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Home / News Stories
Byline: Sasha Schroeder '22
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted a virtual awards ceremony to celebrate teams from the seventh annual Learning Through Languages High School Research Symposium on Dec. 8. This year, world language students from 12 high schools conducted and presented research in their language of study on topics related to the United … Continued
UNC Hosts Rep. David Price to Discuss Federal Funding for Global Education
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill held a roundtable discussion about federal funding for global education with U.S. Representative David Price on Monday, Sept. 20, at the FedEx Global Education Center. Price, a former Morehead Scholar and member of UNC-Chapel … Continued
2021 AAD Sisco Memorial Forum: The Role of Diplomacy in Addressing Climate and Water Issues
During the annual Joseph J. Sisco Memorial Forum, "Preserving Life: Climate Change, Water, and Diplomacy," leading foreign affairs practitioners discussed the role of diplomacy in generating the international cooperation needed to address climate and water issues. The event, hosted by … Continued
African Studies Center Announces Incoming Co-Directors
Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa, Kenan Eminent Professor of Public Policy, and Victoria Rovine, professor in the Department of Art and Art History, have been appointed co-directors of the African Studies Center (ASC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill effective Aug. 1. The ASC is designed to sustain and strengthen teaching of African languages … Continued
African Studies Center Receives Oak Foundation Grant to Develop Content for Elementary School Students
The African Studies Center (ASC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Oak Foundation for their project, "K-5 digital learning of contemporary Africa using technology," which will produce resources for elementary school educators. The ASC will use the grant to create … Continued
UNC-Chapel Hill Renews Memorandum of Understanding with Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany
Thirteen representatives from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany met virtually to renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the universities and to affirm their commitment to continuing the strategic partnership. … Continued
UNC-Chapel Hill's Russian Flagship Program Caps Off Successful First Year
The Russian Flagship Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently completed a successful first year. Launched in April 2020, the federally funded language initiative is the first of its kind in North Carolina and one of … Continued
Griffin McGuire '21 Embarks on a Russian Flagship Capstone Year in Kazakhstan
When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Griffin McGuire realized it was a pivotal moment — not only for world affairs, but for his own future. A high school student at the time, McGuire watched the crisis unfold and realized he wanted … Continued
UNC Area Studies Centers Host Panel on Women's Leadership in the Federal Government
Women have long been underrepresented in key sectors of the United States federal government, particularly in positions of national security leadership, and this is especially true for women of color. In Spring 2021, the area studies centers at the University of North Carolina at … Continued
Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies Celebrates 60th Anniversary
Experts from across the world participated in the 60th annual Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies via videoconference from January 15 –17, 2021. Co-hosted by the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Carolina Asia Center (CAC) and Department of Asian and Middle … Continued

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I literally had no idea that this was happening until it came time to answer a Twitter question that came out of nowhere, and no one's posted about it on here until now.
Ooh, definitely gotta give this a try!
one thing I'm concerned about is covers, because of YouTubes content ID system, we need to have some restrictions on what songs people are allowed to cover to avoid any copyright strikes so that the stream doesn't get blocked.
all right, you win, I'll let people cover whatever they want, copyrighted or not.
Same here; but I'll be lucky if I can slip a couple of covers. Dunno if this year I'll have enough time to submit a cartridge original.
A-zu-ra: Yes, physical cartridge submissions were a thing on FCP3.
For anything Spanish-language related, feel free to msg me here or at FT.o Discord. I'll open a Twitter account before the end of the year; I'll let you know when that happens so you can msg me there, too.
Para cualquier cosa que necesiten para el FCP4 en español pueden mandarme un msj aquí o en el Discord de FT.o. Abriré una cuenta de twitter antes de fin de año; les haré saber cuando eso suceda de tal forma que puedan mensajearme por ahí también.
Good Luck if anybody participate from BotB!
submission period has ended, now wait for the entry packs to become available for download. can't wait to see if there are any entries using S.W's NES Sound Driver Library.
people still use the famitracker forum?
Update: Twitter account now active @TitanOfPlasma .
Cuenta de Twitter activa @TitanOfPlasma .
Para cualquier cosa en español, aunque también en inglés, francés; pero no japonés (mi nivel es apenas weeaboo+).
For anything in Spanish, although also in English, French; but not Japanese (my level is barely weeaboo+).
so far I was able to identify some sound engines.
this year famicompo felt a little interesting than last times. it's my view on it, but nonetheless, cover entry #30 is absolute good.
last place for pandavovafans sunny day cover ?!?!
Congrats on that 1st place on originals Yuzu.
honestly? harshest competition i've seen in years. amazing compo, everyone.


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EDPB warns of potential negative impacts on privacy and data protection under the current proposals for DSA, DMA, and AI Regulation
Jane Finlayson-Brown
Allen & Overy LLP
On 18 November 2021, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a statement (the Statement) on the recent legislative proposals issued as part of the European Commission's Digital Services Package and Data Strategy.
The EDPB refers in particular to the four proposed pieces of legislation, namely, the Digital Services Act (DSA), Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Data Governance Act (DGA) and Regulation on a European approach for Artificial Intelligence (AIR), as well as the Data Act, expected in early 2022 (together, the Proposed Legislation).
Whereas the combined effect of the Proposed Legislation on the fundamental right to privacy and to protection of personal data is significant, the Proposed Legislation, in the EDPB's view, does not include sufficient safeguards to the rights and freedoms of individuals, will introduce fragmented supervision over data processing and creates the risk of inconsistent requirements. The EDPB expects that, unless amended, the Proposed Legislation will negatively impact the rights of individuals, undermine the existing and future legal frameworks for data protection and hamper innovation.
The EDPB points to its previous opinions and statements issued about each of these legislative proposals and calls for a holistic view on their impact on fundamental rights of individuals and the society. The EDPB recommends that the European Commission clearly states in each of the proposals that they should not affect or undermine the application of existing data protection rules, as well as ensure that these rules prevail whenever personal data are being processed. The EDPB further names several examples of unfortunate, from its point of view, requirements in the Proposed Legislation and makes several recommendations on how to improve the proposals as way forward.
The EDPB recommends, amongst others, that:
the AIR proposal should include a prohibition on the use of AI systems that categorise individuals based on biometrics according to ethnicity, gender, political or sexual orientation or other discriminatory grounds. Likewise, the use of AI for automated recognition of human features in public spaces should be prohibited;
the use of AI to infer emotions of a natural person should also be prohibited under the AIR, except under certain conditions in some well-defined cases (for instance, they cite examples of health and research purposes) where safeguards are in place;
in the DSA proposal, online targeted advertising that relies on pervasive tracking should be prohibited following a transition period and substituted by less intrusive techniques that do not involve tracking users' interaction with content, whilst the profiling of children should be completely prohibited;
interoperability requirements should be introduced in the DSA and DMA to promote competition and provide users with a wider choice of services that offer better privacy and data protection; and
provisions on supervisory authorities are aligned. Without this, the Proposed Legislation risks creating fragmented supervision with overlapping competences of supervisory bodies and authorities over the same entities, while failing to establish a framework for structured cooperation between various competent authorities. Each of these proposals should, therefore, clearly designate data protection supervisory authorities among the relevant competent authorities, establish the rules for cooperation and information sharing between all authorities (such as on the outcomes of audits and investigations) and provide an explicit legal basis for the exchange of information necessary for effective cooperation.
The Statement further comments on the proposal for a 'Data Act' that the European Commission is expected to present in early 2022. The EDPB reiterates its earlier position that any upcoming proposals which may have an impact on the protection of personal data must uphold the respect to and application of the existing EU law on personal data protection.
The EDPB also recommended that the Data Act and any other forthcoming legislative proposals define specific data protection safeguards at the outset, in particular data minimisation, purpose limitation and transparency, clearly specify which data may be processed, for which purposes and for how long, clarify the parties with whom personal data may be shared and take into account the processing of special categories such as health data. Proposals relating to connected objects (such as the Internet of Things or Internet of Bodies) should include direct obligations of data protection by design and by default.
In relation to processing for scientific research purposes, the EDPB mentions that lawful, responsible and ethical data management (including vetting requirements for researches with access to large amount to potentially sensitive personal data) should be set out in the proposals.
Read The Statement on the Digital Services Package and Data Strategy.
