5 August 1661: John Ray is told that a knocked-through lighting niche in the Anglo-Saxon crypt under Ripon minster is a chastity test device
A 19th century plan of the Ripon cathedral crypt, showing St Wilfrid’s Needle joining the north side of the central chamber to the passage (Glennie 1901).
John Ray and William Derham. 1760. Select Remains of the Learned John Ray, With His Life. London: George Scott. Get it:
.Unedited excerpt
The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.
The same day we viewed Ripon, a pretty town, having a large square market-place; the minster there is much inferior to Beverley minster; one of the steeples lately falling, broke down the roof of one wing of the church, so that the whole is now much out of repair. In a vault, under the body of the church, called St. Wilfrid’s Chapel, we saw the hole through a wall, which they call St. Wilfrid’s Needle, where by the priests of old were wont to try women’s chastity. She that was a virgin easily creeping through, but she that was corrupted sticking fast by the way.
Comment
Comment
Yesbut:
However the thing may seem a fable at first sight; yet if the women that have plaid false be with child, it may be true without wonder (Anon 1682).
Hallett has the probable truth:
The Saxon Crypt, sometimes called St. Wilfrid’s Needle.—From a trap-door in the pavement below the piscina a flight of twelve steps winds down into a flat-roofed and descending passage, 2½ feet wide and slightly over 6 feet high, which, running a few feet northwards and bending at right angles round the south-west tower pier, extends eastward for about 10 yards, with a descent of one step near the end, and terminates in a blank wall. There is a square-headed niche at the turn and a round-headed niche at the end, both meant, doubtless, to hold lights. Three feet from the end a round-headed doorway, 2 feet wide and over 6 feet high, opens northwards, with a descent of two more steps, into a barrel-vaulted chamber, 11 feet 5 inches long from east to west, 7 feet 7 inches wide, and 9 feet 10 inches high. In the north wall of this chamber, and approached by three rude steps, is the celebrated St. Wilfrid’s Needle, a round-headed aperture pierced through into a passage that runs behind. This aperture was connected with one of those superstitions that so often flourished before the Reformation in notable centres of religion, and ability to pass through it or ‘thread the needle’ was regarded as a test of female chastity; but it was, of course, in the later middle ages that this superstition arose, and the ‘needle’ (or rather needle’s eye) is evidently only one of the original niches with the back knocked out. Of these niches (which again were doubtless for lights) there are four in the chamber besides the ‘needle,’—one in each wall,—and, like the niche, at the end of the passage of entrance, they all have semicircular heads each cut in a single stone. That in the west wall has a hole or cup at the bottom, probably to hold oil in which a wick might float, while the others (except the ‘needle’) have a sort of funnel at the top, doubtless to catch the soot from lamps. In the east wall there is also a round-headed recess of larger size, the meaning of which will be discussed later. An excavation made in 1900 has lowered the earthen floor and revealed a set-off running round the chamber, and upon the ground at the east end are traces of a later mediæval altar, namely, a long stone parallel with the east wall and having behind it a small rectangular enclosure bounded by other wrought stones. Some of the latter were only laid bare at the above-mentioned excavation, when, moreover, the enclosure was found to be a pit containing bones, some of which had belonged to a man, others to an ox, others to a bird. These were probably regarded as relics, and may have been buried here at the Reformation for safety,[60] but it is possible that they were placed here at an earlier period, and that this is an instance of a relic-pit. Two other deposits have been found in the crypt in modern times, one behind the niche in the south wall of this chamber, the other behind the niche at the end of the passage of entrance. Most of the bones in these deposits were human, but one had belonged to an ox, another to a bird, another to a sheep, while others could not be identified. These bones again were probably ‘relics,’ and had almost certainly been built up behind the niches at the Reformation for concealment. From the west end of the chamber another doorway similar to the last opens, with an ascent of one step, into a second chamber, 12 feet long from north to south, 4 feet wide, 9 feet high, and roofed with a semi-vault rising eastwards, in which there has been a square opening, probably for ventilation. At the north end a flight of four steps, lighted doubtless from the square niche in the west wall, ascends eastwards to the passage behind the ‘needle.’ Of these steps the lowest occupies the whole width of the chamber, while the second, on being cleaned at the time of the excavation above-mentioned, was found to have its upper and western surfaces sunk in the middle and traversed at one end by two parallel raised bands, and to show traces of that yellow enamel-like substance with which, indeed, the whole crypt seems to have been originally overlaid. In roof, width and height the passage at the top of these steps resembles that by which the crypt was approached, but it is spanned at the entrance by a round arch, and gradually ascends, terminating in a staircase now blocked at the fourth step (or perhaps the fifth, since one seems to have been removed at the bottom), while in the roof may be traced the shape of the long opening (rounded at the western end) through which these stairs once led up into the church. From the point at which they are blocked the distance to the arch that spans the passage is about 18 feet. It will be noticed that the floor of this passage is level with the ‘needle,’ which on this side, moreover, has been broken through so as to open out like a funnel (Hallett 1901).
