The Christmas Thorn of Glastonbury--by William of Malmesbury
2007-12-19 byCertain times of the year just seems to lend itself to the reading of certain stories. Around our house at Christmas, along with reading the account of our Savior’s birth, Beverly and I also enjoy reading the stories from the early church chroniclers of Britain. While we would consider many parts of these stories fanciful, many historians depend on the information they contain.
Beverly has put together one of the legendary stories of the founding of the Christian church in England. Her adaptation comes from the writings of William of Malmesbury as well as other early chroniclers. We hope you and your family enjoy this story.
William of Malmesbury lived between 1080 or 1095 and 1143. This 12th century English Historian was born in Wiltshire to a Norman father and English mother. He spent his whole life in England with his most productive years as a monk at Malmesbury Abbey. He is an authority from 1066 onwards telling anecdotes and giving shrewd judgments on persons and events of the time. He was one of the most prolific writers of his time writing a history of the prelates of England, a life of St. Wulfstan, and a history of the church of Glastonbury. In his History of the Kings of England he covers the time period from A.D. 449 to 1127 and in his Historia Novella or Modern History he wrote up to the the year 1142.
William of Malmesbury looked to the Venerable Bede for his model of writing history. He stated Bede “buried almost all knowledge of history down to our own times.”
Here is a sample of his writing which is a graphic account of the first crusade …
This ardent love not only inspired the continental provinces but even all who had heard the name of Christ, whether in the most distant islands or savage countries. The Welshman left his hunting, the Scot his fellowship with vermin, the Dane his drinking-party, the Norwegian his raw fish. Lands were deserted of their husband-men; houses of their inhabitants; even whole cities migrated. There was no regard to relationship; affection to their country was held in little esteem; God alone was placed before their eyes. Whatever was stored in granaries, or hoarded in chambers, to answer the hopes of the avaricious husbandmen or the covetousness of the miser, all, all was deserted; they hungered and thirsted after Jerusalem alone.
William of Malmesbury could make history come alive. He too pre-eminence among the twelfth century chroniclers. Even when the earl, Robert of Gloucester, requested him to describe the struggle between king Stephen and the empress Maud in which the nobleman took a prominent part, William of Malmesbury did so without distorting the truth.
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