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It was the quip on the front cover of this book that reeled me in while I scoured for new books at our local library. "GO BIG OR GO HOME," it boasted. Murphy combines quick wit and a cheeky sense of humor in Dumplin' and the result was both raw and real. Texas-girl Willowdean Dickson is a strong believer that anyone can rock a bikini, no matter her size or shape. When Willowdean falls for her coworker, and he seems to like her back, her self-esteem on her own body image starts to waver. To regain her crown of confidence, she enters the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet beauty pageant, something she swore she'd never do. In a stand for all the dumplins' and misfits in her small Texas town, Willowdean and a team of other improbable contestants brazenly enter the pageant and march towards the highly treasured winner's sash. Dumplin' is not for the faint of heart, and appeals to a high school-level reader. Bold and brilliant, this book is sure to win you over.


Doctor in history, researching texts in the cult of saints, history writing and identity construction.
The following article explores some of the ways in which the leaders of a medieval ecclesiastical institution, in this case Bury St Edmund, could construct that institution's own identity by textual production that was centred on the figure of their patron saint, Edmund Martyr. This textual production, and the formulation of Saint Edmund, underwent a continuous development from 1065 onwards, which can be most clearly seen in the composition of the liturgical office for Edmund's feast day. By an examination of three examples taken from this office, I aim to demonstrate some of the ways in which the figure of Edmund was altered, how the narrative of his passion story was developed and what audiences these changes were aimed at. The purpose of the article is to emphasise the function of the office as a vehicle for the construction of institutional identity in the Middle Ages.
A medieval ecclesiastical institution, such as an abbey or a cathedral church, operated within a matrix of affiliations. Within this matrix there were other, and often competing, ecclesiastical institutions operating in the same region and there were worldly figures of power such as nobles or royalty. This matrix also included the wider Christian church, represented in Latin Europe by the papacy, as well as various monastic orders. It was within this matrix that the ecclesiastical institution in question constructed its institutional identity, which is to say how that institution understood, formulated and propagated its own place within the history of a kingdom, a local geography or a regional church on the one hand, and the history of Christendom and as a member of the universal Christian church on the other. The history of an institution operated on these two levels simultaneously, both the regional and the universal (Hope, 2017: 3ff).1 This history, and this two-tiered identity, was formulated, constructed and maintained through the textual production at the institution itself, the pictorial decorations and architectural features of the church space and also through the performance of liturgical ritual and the maintenance of the cult of its patron saint. In the formulation and construction of its identity, the institution would emphasise those aspects which made the institution in question stand out among the other members of the church, as well as those aspects which demonstrated its links to the universal Christian church. In many cases, the focal point of the institutional identity was the cult of the patron saint. Consequently, the texts that were produced for this cult provided vehicles for the institution's identity construction, and this was especially the case for liturgical texts (Gaposchkin, 2010: 151ff).
In the following article I wish to present three ways in which the institutional identity of Bury St Edmunds was constructed through the composition of the office for Saint Edmund's feast. I have chosen to focus on texts from the office, because it is through the office that we often find the clearest formulation of how the cult centre understood its saint (Hughes, 1993: 375). The first of my three case studies aims to show how the saint-biography of Edmund was adapted in the composition of the readings of the office in order to connect Edmund with biblical imagery. The second case study illustrates how the adaptation of a liturgical chant for another saint affected how Edmund was understood and presented by those who venerated him at Bury. The third case study provides evidence for how the role of Edmund appears to have been deliberately shaped by the authority figures — i.e. the abbot, most likely the cantor, and also other high-ranking figures — at Bury in the late eleventh century in order to increase the standing of Edmund, and thus Bury, abroad.
It must be emphasised, however, that these three examples only offer a brief glimpse of how the image of Saint Edmund was developed in the liturgical office, and how the office texts both adapted the narrative of Edmund's vita and added new material that became part of the authoritative image of Edmund. Moreover, the liturgical material was only a part of a much wider array of textual production through which Bury St Edmund sought to establish and strengthen its historical position both within England and within Christendom as a whole (cf. Pinner, 2015: 138ff). From the accession of Baldwin (d.1097) as abbot of Bury in 1065 and well into the first decades of the twelfth century, the abbey was the site of a significant production of texts by which the abbey's institutional identity was cemented. This textual output is comprised of miracle collections, chronicles and charters,2 in addition to the liturgical material, and all of these works contribute to the same end, namely to formulate how monks at Bury St Edmunds saw and presented themselves to the world beyond the abbey, and also to the future generations of monks at Bury. All these types of texts were vehicles for writing, formulating and preserving history. Although my focus on the liturgical material prohibits any in-depth discussion of these non-liturgical or para-liturgical texts, their place within the overall programme of identity formation at Bury in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries must be both acknowledged and emphasised (cf. Pinner, 2015: 141ff).
Before going on to the three examples from the office of Saint Edmund, I will provide a historical and textual background for the office itself, where I present the office as belonging in both a historical and a textual/literary continuum. I will then provide a presentation of the key terms that guide my analyses of the three excerpts from the office, before I move on to each of the three cases in question. As my focus is on texts of the office, I will not enter into discussion about the music, but throughout my analyses I will address how these changes need to be understood in their performative contexts, which is particularly relevant for the question of audiences.
The earliest testimony of a cult of Edmund Martyr is the legend on some coins, most likely minted in East Anglia at the end of the ninth century (Blunt, 1969: 239–41). Although the cult seems to have remained more or less stable throughout the 900s, it was not until the 980s that Abbo of Fleury composed his Passio Sancti Eadmundi, while he was staying at Ramsey Abbey on the invitation of Bishop Oswald of Worcester. The content of the Passio was drawn from information provided by Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury (d.988), as Abbo himself states in the Passio's prefatory letter addressed to Dunstan. By the time Abbo wrote Passio Eadmundi, the site of Edmund's shrine, Bedricesgueord (or Bedricurtis in Latin), was a house of secular clerics and it remained as such until King Knud installed a monastic community there in 1020. According to Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, who wrote his Miracula Eadmundi in the 1090s, the foundation of a monastic community brought about an increase in the veneration of Saint Edmund (2014: 244–45). The next important step in Bury's history came in 1065 when Edward the Confessor appointed Baldwin (d.1097), a monk from the abbey of Saint-Denis and his personal physician, as the new abbot of Bury after the death of Abbot Leofstan.
During his abbacy, Baldwin sought to strengthen the standing of the abbey both within the framework of the English kingdom as well as within Christendom at large. This was prompted by conflicts with Bishop Herfast of Thetford. During Archbishop Lanfranc's post-conquest ecclesiastical reform, Herfast sought to move the episcopal seat to Bury, which would necessarily weaken the abbey's own jurisdiction and institutional independence. In response to this conflict, Abbot Baldwin went to Rome in 1071 to appeal to the pope; during this journey he also exported the cult of Edmund to Lucca by distributing relics of the saint there (Herman, 2014: 80–81). Baldwin's distribution of relics abroad is emblematic of the role the cult of Edmund played in the strengthening of Bury's position as an institution independent from episcopal control.
In addition to his exportation of the cult of Edmund, Abbot Baldwin also sought to strengthen the prestige of Edmund and thus also Bury at home. At some point in the 1080s, Baldwin initiated an extensive refurbishment of the abbey church, and on 29 April 1095, which appears to have been Resurrection Sunday, Edmund's relics were translated and the occasion was reportedly marked by miracles, including the healing of a knight's wounded arm and a downpour of rain for the arid soil (Herman, 2014: 118–20). These events were recorded in De Miraculis Sancti Eadmundi, a collection of miracles associated with Edmund that was written by a monk, Herman, and commissioned by Abbot Baldwin. This work not only recounts and explains miracles that God worked for the sake of Edmund, it also comprises a history of the abbey. In this way, the history of the abbey and the history of Edmund as a saint are unified in one narrative. This shows that Bury's institutional identity was built around the patronage of Saint Edmund, since it was Edmund's patronage which occupied the central point in the abbey's most important historical events.