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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.
- Anglo-Saxons (10) W/G ·
- Beverley Minster (7) W/G ·
- Beverley (22) W/G ·
- Candle (4) W/G ·
- Chastity (4) W/G ·
- Crypt (2) W/G ·
- Human sexual activity (5) W/G ·
- Northumbria (8) W/G ·
- Ray, John (1627-1705) (6), one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists W/G ·
- 📌Ripon Cathedral (4) W/G ·
- 📌Ripon (17) W/G ·
- Superstition (14) W/G ·
- Temperance (virtue) (2) W/G ·
- Wilfrid (ca. 633-709/710) (4), cleric influential in imposing Roman over Celtic influences in the Anglo-Saxon church, politically powerful abbot and bishop, posthumously revered as a saint W/G ·
Comment
Comment
Yesbut:
However the thing may seem a fable at first sight; yet if the women that have plaid false be with child, it may be true without wonder (Anon 1682).
Hallett has the probable truth:
The Saxon Crypt, sometimes called St. Wilfrid’s Needle.—From a trap-door in the pavement below the piscina a flight of twelve steps winds down into a flat-roofed and descending passage, 2½ feet wide and slightly over 6 feet high, which, running a few feet northwards and bending at right angles round the south-west tower pier, extends eastward for about 10 yards, with a descent of one step near the end, and terminates in a blank wall. There is a square-headed niche at the turn and a round-headed niche at the end, both meant, doubtless, to hold lights. Three feet from the end a round-headed doorway, 2 feet wide and over 6 feet high, opens northwards, with a descent of two more steps, into a barrel-vaulted chamber, 11 feet 5 inches long from east to west, 7 feet 7 inches wide, and 9 feet 10 inches high. In the north wall of this chamber, and approached by three rude steps, is the celebrated St. Wilfrid’s Needle, a round-headed aperture pierced through into a passage that runs behind. This aperture was connected with one of those superstitions that so often flourished before the Reformation in notable centres of religion, and ability to pass through it or ‘thread the needle’ was regarded as a test of female chastity; but it was, of course, in the later middle ages that this superstition arose, and the ‘needle’ (or rather needle’s eye) is evidently only one of the original niches with the back knocked out. Of these niches (which again were doubtless for lights) there are four in the chamber besides the ‘needle,’—one in each wall,—and, like the niche, at the end of the passage of entrance, they all have semicircular heads each cut in a single stone. That in the west wall has a hole or cup at the bottom, probably to hold oil in which a wick might float, while the others (except the ‘needle’) have a sort of funnel at the top, doubtless to catch the soot from lamps. In the east wall there is also a round-headed recess of larger size, the meaning of which will be discussed later. An excavation made in 1900 has lowered the earthen floor and revealed a set-off running round the chamber, and upon the ground at the east end are traces of a later mediæval altar, namely, a long stone parallel with the east wall and having behind it a small rectangular enclosure bounded by other wrought stones. Some of the latter were only laid bare at the above-mentioned excavation, when, moreover, the enclosure was found to be a pit containing bones, some of which had belonged to a man, others to an ox, others to a bird. These were probably regarded as relics, and may have been buried here at the Reformation for safety,[60] but it is possible that they were placed here at an earlier period, and that this is an instance of a relic-pit. Two other deposits have been found in the crypt in modern times, one behind the niche in the south wall of this chamber, the other behind the niche at the end of the passage of entrance. Most of the bones in these deposits were human, but one had belonged to an ox, another to a bird, another to a sheep, while others could not be identified. These bones again were probably ‘relics,’ and had almost certainly been built up behind the niches at the Reformation for concealment. From the west end of the chamber another doorway similar to the last opens, with an ascent of one step, into a second chamber, 12 feet long from north to south, 4 feet wide, 9 feet high, and roofed with a semi-vault rising eastwards, in which there has been a square opening, probably for ventilation. At the north end a flight of four steps, lighted doubtless from the square niche in the west wall, ascends eastwards to the passage behind the ‘needle.’ Of these steps the lowest occupies the whole width of the chamber, while the second, on being cleaned at the time of the excavation above-mentioned, was found to have its upper and western surfaces sunk in the middle and traversed at one end by two parallel raised bands, and to show traces of that yellow enamel-like substance with which, indeed, the whole crypt seems to have been originally overlaid. In roof, width and height the passage at the top of these steps resembles that by which the crypt was approached, but it is spanned at the entrance by a round arch, and gradually ascends, terminating in a staircase now blocked at the fourth step (or perhaps the fifth, since one seems to have been removed at the bottom), while in the roof may be traced the shape of the long opening (rounded at the western end) through which these stairs once led up into the church. From the point at which they are blocked the distance to the arch that spans the passage is about 18 feet. It will be noticed that the floor of this passage is level with the ‘needle,’ which on this side, moreover, has been broken through so as to open out like a funnel (Hallett 1901).
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Comment
I don’t understand why, in the full original of this excerpt, Walbran gives the date as 26 December: his version of the MS specifies that it fell on the Feast of John the Evangelist AND the sixth day before the calends of January, both of which are 27 December.
I guess Espec refers to Walter Espec and some incident at the Battle of the Standard.
I haven’t checked out the elm tree story, but recall reading somewhere that, having survived the dissolution which closes the excerpt, an ancient one was felled in the 18th century.
A modern view of Walbran’s source:
Information on its foundation and early history derives mainly from a single record, the Narratio. Today, one pre-Dissolution version is extant, a copy made in the first half of the fifteenth century, probably at the abbey. Research has shown that this copy, and probably earlier versions, transmitted an institutional desire to ‘cistercianize’ the origins of the abbey, achieved through a redactive process of emphasizing some events, omitting others, and by introducing analogies with the origin of Cîteaux itself. Such writing formed part of a general policy promoted around the turn of the twelfth century, designed to counter criticism of the Cistercian movement, and the Fountains model partly emulated the earlier Historia Fundationis of Byland and Jervaulx Abbeys, and the chronicle of its own daughter house, Kirkstall; contemporary models have also been identified at Cistercian houses in Sweden and Denmark.
Making due allowance for the propaganda content of the Narratio, it is nevertheless possible to determine that an incipient monastic establishment was set up at the end of 1132 under the general protection of Archbishop Thurstan of York. The initial community was a group of dissident monks, who were ejected, or departed abruptly, from the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary’s York, without the time or foresight to secure for themselves the patronage of a substantial lay benefactor, which was by then the established procedure for the foundation of a new Cistercian house. In fact, due to its impromptu beginning, the community was not initially Cistercian, and it seems to have endured a precarious existence until autumn 1133, or even possibly 1134, when it was admitted to the Cistercian family.
Cistercian endorsement marked a turning point, after which benefactions began to be received from some of the Yorkshire magnate families, particularly the Mowbrays and the Percys, which permitted the colony to move out of subsistence, and then to grow steadily. By 1136, permanent buildings were being erected on the site and the community had grown to thirty-five monks from the initial group of thirteen.15 A continuing inflow of resources and recruits empowered the community’s spiritual aspirations, so that within a short time an ambitious expansion programme was initiated, and new monasteries were founded. In marked contrast to its own (pre-Cistercian) foundation, the expansion programme shows signs of careful preparation, implementation, and adaptation. From their Yorkshire base, the monastery contributed greatly to the spread of Cistercianism across the country, by establishing no fewer than seven daughter houses across England and three granddaughter houses in the twelve-year period between 1138 and 1150. Each new daughter house was colonized by thirteen monks, so over this period some ninety brethren departed from Fountains; among them were most of the original founders, who went as abbots…. It may be no coincidence that this remarkable expansion took place in the midst of a civil war, when baronial lands were liable to forfeiture and reallocation: in some circumstances, making a grant of lands to a religious house might be seen as a defensive measure.
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