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Higden's Tomb

RANULPH HIGDEN MONK OF CHESTER FOURTEENTH CENTURY

" The Cyte of Iagyons, that is Chestre, in the marches of Englonde, towarde. Wales, betwegne two armes, of the sea, that bee named Dee anti Mersee. Thys cyte. in tyme of Britons, warn hede. and chyefe cyte of all Venedocia, that is, North Wales Thys cyte in tyme of Brytyshe speche bete Carthleon , Chester in Englyshe, and Cyte of Legyons also . For there laye the wynter the legyons that Julius Cezar sent forth to wyne Irlonde. And after Claudius cezar sent legyons out of the the cyte for to wynn the Islands that be called Orcades .Thys cyte hath plente of Iyveland of corn pf flesh , and specyally of samon . Thys . cyte receyveth grate marchandyse , and sendeth out also . Northumbress destroyed thys cyte sometyme, but Elfreda lady of Mercia, bylded it agayn , and made it mouch more.

"In thy. Cyte ben ways under erth, with vowtes and stone werke, wonderfully wrought, three chambred werkes, grete stones ingrave with old mannes names there in.

Thys is that cyte that Ethelfrede, Kyng of Northumberlonde, destroyed, and sloughe there fast by nygh two thousands monks of the mynster of Bangor. Thys is the cyte that King Edgar cam to, some tyme, with seven Kyngs that were subject to hym . "

1342 Ranulf Higden , a monk of the Abbey of Saint Werburgh :

Chester where this chronicle present was laboured, in the coste of Wales betwene armes of the sea whiche be called Dye and Meresie, whiche was the chiefe of Nort wales in the tyme of Britones, the firste founder of whom is not knowen. For hit scholde seme to a man beholdenge the fundacion of hit that werke to be rather of the labor of gigantes other romanes, then of britones. That cite was called Somme time in the language of Britons, Caerelyon, in latyn Legecestria, and hit is callede now Chestre, other than Cite of Legiones, in that the legiones of knyghtes tariede ther in wynter, whom Julias Cesar sende to Yrlonde to subdue hit to hym. This cite habunde the in euery kynde of vitelles, thaughe William Malmesbury dreamede in other wise, as in corne, flesche, fische, and specially in salmones, whiche cite receyvethe and sendethe from it .

The Monks of Chester by R.V. H. Burne , M.A., F.S.A. F.R. Hist .S.

Canon of Chester Cathedral Archdeacon of Chester - London - S.P.C.K. 1962

Ranulph Higden appears to have joined the monastery in 1299 . He died in March 1363-4 and was buried in the south choir aisle, now the chapel of St Erasmus. His tomb was opened in 1874 and "there lay the exact form of a body wrapped in a coarse woollen cloth of a reddish brown".

His greatest work, the Polychron, which has been printed in the Rolls Series, is an exhaustive history in seven books, beginning with a geographical description of the then known world. The history proper begins with the Creation, and biblical history fills Books II and III. it takes another book to bring it down to Saxon England and the subsequent history is contained in Books V. VI, amid VII. This was by no means all that Higden wrote, for the following works exist in manuscript.

The Speciduiu Curatorum (Mirror for Priests), said to have been compiled in 1340, deals with the articles of faith, the ten commandments, vows, tithes, the Lord's Prayer, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the beatitudes, the virtues, the vices and their remedies, and the sacraments . While we marvel at the industry of this studious brother, which makes such a refreshing contrast to the worldly cares which occupied his superiors, we marvel still more at his powers of physical endurance lie did his work in the cloisters, which may not have been glazed that time. But perhaps he was allowed a room to write in, for this time there was a growing tendency to allow private apartments to the senior monks.

It so happens that through the researches of Professor V. H. Galbraith we are now able to perceive the way Higden worked, for in Huntington Library of San Francisco he discovered a manuscript of the Polychronicou which on examination proved to be own copy, writtcn perhaps in his own hand. It had once George Savage, half-brother to Bishop Bonner who was made Chancellor of the new Diocese of Chester in 1544. As such he had a opportunity of acquiring manuscripts from the monastic library, by fair means or by foul, and this may be one of the reasons why these manuscripts remains in the hands of the dean and chapter to-day . That Savage did not allow his acquisition to weigh upon his conscience is clear from the hybrid Latin-English lines that he wrote on theo of the back cover.

A careful study of the manuscript revealed the following facts about its composition. Higden finished his chronicle in 1327, and then, as the custom was in those days, he kept working at it, altering, adding, and omitting, until in 1340 he produced this final copy. And yet even then it was not quite final, for between the years 1340 and 1352, when he laid down his pen for ever, he added a folio and a half of narrative in three or four little driblets, the change of ink showing that they were not all added at the same tune.

In this final copy Higden divided the seven books into chapters, and it then occurred to him to make an acrostic out of the initial letter of each chapter in the first Book, informing all those who had eyes to see
that-PRESENTEM CRONICAM CONPILAVIT FRATER RANULPHUSS CESTRENSIS MONACHUS

But to do this he had to alter the opening words of many of the chapters in order to get the initial letter he wanted, and ultra-violet rays have revealed some of these erasures. 1n order to combine the professional humility and anonymity of the monk", writes Professor Galbraith, 'with the very human instinct for fame, the author had to fudge the beginning of nearly every chapter of Book I."

After Higden's death his chronicle was continued by John Malvern, a monk of Worcester, who carried it on to the year 1381, and it was continued by a monk of Westminster to 1394 .

Ranulph Higden is the most famous of St Werburgh's alumni, being the author of the most exhaustive universal history produced in mediaeval times, which was, so to speak, the best seller of the age.

In 1387 the Polychronicon was translated into English by John de Trevisa, a Cornishman, who was vicar of Berkeley in Gloucestershire. It was printed by Caxton in 1482, by Wynkyn de Worde and by Peter Trevesis in 1527