Anglican in Burgundy

Bede at Cluny     Etant donné qu'il y a plein de choses à dire autour de l'influence de l'Abbaye de Cluny sur l'Angleterre, on peut constater qu'il y avait au moins un peu d'influence venant dans l'autre sens. Parmi les manuscrits clunisiens sauvés de la révolution française, il y en a un qui montre que les oeuvres du moine anglais Bede (672-735) étaient lues à Cluny pendant le XIe siècle. Cette version des homélies de Bede, copiée à Cluny entre 1067 et 1100, se trouve maintenant dans la Bibliothèque Nationale de France. /  While there is very much that could be said about the influence of Cluny Abbey upon England, there is evidence that the influence went, at least to some extent, in the other direction as well. One of the manuscripts saved at the abbey's destruction following the French Revolution, and preserved now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, shows that the works of the Englishman the Venerable Bede ("Doctor Anglorum") were bein...

  Saulieu      The basilica of St Andoche at Saulieu (Côte d'Or) has some English mediaeval connections. Though sacked by the Saracens in the 8th century, the basilica was subsequently rebuilt and added to, and took the form seen today substantially in the 12th c. In his  Description générale et particulière du duché de Bourgogne , the great 18th c historian of Burgundy, the Abbé Claude Courtépée, himself a native of Saulieu, describes the visit of the French Pope Callixtus II to Saulieu in December 1119, when he apparently presided over the translation of the relics of St Andoche. Courtépée says that the pope was accompanied by an "archevêque anglais." Curious to find out which archbishop exactly, I discover a whole story lies behind Courtépée's comment.     The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time was Ralph d'Escures, originally from Normandy. He spent his archiepiscopal career asserting the rights of the see of Canterbury both against Rome and over ...

  Saint-Eusèbe      The English production designer Christopher Hobbs worked with Derek Jarman on films such as Sebastiane, Caravaggio and Edward II (the photo above shows one of the props Hobbs designed for Caravaggio, a shield, now in the V&A in London). He also designed for the 1999 film of Mansfield Park, and Gormenghast in 2000. As his obituary in today's Times outlines, he led a colourful life, the last two decades of which were spent in Burgundy, at Saint-Eusèbe (Saône-et-Loire).       Hobbs oversaw the restoration of Gervase Jackson-Stops' saloon at his house The Menagerie (which actually necessitated mostly new work in the shell of a building), and also designed a celebrated chimneypiece for Malplaquet House in Stepney Green in London, which was being restored by Tim Knox and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan.