Remember...

When I visited Westminster Abbey the other day, I was delighted to notice on the effigy of Queen Elizabeth I the date given for her death was March 1602. The reason for this seeming mistake was that she died when England still followed the venerable Julian Kalendar, under which the reckoning of the new year commenced, rather sensibly in my opinion, in the Spring as opposed to the Papal (or secular) Kalendar, which reckons the new year from the bleak midwinter.

For those of you, therefore, conscious of kalendrial accuracy, today is the real anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles I. I used to go every year to the Banqueting House for the commemoration on the 30th January (false style). At first it was a case of wanting to appear relevant, or involved. With experience, and a measure of wisdom (which are the booby prizes of growing old), you grow out of that sort of nonsense, just as I grew out of the desire to attend events organised by the tradunculi. Especially when you look around and all you see is "1637 Prayer Book" tarted up like a Roman high Mass. One year, outside as we were waiting for the act of devotion, a young man looked me up and down and said to his friend "oh look, it's Patricius!" And my experience was such a far cry from what friends of mine said it used to be like. In the '70's and the '80's there was an early celebration in the banqueting hall, Prayer Book, with the wreath laying at 11am and act of devotion, followed by high Mass with that marvellous sequence, a tour de force of Latin composition and later translation. In those days the altar was in plano, with a throne where they put the altar now, beneath the canopy, and it all looked rather splendid. Now what they put on is just the worst elements of Anglo-Catholicism, as I say "tarted up." I sometimes wonder what King Charles himself would think.

I heard two decent sermons all the years I went; the first, preached by Bishop Banks in 2012 on the subject of masques and the influence of Inigo Jones on the young Charles; the second by another bishop whose name I can't presently recall, in 2016. This latter concluded by quoting from the 1637 Prayer Book Psalter, that little tome that kindled the War of the Three Kingdoms. The psalm appointed to be read at Mattins on the morning of Oak Apple Day 1660 was none other than Psalm 126, "in convertendo."

When the LORD turned again the captivity of Sion : then we were like unto them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter : and our tongue with joy. Then said they among the heathen : The LORD hath done great things for them. Yea, the LORD hath done great things for us already : whereof we rejoice. Turn our captivity, O LORD : as the rivers in the south. They that sow in tears : shall reap in joy. He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth forth good seed : shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him.

This is unduly hopeful for this new Caroline age in which so much that the present King's eponymous predecessors held dear is either forgotten or held in scorn. I suppose the best that the remnant of old England can do these days is to do what the martyred Charles admonished his chaplain to do at the scaffold: Remember.

I think I'll leave it at that. It's good to be writing again, especially on things I cherish like the memory of King Charles.