave, completed.

Until the 19th-Century, Westminster was the Third Seat of Learning in England, after Oxford and Cambridge. It was here that the first third of the King James Bible Old Testament and the last half of the New Testament were translated. The New English Bible was also put together here in the 20th-Century. Westminster suffered minor damage, during the Blitz, on 15 November 1940.




Illustration by Herbert Railton (1857-1910).
South Aisle of the Choir,
from A Brief Account of Westminster Abbey
(1894) by W.J. Loftie.
Date: 16 November 2009.
Source: Own scan of illustration in old book.
Author: Man vyi.
(Wikimedia Commons)


In the 1990s, two Icons, by the Russian Icon painter, Sergei Fyodorov, were hung in the Abbey. On 6 September 1997, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was held at the Abbey. On 17 September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to set foot in the Abbey.

As indicated above, since the Coronations in 1066 of both King Harold and William the Conqueror, Coronations of English and British Monarchs were held in the Abbey. King Henry III was unable to be Crowned in London, when he first came to the Throne, because the French Prince, Louis, had taken control of the City, and so the King was crowned in Gloucester Cathedral. This Coronation was deemed by the Pope to be improper, and a further Coronation was held in the Abbey on 17 May 1220. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the traditional Cleric in the Coronation ceremony.

King Edward's Chair (or Saint Edward's Chair), the Throne on which English and British Sovereigns have been Seated at the moment of Coronation, is housed within the Abbey and has been used at every Coronation since 1308. From 1301 to 1996 (except for a short time in 1950, when it was temporarily stolen by Scottish nationalists), the Chair also housed the Stone of Scone, upon which the Kings of the Scots are Crowned. Although the Stone is now kept in Scotland, in Edinburgh Castle, at future Coronations, it is intended that the Stone will be returned to Saint Edward's Chair for use during the Coronation ceremony.


PART THREE FOLLOWS


Thursday 7 August 2014

Westminster Abbey. (Part One.)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.



Westminster Abbey,
London, England.
This File: 5 May 2006.
Source: Own work.
User: Tebbetts.
(Wikipedia)



The Interior of Henry VII's Chapel,
Westminster Abbey,
London, England.
Artist: Canaletto (1697–1768).
Date: Early 1750s.
Current location: Private collection.
This File: 13 April 2009.
User: Rfdarsie.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic, Church in the City of Westminster, London, located just to the West of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the most notable religious buildings in the United Kingdom and has been the traditional place of Coronation and Burial Site for English and, later, British Monarchs. The Abbey is a Royal Peculiar and, between 1540 and 1556, had the status of a Cathedral; however, the Church is no longer an Abbey, nor Cathedral.

According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard, in about 1080, a Church was founded at the site (then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island)) in the 7th-Century, at the time of Mellitus (+ 624 A.D.), a Bishop of London. Construction of the present Church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III.

Since 1066, when Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror were Crowned, the Coronations of English and British Monarchs have been held here. Since 1100, there have been at least sixteen Royal Weddings at the Abbey. Two were of reigning Monarchs (Henry I and Richard II), although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years.



English: Towers of Westminster Abbey, London, England.
Français: Les tours de l'Abbaye de Westminster, Londres, Angleterre.
Photo: 28 August 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Bernard Gagnon.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The first reports of the Abbey are based on a late tradition, claiming that a young fisherman, called Aldrich, on the River Thames, saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon, from Thames fishermen, that the Abbey received in later years. In the present era, the Fishmonger's Company still gives a salmon every year. The proven origins are that in the 960s A.D., or early 970s A.D., Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, installed a Community of Benedictine Monks here.

Between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding Saint Peter's Abbey, in order to provide himself with a Royal Burial Church. It was the first Church in England built in the Norman Romanesque Style. It was not completed until around 1090, but was Consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the Church, and, nine years later, his wife, Edith, was buried alongside him. His successor, King Harold II, was probably Crowned in the Abbey, although the first documented Coronation is that of William the Conqueror, later the same year.

The only extant depiction of Edward's Abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry. Some of the lower parts of the Monastic Dormitory, an extension of the South Transept, survive in the Norman Undercroft of the Great School, including a door, said to come from the previous Saxon Abbey. Increased endowments supported a Community increased from a dozen Monks in Saint Dunstan's original Foundation, up to a maximum about eighty Monks, although there was also a large Community of Lay Brothers, who supported the Monastery's extensive property and activities.



Westminster Abbey,
London, England.
2 February 2012.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)


Construction of the present Church was begun in 1245 by King Henry III, who selected the site for his burial.

The Abbot and Monks, in proximity to the Royal Palace of Westminster, the Seat of Government from the Late-12th-Century, became a powerful force in the Centuries after the Norman Conquest. The Abbot often was employed on Royal Service and, in due course, took his place in the House of Lords as of right.

Released from the burdens of Spiritual Leadership, which passed to the reformed Cluniac Movement after the Mid-10th-Century, and occupied with the administration of great landed properties, some of which lay far from Westminster, "the Benedictines achieved a remarkable degree of identification with the Secular Life of their times, and particularly with Upper-Class Life", Barbara Harvey concludes, to the extent that her depiction of daily life provides a wider view of the concerns of the English gentry in the High- and Late-Middle Ages.

The proximity of the Palace of Westminster did not extend to providing Monks or Abbots with High Royal Connections; in social origin, the Benedictines of Westminster were as modest as most of the Order. The Abbot remained Lord of the Manor of Westminster, as a town of two to three thousand persons grew around it; as a consumer and employer, on a grand scale, the Monastery helped fuel the town economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising Charter was issued during the Middle Ages. The Abbey built shops and dwellings on the West Side, encroaching upon the Sanctuary.



English: Cosmatesque pavement, central nave of the Duomo di San Cesareo
in Terracina (Latium, Italy). King Henry III commissioned a Cosmati Pavement
in front of the High Altar in Westminster Abbey.
Français: Pavement cosmatesque, nef centrale du Dôme de
San Cesareo à Terracina (Latium, Italie).
Italiano: Terracina (provincia di Latina, Lazio, Italia), città alta, Duomo di San Cesareo,
interno, pavimento cosmatesco, tratto al centro della navata centrale.
Photo: August 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: MM.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Abbey became the Coronation Site of Norman Kings. None were buried there until King Henry III, intensely devoted to the cult of Edward the Confessor, rebuilt the Abbey in Anglo-French Gothic Style as a Shrine to Venerate King Edward the Confessor and as a suitably regal setting for Henry's own tomb, under the highest Gothic Nave in England.


PART TWO FOLLOWS


Wednesday 6 August 2014

The Transfiguration Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Feast Day 6 August.


Text and Illustrations (unless otherwise stated) are taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
which is available from ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Double of the Second-Class.


White Vestments.


This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: Hear ye Him.



The Feast of The Transfiguration of Jesus had long been Solemnised on 6 August, in different Churches of the East and the West. To commemorate the victory which arrested, near Belgrade, in 1456, the invading tide of Islam, and which was announced at Rome on 6 August, Pope Callistus III extended the Feast to the whole Church.

It is the Feast of many Churches under the Title of Saint Saviour. This is why Pope Saint Pius X raised it to the Rank of Double of the Second-Class, for it is the old Title of the Cathedral of Rome, Saint John Lateran, formerly called the Basilica of Saint Saviour (Feast Day 9 November).


In Low Masses: Commemoration of The Holy Martyrs, Pope Saint Sixtus II, Felicissimus
                             and Agapitus.


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