Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Mortuo hoc anno Thoma Eboracensi episcopo, successit Gyraldus, vir quidem, ut fert rumor, licentiae, libidini et malificiis obnoxius. Sub ejus nempe pulvillo cum in viridario quodam decederet inventus est codex curiosarum artium videlicet, Julius Firmicus, quem secreto et meridianis horis lectitabat; quamobrem clerici ecclesiae suae eum sub coeli cespite extra ecclesiam vix sepeliri permiserunt.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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John Trevisa’s “a lecherous man, a witch, an evil doer” strikes me as deliberate mistranslation. My “grass of heaven” can’t be quite right, or else the Spanish would have coined “césped del cielo.” Wikipedia says that he died at Southwell, and that

His canons refused to allow his burial within his cathedral, but their hostility probably owed more to Gerard’s attempts to reform their lifestyle than to his alleged interest in sorcery. Gerard was at first buried beside the porch at York Minster, but his successor, Thomas, moved the remains inside the cathedral church.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Archbishop of York (18) W/G ·
• Astrology (1) W/G ·
• Gerard (archbishop of York) (1) W/G ·
• Henry I of England (3) W/G ·
• John Trevisa (1) W/G ·
• Julius Firmicus Maternus (1) W/G ·
• Ranulf Higden (1) W/G ·
• Thomas II of York (2) W/G ·
• Thomas of Bayeux (2) W/G ·
• Translation (3) W/G ·
• 📌York Minster (28) W/G ·
• 📌York (165) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

John Trevisa’s “a lecherous man, a witch, an evil doer” strikes me as deliberate mistranslation. My “grass of heaven” can’t be quite right, or else the Spanish would have coined “césped del cielo.” Wikipedia says that he died at Southwell, and that

His canons refused to allow his burial within his cathedral, but their hostility probably owed more to Gerard’s attempts to reform their lifestyle than to his alleged interest in sorcery. Gerard was at first buried beside the porch at York Minster, but his successor, Thomas, moved the remains inside the cathedral church.

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Similar

16 February 1114: The morbidly obese Archbishop Thomas II of York ignores medical advice and dies chaste, unlike an 18th century successor

22 September 1465: A menu for the enthronement at Cawood Castle of George Neville as Archbishop of York

28 July 1348: Archbishop Zouche writes from Cawood Palace to York ordering action against a great pestilence threatening England – the Black Death

27 December 1132: The foundation of Fountains Abbey by dissidents from St Mary’s, York, retold by a Victorian antiquary using Cistercian chronicles

20 September 1319: During the Anglo-Scottish wars, seasoned raiders encounter an improvised Yorkshire home guard of clergy, peasants and officials at Myton-on-Swale

26 December 1570: Edmund Grindal, Puritan archbishop of York, orders the removal of rood-lofts (and their superstitious images), and the erection of pulpits

12 April 0627: In a triumph for his Kentish wife, Edwin of Northumbria is baptised on Easter Sunday by Paulinus, in the latter’s wooden oratory on the site of York Minster

19 June 1892: The Liberal politician Viscount Morley attends morning service at York Minster

30 May 1836: Albinia Chaloner becomes the last person to be interred in York Minster

12 June 1635: A prominent Puritan finds poor buildings but good beer for Archbishop Richard Neile at Bishopthorpe Palace (York)

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

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