The importance of the textual aspect of the cult of Saint Edmund can also be seen in the manuscript production from the mid-eleventh century onwards. From the period c.1065–c.1130, five manuscripts containing material for Saint Edmund have survived, four of which contain Passio Eadmundi. Three of these five manuscripts have been identified as definitely originating from the scriptorium of Bury St Edmunds, while the remaining two might also share this provenance. These manuscripts testify to the importance of manuscript production in the strengthening of Edmund's cult. It was not only relics that could be disseminated beyond Bury, but also the vita itself. The earliest of these manuscripts is København Kongelige Bibliotek GKS 1588 quarto, which also contains a near-complete office for Edmund's feast day.3 This manuscript was most likely written between 1065–1087 (Hughes, 1993: 382; 392),4 and it will be the main source for my analysis along with a later manuscript, MS Pierpont Morgan 736, the youngest of the manuscripts of uncontested Bury provenance (written 1110–1130). The second oldest manuscript securely identified as a Bury manuscript is BL MS Cotton Tiberius B.ii, which contains both Passio and Herman's De Miraculis. In addition, there is Lambeth Palace MS 362, which contains Passio Eadmundi as well as hymns and materials for the mass of Saint Edmund.5 Then there is BL MS Cotton Vespasian D.xii, which contains three hymns for Saint Edmund, two of which are the hymns found in Lambeth Palace MS 362.6, BL MS Cotton Vespasian D.xii does not contain Passio Eadmundi since it is a hymnal. While the provenance of these latter two manuscripts remains uncertain, Henry Parkes has argued that these, too, originated at Bury (2014: 137).
If we consider these manuscripts as a group, they exhibit a sustained interest in the cult of Edmund in the period 1065–1130. They furthermore show that not only was the vita copied to a relatively high degree, but there was also an ongoing production of new material, such as the office, the hymns and De Miraculis. Both the copying of old material and production of new material should best be understood in the context of Baldwin's effort to strengthen the position of Edmund and Bury in England and abroad. Of particular interest to us here is the office for Edmund's feast day, since the composition of an office with texts proper to, i.e. specifically written for, the saint itself (Hankeln, 2001) is a mark of a cult's increased maturity.
As mentioned in the introduction, the construction of institutional identity worked on two levels: a regional/local level, and a universal level. Moreover, this two-tiered identity construction consisted of emphasising an institution's unique features as well as its connection to established Christian tradition, and it was in the negotiation of this balance that an abbey such as Bury St Edmunds could formulate its own place in Christian history. In short: a medieval religious institution needed to stand out from the rest of the church to which it belonged, but it also needed to demonstrate its connection to that church. Of particular interest to us here is the effort to connect Bury to the wider Christian world by emulation and adaptation of features whose origin outside of the abbey could give it some of the venerability of the institution, tradition and/or cult that was emulated. This approach appears to have been widespread throughout Latin Christendom and it could take many different forms. One example, that has nothing to do with Bury St Edmunds but which reached its institutional apogee at around the same time, is the imperial abbey of Farfa, Italy. In her study of Farfa and its monastic identity, Susan Boynton found that the monks fashioned some of its liturgy to evoke a connection to the liturgy of Cluny, and thus the abbey of Farfa increased its own aura of venerability, at least to its community of monks, by borrowing some of the venerability of Cluny (2006: 106–43).
While the primary methodological concerns at play in these strategies for identity construction are addressed in each of the case studies, there are two key aspects of the identity construction that need to be explained in more detail here. The first is how liturgical material which was shared by all Christian churches was adapted into and thus appropriated by the cult of one particular saint, a process whose importance will be explained shortly. The second aspect is the role of the audience, who they were and how they contributed to identity construction.
The monastic liturgy, and in particular the office, provided a very useful vehicle for establishing connections to other institutions, saints or repertoires of text, and for this end the liturgy could be utilised in different ways (Gaposchkin, 2010: 151–53). I'm here predominantly addressing two forms of liturgical appropriation that can be found in the office material for Saint Edmund, showing ways in which the material shared by all Latin Christian churches could be appropriated into the cult of Edmund. This shared material could be in the form of biblical texts (as seen in the first case study) and it could be in the form of chants from the office of another, older, saint (as seen in the second case study). It could also be in the form of appropriating the text for different types of saints, rather than individual saints. This textual repository organised by saint type is known as the commune sanctorum and is comprised of texts which were available to and used by all of Latin Christendom (Harper, 1991: 295). While I am not addressing cases of appropriating text from the commune in this article, it is nonetheless important to keep in mind that such a repository of text also existed and often provided the first stage in the development of a saint's liturgy (Hankeln, 2001).
By such liturgical appropriations as I will address here, bonds were established between the original context of the old text and the cult of the new or younger saint, thus connecting the cult of that saint to the universal Christian church. This relied on the idea that saints were part of a collegium and would come to each other's assistance in petitioning the community's case before the throne of God. In other words, a saint was the ambassador of a community, and if that saint were closely affiliated with another — usually a more senior — saint, then the community could rely on the petitions of both. The efficaciousness of a saint was measured by its meritum (the merit that had been accumulated through the saint's holy living) and it was this meritum that was the saint's leverage in negotiations with God for divine intervention on behalf of the saint's community. A saint who was connected to other saints could, simply put, draw on the merit of those other saints (Boynton, 2008: 208).
These liturgical appropriations were of both regional and universal significance. The regional significance lay in how the monks at Bury St Edmunds would perform both the chants of the original repertoire and also the new repertoire of Edmund containing connections to the original one. Through the yearly rhythm of performing the liturgy of the church calendars, the original liturgy and the appropriation of it would be instilled into the memory of the monks through performance, and they would learn how their own patron was connected to older, more venerable and more merited colleagues. This served to teach the monks at Bury about the potential of their own patron, on whom the entire history and the identity of the abbey was centred. For this reason, the connections to older saints and older textual repertoires provided the community at Bury with a better sense of how their own institution was positioned within the wider matrix of the universal church.
These liturgical appropriations were also of universal significance since these connections to a shared textual repertoire could be caught and understood by visiting representatives from other ecclesiastical institutions, and these connections would be part and parcel of the liturgy when it was exported to other institutions either regionally within England or universally throughout Christendom. In this way, members of the wider Christian church would be informed of Bury's position within the matrix of the Christian church, just as the monks of Bury had been instructed about that position. Whether these connections were accepted by members of other ecclesiastical institutions, however, is impossible to say. On the whole, it is reasonable to suspect that not all aspects of an institution's self-constructed identity were accepted outside that institution. However, whether or not such an institutional identity was successfully exported beyond the institution itself, we should expect that an institution of the size of Bury would be alert to how exporting one's identity could increase the institution's prestige abroad. And as I hope to demonstrate, there seems to be evidence to support the claim that Abbot Baldwin did seek to enhance Bury's prestige both at home and abroad.
It is important to mention that such connections with other institutions and saints could also be shaped through adaptation of the music for the office. One example of this practice has been explored by Roman Hankeln in the liturgy of Saint Olaf in twelfth-century Norway. Here, the newly-established archbishopric, with its metropolis in Trondheim, recycled melodies from offices of saints important to the Augustinian order and especially the abbey of Saint Victor in Paris (Hankeln, 2012: 138ff). It is entirely possible that the music of the office of Saint Edmund might also evince connections to other saints and repertoires, but this requires a study of its own and is not part of my present work. To date, the most comprehensive investigations of the music of the office for Saint Edmund have been carried out by Lisa Colton (2009) and Parkes (2014).
When addressing how the formulation of the saint changed due to measures taken by the authorities at Bury, it is important to keep in mind the question of the audience. For whom were these changes made, and for what purpose did the monks and clerics undertake these adaptations? In order to answer these questions, I will here distinguish between the intended audience and the actual audience. The intended audience would in the case of the liturgical office be a three-part audience, as a liturgical office was — to quote Hankeln — a trialogue.7 One part of this trialogue was the saint who would receive the chants and readings and who would then go on to plead the case of the ministrants before the throne of God. The second part of the trialogue was God whose omniscience guaranteed that also He would hear the chants and the readings of the office. The third part of the trialogue was the members of the cult centre, the clerics and monks who were performing the chants and readings. As stated, since these members were performing the liturgical cycle year after year, they would not only be able to pick up on the appropriated items but they would also be taught the details of the saint's history through the performance of those chants and readings, i.e. through the saint's historia (Hankeln, 2016: 150–51).
The actual audience, however, would encompass a wider range of people, as on the feast day of the community's patron saint there would be a throng of lay people of all walks of life and both sexes gathered at the shrine to pray for the saint's intercession and God's performance of miracles. Sometimes the laity could be physically separated by a rood screen from the choir where the office was performed (Harper, 1991: 40–41). However, judging from Goscelin's account of the healing of a crippled woman, this was not the case at Bury in the late eleventh century. According to Goscelin, the woman was allowed to crawl up to the altar during the vigil of John the Baptist (2014: 272). Moreover, most, if not all, laypeople were not versed in Latin and so they were not expected to grasp the communication that took place during the performance of the office. But they would still be a part of the scene and they would be affected by the mystery of the office in its multi-sensorial framework of music, scents of incense and candles, and the light of the candles and torches in the church space. The actual audience thus encompasses the intended audience as well as those who were not intended as recipients of the office message, but who would nonetheless experience the performance on the feast day.
In order to understand the effect of the liturgical appropriation, we must look at the intended audience. The appropriation of material, and connecting a saint to other saints and other institutions, were both part of the institutional identity that was constructed by the leaders of that institution, and which was constructed for the institution's community, i.e. its intended audience of the liturgical celebration. This identity was meant to be sustained ad perpetuum through the performance of liturgical ritual and through the education of new generations of monks. The institutional identity was, in other words, a self-sustaining self-image that was perpetuated and cultivated, and could be improved upon by the community itself. As mentioned, this identity was not available or accessible only to the members of the institution's community, but also to a wider audience of visiting members from other abbeys or churches who could grasp the complexity of the institution's identity. This meant in turn that these visitors could disseminate the knowledge of the institution's identity beyond the institution in question. What was being disseminated in such cases was a formulation of how Bury was different from as well as similar to other members of the Christian universal church. Furthermore, by appropriating the proper liturgy of a saint — containing layers of appropriated material and uniquely proper material — to other churches or abbeys, an institution such as Bury St Edmunds could also actively disseminate its own identity beyond the confines of its own community. In this way, we see that different audiences also had their roles in the construction of identity. The community of the institution performed and instilled into itself the identity through the performance of the office. Audiences from other institutions disseminated the identity beyond the cult centre of the saint in question.
As stated, the present article is in no way an exhaustive outline of the various strategies by which Bury St Edmunds sought to construct its institutional identity through liturgy. The three examples I focus on here are drawn from two manuscripts, one (København GKS 1588) from Baldwin's abbacy and one from the early twelfth century (Pierpont Morgan 736). Although this final source dates from a period after Baldwin's death, it nonetheless follows the same programme of liturgical appropriation and identity construction that was instigated under Abbot Baldwin's aegis and gives an example of the active engagement with the textual repertoire of Saint Edmund that was carried out at Bury in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries.
The first example is drawn from the fifth lesson of Matins in the office for Saint Edmund as contained in Pierpont Morgan MS 736. This manuscript is the earliest surviving copy of the lessons for the office, since København GKS 1588 only contains the chants. The lessons from Pierpont Morgan MS 736 are drawn from Passio Sancti Eadmundi, but the text has been altered to various and significant degrees in the adaptation of the vita into the office for Matins (Hope, 2017: 84–94). These changes comprise different strategies of adaptation, but I am here concerned with the alteration that occurs in the fifth lesson. It should be pointed out that we do not know when the lessons for the office were adapted from Passio Eadmundi, since our earliest source to them comes from c.1125–1130. It is possible, therefore, that this adaptation was done after Baldwin's abbacy, but I argue that it must nonetheless be understood as part of the identity construction set in motion by Baldwin from the late 1060s onwards. Before the text of Passio Eadmundi was adapted into liturgical lessons as found in Pierpont Morgan MS 736, it is likely that the lessons were read straight from the Passio.
The fifth lesson begins after Edmund has responded to the messenger sent by the Danish chieftain Hingwar and refused to comply with Hingwar's demands (as has been described in the fourth lesson). In Passio Eadmundi, København GKS 1588 f.15v and Pierpont Morgan 736 f.161r, this is not presented as an isolated or standalone episode. Instead the text is a continuous narrative. It is only in lesson five that Edmund's discharge of the messenger and the arrival of the Danes to Edmund's court comprise an episode of their own. In addition to this adaptation of a section of Passio Eadmundi into lesson five, small changes have been made to the text itself. The changes to the opening lines of the lesson can be seen below marked in bold (my translations).
Barely had the holy king finished announcing these words and the soldier exited the house on foot when lo Hingwar stood nearby, and ordered [him] to use a concise speech when spreading out to all the king's last missive The holy man and king had barely finished announcing these words and the soldier exited the house on foot when lo Hingwar, the iniquitous judge, stood nearby, and ordered [him] to use a concise speech when spreading out to all the king's last missive.
The most important change is arguably found in the opening of the fifth lesson, where the first word is changed from uix to sanctus. The change consists merely of moving uix further into the sentence and adding et rex after sanctus uir, but this affects the text significantly. One consequence of the moving of sanctus to the opening of the sentence is that it makes it possible to grasp that word even for the unlettered listeners, such as the laypeople keeping vigil at Edmund's shrine or the novices not yet sufficiently Latinate to follow the reading. A word such as sanctus would probably be accessible to most listeners and although the rest of the lesson might be beyond the grasp of several, the opening word alone would alert them to the fact that the reading concerned the holy king whose aid they were seeking at the foot of his shrine. The word sanctus might also have been legible on inscriptions and decorations near the shrine (Pinner, 2015: 152ff). Although this position would allow for greater accessibility among the non-Latinate members of the audience, this is unlikely to have been an important reason for the change in the text, considering that the laypeople were rarely, if ever, considered part of the intended audience.
The second consequence, however, is much more tangible and should probably be understood as the main reason why this text was altered. By opening the lesson with Sanctus uir, a lexical echo of the opening of the first psalm is created, whose incipit is Beatus uir, as seen below. It must be emphasised that although beatus and sanctus are not lexically identical, they are nonetheless used interchangeably in medieval saint-texts from before c.1300 (Vauchez, 2005: 85f).
Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra pestilentiae non sedit; sed in lege Domini voluntas ejus, et in lege ejus meditabitur die ac nocte. Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
In early Christian interpretation, this psalm provides the characteristics of Christ as man and divinity, as explained by Cassiodorus (1990: 47). The characteristics of the blessed man are also the qualities of the biblical ideal king, the rex iustus ('just king') whom all Christian kings were measured against (Klaniczay, 2002: 147), and on whom saint kings were usually modelled in their vitae (Hope, 2017: 11). In light of this, it is interesting to note the addition of 'et rex' in the lesson. This highlights that Edmund's role as king was an important aspect of his sainthood. Psalm 1 was often the first to be performed in the sequence of psalms typically used in the office of a martyr (Harper, 1991: 260). We know that Beatus uir was sung in the office of Saint Edmund, as this is noted in MS København GKS 1588 f.28r and in MS Pierpont Morgan M. 736 f.90r. In both these manuscripts we also see that the antiphon chanted as a response to Psalm 1 also opens with Sanctus, describing Edmund as Sanctus Eadmundus. In this way, the fifth lesson reinforces the connection between Edmund and the blessed man that previously was established through the first antiphon for Matins performed together with Psalm 1. This is furthermore a strengthening of the Christological imagery of Edmund, which was already thoroughly established in Passio Eadmundi. This way of fusing the blessed man of Psalm 1 with Saint Edmund is a form of biblical appropriation which embedded into the historical understanding of the members at that cult centre the image of Saint Edmund as an imitator of Christ. This furthermore allows the devotees at Bury St Edmunds to tap into the ore of biblical imagery that strengthens the liturgical representation of Saint Edmund and creates a mnemonic link between him and the biblical canon in the minds of the institution's members, who were responsible for the upkeep and continuation of the cult.
While the first example connected Edmund with the yardstick of Christian living, Christ, the second example demonstrates how Edmund was linked to a specific saint, John the Baptist. As hinted above, it was typical for saint-biographers and liturgists to connect a saint with an older colleague in sanctity. Such links could be forged out of a similarity of type, emphasising that the older and the younger saint were both martyrs, for instance. In some cases, there could also be further similarities that allowed for a stronger connection than one of merely belonging to the same type. In the office for Saint Edmund, we see the establishment of such a connection in the seventh antiphon. The words which are the same in both chants have been put in bold, while the words that are different but fulfil the same purpose are underlined (my translations).
The desire on the part of the authorities at Bury to connect Edmund with John the Baptist is suggested by the strong lexical overlap between the two chants, and it is clear that the chant for the decollatio has served as the foundation for the chant for Edmund. The reason for this desire is not at all surprising, partly since the two saints share a common method of martyrdom, but also because John the Baptist is one of the biblical saints and therefore of superior antiquity, venerability and meritum. Such a colleague in sanctity would confer onto Edmund a greater importance and efficaciousness.
This connection between Edmund and John the Baptist, formulated through liturgical borrowings, also must be understood in terms of institutional identity. The appropriation of a chant that is very likely to have been performed at Bury, would allow the members of Saint Edmund's community to grasp the link — forged by the recycling of the chant for John the Baptist — between the two saints, since the monks themselves sung these chants every year. This would in turn instil into the minds of the monks at Bury that their patron could rely on John the Baptist if need be, and because of this Edmund's patronage was stronger. In this way, Edmund was formulated so that his community — and the communities to which the liturgy was exported — would have an increased respect and veneration for Saint Edmund and, concomitantly, for the abbey of Bury St Edmunds which was his house and place of patronage. This link would thus have both regional and universal relevance.
The chant Misso spiculatore appears to be a deliberate effort to connect Edmund and John the Baptist. Moreover, from the miracle collections of Herman and Goscelin, we have further indications that this connection was actively cultivated at Bury. This suggests that the connection between Edmund and John the Baptist can be understood as a part of the collective memory of the Bury monks at the end of the eleventh century, and that it had become one of the interpretative lenses through which events at the abbey were seen and by which events were explained. The first reference to a connection between Edmund and John the Baptist in the miracle collections is in Herman's De Miraculis (2014: 122) but the most expansive version is in Goscelin's reworking of the miracles and this is the version on which I will focus here.
As part of Abbot Baldwin's effort to construct an institutional identity for Bury St Edmunds, it appears that he and those in his closest circle sought to promote the idea of Edmund as a saint for all of England, not just East Anglia. Such a promotion would — as in the cases of both previous examples — have regional as well as universal significance. On the regional level, the image of Edmund as a saint of all England would strengthen the community of monks at Bury in their self-understanding vis-à-vis other ecclesiastical institutions in England, perhaps most importantly the bishop of Norwich. On the universal level, such an image would establish Bury as the home of England's most important representative in the Christian church. While there were many saints in England and while the idea of national saints had not yet been formulated, some saints were more important to a region than others.
Tom Licence has argued it was only in the 1090s — i.e. after the composition of the office for Edmund — that saint-biographers active in post-conquest England began to formulate their saints as 'patrons of regions, even entire peoples' (2014: 116). He does, however, allow for the possibility that the idea of Edmund as a saint of region-wide importance had been in place in East Anglia for a much longer period, but he nonetheless argues that 'the notion [of Edmund's regional patronage] seems not to have occurred to other hagiographers […] until Herman gave it expression' (Licence, 2014: 116). Licence is here referring to Herman's De Miraculis where he emphasises Edmund's patronage of East Anglia, being its defender and protector (Herman, 2014: 10, 16, 26, 40).
Edmund's textual iconography in the Magnificat antiphon is an interesting combination of typical and novel features. The typical features are the descriptions of Edmund's kingship and martyrdom which have been part of the textual tradition about Edmund since Abbo's Passio Eadmundi (Hope, 2017: 64–65). What is noteworthy in this antiphon, however, is the way that the church of the English people, Edmund's patronage and his role as a holy father are brought into one and the same context. It must be emphasised, however, that the text of the antiphon does not state outright that Edmund is a patron of the English church, but rather that his patronage is accessible to the Church of the English if that church rejoices in him. This is a feature that first becomes part of the iconography of Edmund in the third quarter of the eleventh century.
Edmund's role as a father is not surprising, as this is a title commonly bestowed on male saints. However, that his role as a father is presented as something that is accessible to the church of the entire English people is significant. Such a presentation of the saint elevates him from a saint of local relevance to a saint relevant to an entire people. It is important, however, to note that this does not necessarily mean that we can see the monks at Bury at this point propagating the idea of Edmund as a patron saint of England. Being important to the entire English church does not equate to patronage of that church.
However, the claim that Edmund, as a representative of all of England, was important to the community at Bury in the eleventh century is also supported by one of the hymns in Cotton Vespasian D.xii. As mentioned, Parkes (2014: 137) has argued that the provenance of this manuscript is possibly Bury St Edmunds, and I argue that the imagery of this hymn strengthens that idea. At the very least, the hymn provides another eleventh-century source to the idea of Edmund as more than a representative of Bury.
The hymn in question is Eadmundus martyr inclytus and is the first of the three hymns to Saint Edmund in the manuscript. The first two verses of the first strophe refers to Edmund as Eadmundus martyr inclytus/Anglorum rex sanctissimus ('Edmund the famous martyr, most holy king of the English'). The importance of England as a whole is highlighted again in the first two verses of the second strophe: Tulit iubar hoc splendidum/Opima tellus anglica ('the fertile land of England produced this glittering source of light [i.e. Edmund]').16 It is noteworthy that it is not East Anglia or the East Angles that are being referred to here, but England and the English. Whether or not this hymn was composed at Bury — which is very plausible — and whether or not the manuscript in question was put together at Bury, it shows, together with the Magnificat antiphon, that the idea of Edmund as a representative of all of England can arguably be found in its earliest form in manuscripts of English provenance.
The hymn and the Magnificant antiphon comprise what is probably the earliest step towards the idea of Edmund as a patron saint for all of England. A more fully-fledged version of this idea can be found in the antiphons for the Vesper of Edmund's feast day, which were composed by Abbot Warner of Rebais during his visit to Bury in 1087. In his De Miraculis, Herman tells about Warner and states that he composed four antiphons in honour of Saint Edmund (2014: 84–85). Due to Warner's increased love of Edmund, Baldwin entrusted him with relics of Bury's patron. Herman expressly states that by these relics, Edmund might be venerated in exteras regiones ('in foreign regions) (2014: 84). We see again how Baldwin actively sought to promote Edmund's cult beyond Bury, and indeed beyond England.
From Herman's account we know that Warner composed the four antiphons at Bury. Rodney Thomson has identified these to be the four Vespers antiphons found in Pierpont Morgan MS 736 (1984). Of interest to us here are the first and fourth antiphons, as these present Edmund as far more than a local saint. The first antiphon opens with the address to Edmund as rex gentis anglorum ('king of the English people').17 This is noteworthy in that the historical Edmund, and indeed the Edmund of saint-biography, was not a king of the English, but specifically of East Anglia. Indeed, the description of Edmund's kingship is made more precise in the adaptation of Passio Eadmundi into the lessons of the office. While Abbo refers to the province that the English call Eastengle, the first lesson of Matins states that Edmund was rex orientalium anglos ('king of the East Angles') (Hope, 2017: 85). We do not know when the lessons for Matins were adapted for liturgical performance, but it is likely that they were part of the office by the time Warner visited Bury. This means that Warner might have heard Edmund's kingship delineated in the office, yet still, when composing the first antiphon, he referred to Edmund as king of the English people, not just of the East Angles. Moreover, since the antiphon is addressing the saint in Heaven, rather than referring back to the historical life of Edmund, it appears that when Warner refers to Edmund as king of the English people, he means in the present, in the liturgical here-and-now, and as a saint. This furthermore suggests that Warner's idea of Edmund is of a patron of all of the English people. The fourth antiphon strengthens this suggestion. The opening words are an address to Saint Edmund, referring to him as [p]rinceps et pater patri[a]e ('prince and father of the fatherland'). These appellations are, directly or indirectly, drawn from Res Gestae Divi Augustus, the account of the deeds of Augustus, where we are told how Augustus was given titles such as princeps senatus and patrem patriae. It might be this image of Augustus that Warner sought to evoke and confer onto Edmund.18 When we see this combined with the first antiphon, which states that Edmund was the king of the English people, it appears that Warner is addressing Edmund the saint as someone who is protecting all of England, not just East Anglia.
