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23 Dec, 4 tweets, 1 min read
If I had no academic ethics, the documentary source I would fake would be an account by Thomas Netter of his mission to Lithuania in 1419, in which the Carmelite tells of how he used skills honed in his battle with the Lollards to convert the Samogitians...
Of course, now I've told you I'd do this, I can't do it...
I reckon I could do a better job than the Hitler Diaries, tho. Of course it wouldn't be the original ms; it would be a fortuitously discovered typed transcription of an original destroyed in a fire in an obscure uncatalogued archive, where the scholar who typed it died a recluse
I know, I'm a monster even to think about this

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More from @DrFrancisYoung

Dr Francis Young Profile picture
24 Dec
Without getting into the ins and outs of the ‘Is Christmas pagan?’ debate, it’s worth dealing with some faulty assumptions people often make about the ‘Christianisation’ of pre-Christian traditions (buckle up for the thread…) Image
First of all, language people use in this area can be quite emotive, e.g. talk of Christians ‘usurping’ or ‘sanitising’ a pre-existing pagan festival. There’s a tendency to ascribe a collective agency that never existed to ‘the Church’ or ‘Christians’ when it comes to Midwinter
That wasn’t how it worked; there was no centralised programme of reforming popular festivities. The Church introduced liturgical celebration of Christmas to northern pagan cultures; how those Christianised cultures then dealt with Midwinter festivities as a whole varied widely
Read 16 tweets
Dr Francis Young Profile picture
21 Dec
Just a month ago I was tweeting about the figures on this lost crown, and now it appears one of them has been found. It's been overshadowed by other (ahem) news in recent days, but it's HUGE telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-m… Image
Obviously I'm gutted the figure is Henry VI and not St Edmund(!) but this is proper 'Musgrave Ritual' stuff; the article suggests Charles I may have removed the three figures of St Edmund, St Edward the Confessor and Henry VI from the 'Epiphany Crown' and kept them as talismans
During the First Civil War, Van Dyck painted a portrait of Charles showing the Epiphany Crown behind him, apparently without kings attached - perhaps because Charles had removed them as part of his drive to present himself as a Protestant monarch Image
Read 6 tweets
Dr Francis Young Profile picture
19 Dec
The gentry of Suffolk and Norfolk rallied to Mary's cause, making it impossible for Northumberland to maintain Lady Jane Grey as a credible puppet queen. Mary would reward many of her East Anglian followers with seats on her Council
Perhaps not surprisingly, those East Anglian families that had supported Mary most enthusiastically generally became die-hard recusants under Elizabeth and thereafter... The Bedingfeld family of @OxburghHallNT keep the candle burning to this day
Ironically, recusants were imprisoned in Framlingham Castle in Elizabeth's reign - including Sigebert Buckley, a monk of Mary's restored Westminster Abbey who, on being released from Framlingham in 1607, re-founded the English Benedictine Congregation...
Read 4 tweets
Dr Francis Young Profile picture
17 Dec
It's a very dear friend's 40th birthday today, so I celebrated by writing a 40-line Latin encomium for the occasion. Naturally, it features a micro-epyllion involving a council of the gods...
The purists among you will probably be horrified that I didn't use a Classical Latin metre, but I'm a big fan of terrible medieval Latin poetry in vernacular metres
The first verse gives you a flavour... Image
Read 4 tweets
Dr Francis Young Profile picture
16 Nov
A historical fallacy I sometimes see people falling into is the assumption that medieval and early modern people who died for expressing heterodox beliefs died for the *right* to express heterodox beliefs (thread)
In a handful of cases, people who were put to death for heterodoxy did indeed believe in freedom of expression. However, in most cases they simply believed they were right and their persecutors were wrong
Most English Lollards, for example, thought everyone should be a Lollard. Most evangelicals put to death in Mary I's reign thought everyone should be an evangelical. They died for their absolute belief, not for an abstract belief in toleration
Read 8 tweets
Dr Francis Young Profile picture
16 Nov
It's the most wonderful time of the year! As we enter the week of St Edmund's Day (Friday 20 November), I'll be your one-stop shop for all things St Edmund's Day related, keeping you up to date on the celebrations 👑🏹🐺
St Edmund's Day is celebrated as a solemnity in @RCEastAnglia. You can watch a livestreamed Mass from St Edmund, King and Martyr, Bury St Edmunds at 10am on Friday stedmundkm.org.uk/events/live-st…
Or if you're an early riser you can listen to Mass livestreamed at 7.30am from @StJohnsCath_Nrw, to celebrate the feast of one of the patrons of the Diocese sjbcathedral.org.uk/events/event/o…
Read 7 tweets

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