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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Historian of religion and belief | professional indexer | Reader in the CofE | tutor for
@OxfordConted
East Angliadrfrancisyoung.com/about/Joined February 2014
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Hear me RAGE against the notion that paganism somehow went underground in Christian Europe - a myth that not only does a disservice to the creativity of medieval popular Christianity, but also blinds us to the very real pagans who actually *did* exist in medieval Europe…
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History Rage Podcast
@HistoryRage
🚨🚨NEW EPISODE 🚨🚨 We get #medieval, this week as we welcome historian of belief @DrFrancisYoung who rants that PAGANISM DIDN'T GO UNDERGROUND. That there aren't rebel #pagan symbols carved into churches and that the Green Man can just do one! 🎧pod.fo/e/1527d9
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
In the 'Martyrs' Picture' (c. 1584) the two patrons are portrayed on either side of the Flaminian Gate, leading north from Rome and towards England; they lay down the symbols of their earthly authority and welcome the priests to enter upon the path to martyrdom
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
It's worth adding that, while there might have been anxiety in 1464 that the cult of St Edmund might be lost, the result of the merger was that the English Hospice (later College) came under the patronage of two martyr saints: Thomas of Canterbury and Edmund...
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
But how this relic reached the English College is unclear; it could have come from the hospice in Trastevere, but this is not mentioned in any history of the English College or of the English in Rome. I'm also unsure if it's a contact relic or a claimed 1st class relic
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Taken from fb: the relics of the English College, Rome on display last week for Martyrs' Day. They include a relic of St Edmund, King and Martyr (who has been a secondary patron of the English College since its merger with the Hospital of St Edmund, Trastevere in 1464)
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Love it that the Mercians are described in 9th-century Latin texts as 'Angli Mediterranei'; I reckon the Midlands should go big and rebrand as Mediterranean England
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Like a Roman coin commemorating victory over some conquered people… Those workers involved should have been permitted to add ‘Fatbergicus’ to their names as a cognomen ex virtute
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Abie
@temptoetiam
It even has its own dedicated commemorative manhole cover ! (pic from @unfortunatalie@weirder.earth 's toot: "FINALLY found the commemorative manhole cover celebrating the defeat of the Whitechapel fatberg in 2017.)"
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Pic of a manhole cover. In the middle, in relief : Thames Water Around the border : The Whitechapel Fatberg was defeated here in 2017.
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
We need more folklore-based disaster movies. Reykjavík destroyed by vengeful Huldufólk, Dublin attacked by the Aos sí, Vilnius laid waste by angry laumės, the Kremlin flattened by leshy...
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Ida Tolgensbakk
@itolgensbakk
A recommendation for all the folklorists out there (we are, according to this movie, "almost extinct") @FolkloreSociety @siefhome @afsfolklorists twitter.com/Troll_Netflix/…
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
I suspect before we get to AIs writing books we’ll go through an intermediate phase where AIs generate plots based on an algorithm that predicts popularity and sales, and publishers then hire human authors to write the plots up
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sam buntz
@SamBuntz
Another problem with the idea of AI writing books is that AI has no body, no specific coordinates in space and time, no parents, no family history. But those are essential for a real point of view. Its lack of limitation, of mortal quivering flesh, is its fatal flaw.
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Yes! I should write a story about a ghost who wreaks horrible revenge against someone for putting up one of these signs, because they were in fact murdered there on 5 September 1782
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Antonomasia
@antonomasiabks
Replying to @DrFrancisYoung
A prompt for a story about an indignant ghost?
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Remembering all distinctive deacons in the Church of England on this day, the commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar
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Simon Knott
@last_of_england
'It is the right, good, old way you are in; keep in it'. Nicholas Ferrar, founder of the community at Little Gidding, died #OTD 1637. The posthumous publisher of George Herbert's poems, he's remembered by the CofE on this day. His words in the church at Little Gidding, Cambs.
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
I hate these signs with a passion. They reinforce the idea that history is only about ‘great’ events. There’s always something happening. Everything is history.
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Peter Lorimer
@pighilltweets
One of these days I'm going to see one of these in a location where on that date, something DID happen. And I'll happily pay for the sandcast iron plaque to go underneath that reads: "Well, actually! I think you'll find..."
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
Carlyle was the mid-c19th equivalent of those film producers who use the work of historians without giving them credit - although Carlyle went even further and insulted the man whose work he relied on
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Dr Francis Young
@DrFrancisYoung
In his book Past and Present, Carlyle derided John Gage Rokewode for being a 'dryasdust' antiquary who spent his time translating Jocelin's chronicle, but then proceeded to observe that the chronicle was rather good actually and excellent material to write about
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