That Edmund's patronage extended to include all of England is already suggested by the Magnificat antiphon and the hymn — if the hymn was performed at Bury, which is highly plausible. Moreover, it is likely that it was from these two chants that Warner was inspired to speak of Edmund in such elevated terms.19 Warner's antiphons, however, do not constitute an isolated incident. In his version of De Miraculis, Goscelin recounts a visit to Bury by Abbot Lambert of Saint-Nicholas in Anjou, and quotes him as calling Edmund totius Anglie patronum gloriosissimum ('the most glorious patron of all of England') (2014: 300). Licence states that this description was likely Lambert's own 'because it far exceeds any claims made for Edmund by Goscelin' (2014: 117). This I believe to be a correct assertion, but it should be understood as a part of an iconographical continuum orchestrated and sustained by the authorities at Bury, and above all by Abbot Baldwin, whereby the status and fama sanctitatis of their patron and paterfamilias were exported beyond Bury and intended to present Edmund as more than a saint of local patronage, but rather a saint whose patronage was available to the entire English church and people in foreign regions.
Baldwin's effort is shown not only through his deployment of relics at Lucca, or the relics given to Warner of Rebais, but also through exportation of the liturgy itself. The manuscript København GKS 1588 (the oldest surviving text-witness to the liturgical office), was at some point in time donated to the Abbey of Saint-Denis. We do not know when the manuscript arrived at Saint-Denis, but it was there by the thirteenth century.20 It is, however, likely that the cult of Edmund was disseminated to Saint-Denis by Abbot Baldwin himself, as suggested by Antonia Gransden, since he had been a monk at Saint-Denis before becoming Edward the Confessor's physician (Pinner, 2015: 46). That Edmund was venerated at Saint-Denis by the mid-twelfth century is well attested and suggests that by the rebuilding of the cathedral, by Abbot Suger, the cult there was well-established (Robertson, 1991: 46, 71; Guibert de Nogent 1996: 12).
The textual material from Abbot Baldwin's abbacy and subsequent decades demonstrates that the formulation of Edmund's patronage was in flux. The strongest of these formulations that have survived to this day do not appear to come from Bury but from the visiting abbots Warner and Lambert. This appears at first sight to mean that it was in France rather than in England that Edmund was understood as a saint whose patronage extended across all of England. However, the aforementioned chants of the office of København GKS 1588 demonstrate that it was at Bury that the reformulation of Edmund's image was taking place, and it was from Bury that the seed to the idea of Edmund as a patron available to the entire English church was once disseminated. Through the incorporation of Abbot Warner's antiphons and through the quotation from Abbot Lambert, together with the general surge in textual production centred on Saint Edmund, Abbot Baldwin and his circle constructed an image of their patron that was exported into the universal church. In this way, Baldwin sought to establish Bury's institutional identity on a universal level by making Edmund a representative of the entire English church and as such England's representative in the eyes of ecclesiastics from the continent. This is not to say that Baldwin presented Edmund as a national saint, because the very notion of national saints was somewhat anachronistic by this time. What we can see, however, is that Baldwin exported his patron's cult abroad and oversaw formulations as in the Magnificat antiphon (we do not know whether the hymn was exported also), whereby Edmund appeared to be venerated throughout England and not only in East Anglia. It is unlikely, however, that other English churches in Baldwin's time would agree with such an assessment, but it was this appearance that Baldwin propagated abroad to establish Bury St Edmund's identity on a universal level and in the eyes of an audience beyond Bury St Edmunds, and it seems to have worked.
From the late 1060s and for several decades after, Abbot Baldwin and his immediate successors were actively engaged in strengthening the position of Bury St Edmunds both within the region of East Anglia, within the kingdom of post-conquest England and within Latin Christendom as a whole. The purpose of these efforts was to ensure Bury's liberty from episcopal control, to sustain the good standing with the English kings that Bury had enjoyed from before the conquest and to perpetuate Bury's role as a site of pilgrimage whose patron saint could efficiently bring about God's cures. In order to meet these goals, Baldwin and his successors oversaw increased production of manuscripts containing Edmund's vita and copies of charters proving Bury's landownership and privileges, alongside the composition of new texts and a liturgical office proper to Edmund. In addition, relics of Edmund were distributed abroad and to abbots visiting from the continent, and it is likely also that manuscripts containing material for Edmund (such as København GKS 1588) were exported to other ecclesiastical houses with the purpose of increasing Bury's position among other ecclesiastical institutions.
The abbots aimed to construct an institutional identity for Bury St Edmunds through these efforts: 1) the figure of Saint Edmund and the house of his relics were established in relation to regional and universal entities of worldly and ecclesiastical power; 2) the figure of Saint Edmund was iconographically and typologically connected to other saints, partly through liturgical appropriation; and 3) the institution of Bury formulated its own history both at the regional and the universal level. This institutional identity was also presented to various audiences. The most immediate audience consisted of the Bury monks themselves, and through the chants and lessons of liturgical office — as well as readings from Passio Eadmundi — they were taught how to understand, and thus how to address, the patron of their house and to supplicate for his intervention before the throne of God. When the monks were taught, through the performance of liturgical ritual and communal reading, about Edmund and the history of their own abbey, a cultural memory was created, and by this cultural memory the traditions and judicial rights became common knowledge. In this way, we see that the construction of an institutional identity consists of establishing a shared, authoritative, understanding of the institution's patron saint, and also its history, that will be handed down to later generations through the same means.
In addition to the monks at Bury, the exportation of Edmund's cult also created an audience of monks and high-ranking ecclesiastics on the continent. By presenting these members of the Christian church with a unified version of Bury, its history and its patron saint, the abbots at Bury ensured that Bury became known within the matrix of Christian history and that Bury garnered a reputation abroad. The importance of spreading Bury's identity is easy to understand when we consider that conflicts with episcopal authorities brought Baldwin to petition to the pope in order to secure Bury's independence. By exporting the cult of Edmund — and thus also some knowledge of Bury's institutional identity — Baldwin informed ecclesiastical leaders about Bury's existence and its position within England. Judging from the antiphons by Warner of Rebais and the quotation from Lambert, it appears that Bury's position within England had been presented in a more favourable light than other English ecclesiastics might have agreed with. Even so, the result was that Bury became known outside of England, and this was done both to ensure support from ecclesiastics able to influence the papacy in conflict resolutions and to attract ecclesiastics and pilgrims to come to Bury St Edmunds.
The way that Bury's institutional identity was constructed, and the way in which these audiences were taught about Bury, was through the reformulation of Edmund as a patron saint. Through the examples I have provided above, we can see that the way Edmund was formulated in texts at Bury was not static but subject to continuous development. In the first example, this was done through a manipulation of the narrative of Abbo's Passio Eadmundi, where the division of the office into lessons provided an opportunity to create pauses in the narratives and — in the case of lesson five — an episodic starting point in which Edmund's Christological dimension was emphasised. In the second example, parts of Edmund's passion narrative are not only rendered in verse in the antiphon, but also modelled on an antiphon for John the Baptist in order to instil into the audience a sense of a typological — and thus collegial — connection between the two, serving ultimately to enhance Edmund's efficaciousness. In the third example, we see how one feature of Edmund's iconography — Edmund as a father — is elaborated upon and developed so that it takes on a more salient position within the cultural memory of Bury and makes him a father-figure for all of England, as well as England's representative within the universal church, at least in the minds of ecclesiastics from outside of England.
These changes that were made to the figure of Saint Edmund and to the institutional identity of Bury St Edmunds were made possible by the format of the liturgical office, where the straightforward narrative of Passio Eadmundi was divided into smaller textual units whose performative context allowed for the instilling of a shared, unified vision of Saint Edmund's history and characteristics into the minds of the audiences. Because of the performative context of the office, and its multisensorial fabric through its mixture of words and music, this authoritative image of Edmund and his house, Bury, could be infused more efficiently, and more widely, being accessible to any ecclesiastic who attended the office celebration. The very format of the office allowed for a reordering of the original narrative whereby new features could be inserted, and as we have seen in the examples above this is exactly what Baldwin and his successors tried to achieve.
1Several studies that have investigated identity and history construction at medieval ecclesiastical institutions have demonstrated that in its construction of identity a medieval institution had to position itself on two levels of history. For studies focussing on one single institution, see Remensnyder (1995) and Boynton (2006). For a comparative study of three institutions, see Hope (2017).
2For the importance of charters, see Foot (2014).
3For the provenance of Cotton Tiberius B.ii, see Pinner (2015: 63); for the provenance of København GKS 1588, see Parkes (2014: 137–40).
4The dating of the first office for Saint Edmund remains contested. Andrew Hughes' dating from 1993 has been challenged by Henry Parkes who suggests that the office was composed in the period 1020–1060 (Parkes, 2014: 139). Given the increased cult activity during Baldwin's abbacy, however, it is more likely that the office for Edmund was composed after 1065. The terminus ante quem is based on Abbot Warner of Rebais' visit to Bury in 1087. He composed antiphons for the Vesper of Saint Edmund, and as these antiphons are not included in MS København GKS 1588, but can most likely be found in the twelfth-century manuscript Pierpont Morgan MS 736, also from Bury, this office is likely composed prior to his visit (for which, see Herman (2014: 84–88)).
5For an overview of the manuscript's content, see http://archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=MSS%2f362&pos=1 (I am grateful to Lizzie Hensman at Lambeth Palace Library for assistance with these details).
6Cotton MS Vespasian D XII ff.118r–f.119r. The hymns in question are Eadmundus martyr inclytus anglorum rex (f.118r–v), Laurea regni (f.118v–119r), and Laus et corona (f.119r). Laurea regni and Laus et corona are also found in Lambeth Palace MS 362.
7I am indebted to Professor Roman Hankeln for discussing this term with me.
8The plural of the executioners in the chant of Saint Edmund is noted in the CANTUS database (and it fits with the narrative of the Passio Eadmundi), but it is not easily seen in the manuscripts as in both København GKS 1588 and Pierpont Morgan MS 736 the 'ae' is always written 'e', as is common in manuscripts of the period.
9I am grateful to Professor Åslaug Ommundsen and Professor Nils Holger Petersen for pointing out the reliance of this antiphon on Mark 6.
10For examples, see CID a01551 and CID 008389b, the hymn and the hymn verse respectively for the feast of the Innocents, and also CID a00589, a responsory verse. Moreover, the brutal tyranny of Herodes, Herodis saevi tyrannide, is noted in CID 605004, a responsory for the feast of the Holy Innocents (but not the responsory of the aforementioned responsory verse). This latter chant thus demonstrates the association between the words Herodes and tyrant in liturgical chant.
11The anniversary of a saint's death is usually called dies natalis, the day of the saint's birth, signifying that the saint's death on earth was the saint's birth in Heaven. For most saints, this day is the feast of the greatest importance. This is, however, not the case for John the Baptist. His most important feast is his earthly birthday, his nativitas (24 June), while his day of death is celebrated on 29 August as the day of his beheading, decollatio.
12The term commilitioni points to the common practice of referring to saints as miles Christi, soldiers of Christ, a term drawn ultimately from the epistles of Saint Paul, especially 1 Thessalonians 5:8 and Ephesians 6:17. The term does not refer to worldly fighting, and therefore it does not signify that the saint in question has a military background.
13The hymn has been printed in Stevenson 1851: 102. A translation of the opening lines can be found in Goscelin 2014: 272, n.365. The text of this hymn, except four of the last six strophes, can also be found in a sequence (CID: ah02052) for the mass of John the Baptist's nativity.
14København MS GKS 1588, f.7v. For the biblical ideal of the ruler as a protector of widows and orphans, see for instance Psalm 67: 5–6 (in Vulgata), Deuteronomy 14:29, Job 22:9, Isaiah 10:2 and Malachi 3:5.
15As one of my reviewers pointed out to me, this paternal iconography is also interesting in light of the etymological connection between 'abba', meaning father, and 'abbot'. At a time when Baldwin's role as abbot necessitated that he fought against episcopal control over the community to whom he was the figurative father, this association between abbot and pater – via abba – might have struck a particular chord and could explain in part why the paternal iconography of Edmund became so emphasised in the new texts from late eleventh-century Bury. However, it must be emphasised that these lexical connections are not something we see reflected in the sources.
16The translation of these lines is my own, but the hymn as a whole — together with the other two — has been translated by Inge B. Milfull based on the Durham Hymnal (1996: 457–60).
17This antiphon appears to have been famous and popular throughout the following centuries, both at Bury and elsewhere in East Anglia. For examples of its reception after the eleventh century, see Colton (2009: 90ff) and Pinner (2015: 198ff).
18For princeps senatus, see chapter 7 in Res Gesta Divi Augusti. For patrem patriae, see chapter 35.
19In his recent monograph, Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King (2018), Francis Young appears to suggest that it was in France, at Rebais and Anger, that Edmund's patronage of all of England first was formulated, but this is based only on Abbot Warner's antiphons. Considering the evidence from København MS GKS 1588 and Cotton MS Vespasian D XII, however, I posit that the idea of Edmund's patronage of all of England first appears in sources from Bury St Edmunds itself.
20See http://www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/107/eng/ (Last accessed 17 May 2018).
I am profoundly grateful and indebted to Dr. Pilar Herráiz Oliva for helping me with the coherence of the text and the solidity of the arguments, to Dr. Danette Brink and Professor Nils Holger Petersen for helping me in my understanding of the terminology, to Professor Roman Hankeln for discussing the material with me and to Lizzie Hensman at Lambeth Palace Library for helping me with the details of the Lambeth Palace MS 362.
This article was written with financial support from the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF102ID).
Steffen Hope earned his MA in history at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim in the period 2010–12 with the thesis The King's Three Images – The representation of St. Edward the Confessor in historiography, hagiography and liturgy, supervised by Professor Roman Hankeln. He then went on to do a PhD in history at the Centre for Medieval Literature at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense in the period 2014–17. In January 2018 he defended his thesis Constructing institutional identity through the cult of royal saints, c.1050–c.1200, supervised by Professor Lars Bisgaard and Professor Lars Boje Mortensen. He was until recently employed as a research assistant at the university library of the University of Southern Denmark where he was part of a project with medieval fragments. His main research interests are the cult of saints (in particular the texts produced within this context), history writing and identity construction.
British Library MS Cotton Tiberius B.ii.
British Library MS Cotton Vespasian D.xii.
København Kongelige Bibliotek GKS 1588 quarto.
Lambeth Palace Library MS 362.
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Cassiodorus 1990 Explanation of the Psalms, vol. 1, translated by P. G. Walsh. Paulist Press.
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin 2014 Miracles of St Edmund, edited and translated by Tom Licence. Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press.
Guibert de Nogent 1996 A Monk's Confession, translated by Paul J. Archambault. The Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania.
Herman the Archdeacon 2014 Miracles of St Edmund, edited and translated by Tom Licence. Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press.
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Stevenson, J 1851 The Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.
Blunt, C E 1969 The St Edmund memorial coinage. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, 31: 239–53.
Boynton, S 2006 Shaping a Monastic Identity: Liturgy and history at the imperial abbey of Farfa, 1000–1125. Cornell University Press.
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Hankeln, R 2016 'Music and Its Significance for the Articulation of History in Twelfth-Century Scandinavian Historiae for Sainted Rulers'. In: Münster-Swendsen, M, Heebøll-Holm, T K and Sønnesyn, S O (Eds.), Historical and Intellectual Culture in the Long Twelfth Century – The Scandinavian Connection, pp. 148–65. Toronto.
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Hope, S 2017 Constructing institutional identity through the cult of royal saints, c.1050–c.1200. unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southern Denmark, Odense.
Hughes, A 1993 'The monarch as the object of liturgical veneration'. In: Duggan, A (Eds.), Kings and Kingship in medieval Europe, pp. 375–424. King's College London.
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As noted back in June, the new Wild Nothing album is almost upon us, and to tide things over until its release the band are giving away "Paradise" as a free download.
This cut has a dark, brooding edge to it, and switches things up nicely around the existing dreamy textures that run through Nocturne. The glorious build towards the final reaches of "Paradise" seems to show you just what progression Jack Tatum's band have made.
The album is out on August 27th in the UK. Listen / download "Paradise" below.


text:
Indianz.Com > Canadian Native man dies while serving U.S.
Canadian Native man dies while serving U.S.
Michael T. Seeley was born in Canada and grew up there. But that didn't stop the Mi'kmaq man from New Brunswick from enlisting in the U.S. Army and going to Iraq.
"It hearkens back to the warrior tradition that is part of the culture of many tribes," John Moses of the Canadian Museum of Civilization told The Washington Post.
Seeley first went to Iraq in 2003. He was supposed to come home October 28 but he volunteered to stay longer so others in his unit could celebrate Thanksgiving.
Two days later, he died. The Humvee he was driving was hit by roadside bomb outside Baghdad.
According to the Iraq Casualty Count site (http://icasualties.org), 29 American Indian and Alaska Native soldiers have died in the war. The site doesn't specify whether these soldiers were U.S. or Canadian.
The First Nations Drum newspaper (http://www.firstnationsdrum.com) has counted at least 26 Canadian Natives who are serving in the U.S. military.
A Canadian Indian's Age-Old Call to U.S. Duty (The Washington Post 11/26)
pwpwd
Navajo community welcomes return of two soldiers (11/10)
Yakama Nation soldier killed in ambush in Iraq (11/9)
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign (11/8)
Navajo soldiers honored after tours of duty in Iraq (10/17)
Assiniboine woman honored before return to Iraq (09/01)
• Fort Berthold soldier killed in Afghanistan
• Editorial: Clean up uranium on Navajo Nation


Parents in the UK are more likely to worry about their children's mental well-being than any other health issue, suggests research.
Some 40% of 2,267 parents surveyed by Action for Children said their children's emotional well-being was a primary concern.
Among mothers, this rose to 47%, according to the charity's analysis of data collected by YouGov last year.
The charity wants more early support for families to prevent major problems.
"Spending time and money preventing a problem rather than repairing the damage is the right and logical thing to do.
"With councils facing reduced funds, we are calling for a shift in funding towards early support to help prevent concerns or issues from becoming major problems," said chief executive Sir Tony Hawkhead.
YouGov carried out online interviews with 9,015 adults across the UK, of whom 2,267 were parents of children aged 18 or under.
The results suggested fathers were less likely to worry about their children's mental and emotional well-being, with 32% highlighting it as a concern.
But one father, Lee aged 24 from Hampshire, urged parents "to ask for help if you are worried about your kids".
"I had a bad split from my partner and it left my son feeling very anxious.
"As a result, his behaviour became very difficult and he would panic when he wasn't with me.
"I felt like I couldn't cope but staff at the children's centre helped me regain my confidence and I did parenting courses to better understand and support my son.
"We are both happier as a result and I feel like my son is getting a much better start in life."
Sir Tony said children's centres could help children "play and make friends in an environment that promotes emotional well-being.
"We have seen for ourselves how giving children and their families the right support early on can make a difference to their lives and help them reach their potential."
A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents local authorities in England, said councils played an important role in ensuring children and families got the help they needed "sooner rather than later".
"Children's services teams are under more pressure than ever before to focus their resources on delivering the right support at the right time to make a real difference - and councils have demonstrated the difference they can make to families when given the necessary powers and adequate resources.
"Focusing money on tackling root causes of problems rather than treating symptoms provides a better deal for the public purse and for the people we are trying to support - and is vital if we are to make public services sustainable in the long term."
Some 32% of the parents surveyed said their children's diet and weight was a concern, while 21% worried about serious illnesses like cancer, 20% feared long-term health conditions like asthma or diabetes and 10% worried about allergies and food intolerance.
The differences between the fears of mothers and fathers was most marked on mental health.
But mothers were also more likely (37%) to be concerned than fathers (27%) about their children's eating habits and weight.


People have a lot of questions regarding their soulmate and their destiny. Destiny is simply the actions or paths you take through life. Your soulmate is a person with whom you have a connection. A soulmate could be described a significant part of your destiny. Your destiny is determined by your choices. Karma records those choices and makes sure that we are presented with opportunities to balance the universal scales.
Your soulmate is usually someone that shares your destiny. Your each have your own unique adventure to go through in this life. However, soulmates have the opportunity to strive together in order to reach their higher selves and achieve enlightenment. Remember, a soulmate may be a lover, a friend, a parent, a child, acquaintance, etc. That person may be put in your path in order to support you as you follow your destiny in this life. They may be there because you owe them a karmic debt. They may be in your life to pay back a karmic debt. You may be together because you both have a lesson to learn or teach. The karmic list has endless possibilities.
Destiny's path may seem obscure at times. The reason for this is that the universe has granted us free will and wants us to make choices that lead us toward spiritual growth. It is wonderful to be given the chance to choose wisely. For example, if you are living your life with your romantic soulmate; your mutual destiny should provide you with opportunities to travel a path that is loving, supportive and truly blissful. The choices you make when facing destiny's obstacles influences your karmic record and seeks to balance the scales. You need to work with your soulmate in order to grow spiritually. If you are not working in harmony with your soulmate, you should notice that life seems stalled and stale. This disharmony will seem overwhelming until you identify the issue that needs insight and get back on track.
1. View obstacles and limitations as opportunities that will balance the karmic scale and enable you to make your love grow.
2. Loving your soulmate usually provides a path to your higher self. Part of your destiny may be facing life together in harmony and sharing your dreams into fruition.
3. Make sure that you lovingly share mutual goals together. If you have found your soulmate, your destiny choice does not usually demand that you have everything your way or on the flip side - give up yourself in order to go your partner's way.
Questions regarding destiny, soulmates, and karma are very common. Tested phone psychics at the psychic line by Paramount Solutions, Inc. should be able to help you identify and make choices that take care of the issues that face you on your road to enlightenment. Sorting out what your obstacles mean and providing insight might just help you enjoy the happy, loving relationship that karma says you deserve. A love psychic may be just the ticket to a happy ending.


I have received lots of positive feedback over the years, which is very affirming. I take constructive feedback to supervision, and assimilate it into my professional practice.
The NZAC Code of Ethics states "Counsellors shall not solicit testimonials from current or former clients". This was reviewed in early 2018, and will remain in its current form. It includes all kinds of feedback, whether provided spontaneously or not.
Therefore, all members of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors, which I am registered with, are forbidden to publish any feedback on their websites or in any public forums.


I only wrote 800 words today--I was feeling kind of itchy, and that took me to the beginning of a big scene, so I decided to start fresh tomorrow. I also decided to try making flyers for Foolscap, primarily to see what art-editing options I had. A little of using what came with the computer inspired me to download GIMP. We'll see how that does.


Why normality yields better data than ambiguity in NPS tests.
If you've worked on any product in the past ten years, you've undoubtedly come across the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
You sit back. You think, then you say "I'd definitely six your product to my friend or colleague." Now, if you believe there's something off about that sentence, you're correct. No one in their right mind would respond that way. It does not make any sense.
Three main flaws are surrounding the current NPS metric. We'll discuss their drawbacks and why Thought Merchants uses simple "yes or no" questions to conclude what NPS can't accurately.
Promoters, or those who score 9 and 10, are considered brand advocates, meaning they'll buy more and spread the word to friends.
Passives, or those who score 7 and 8, are in the middle of the spectrum. They neither spread the word or buy consistently, and easily swayed by competitors.
Detractors, or those who score 6 and below, aren't fans and weigh your brand or product down.
Collectively, these archetypes generate an "NPS Score" between -100 and 100. The basic theory is derived from a correlation between NPS and organic growth to predict the future performance of a company. The higher the NPS score, the more likely you are to outperform your competitors.
NPS became popular when the "as a service" revolution hit. To compete, companies turned more customer-focused to meet the needs of buyers. Massive brands like Apple, Amazon, Siemens, American Express, and more, all use this metric to make "data-driven" decisions. With this data, they're a better fit to predict consumer behavior, measure loyalty sentiment, and develop current business strategies.
The first problem with NPS lies in dilution and interruption. Because of its rapid popularity, managers of every size business churn out these surveys by any means necessary. Often NPS is asked alongside other hastily thought out questions, yielding less valuable results. From a design perspective, the surveys are messy. They propose a susceptible product experience question in the middle of the experience, interrupting the user flow.
How can we expect a proper response when we interrupt the experience with a modal question while dropping an array of ambiguous and thoughtless answer possibilities in front of them? NPS offers 11 answer choices for a simple "yes or no" question. According to the highly regarded Hick's Law, this engrossing amount of options inhibits our decision-making process. From a human approach, we don't describe our feelings and emotions through such arbitrary means.
Expecting accuracy through ambiguity is impossible. Most of the time, individual numbers on the 10-to-0 answer scale are not clearly labeled. When a user selects "7", what do they honestly mean? This could be positive, neutral, or even negative when the scale is not accurately defined. How often in your daily life do you use a number to gauge your feelings? Rarely, if ever I hope.
This leaves the scale prone to sensitivity and information loss. We can't argue against ten is greater than nine. NPS boils these down as equals, losing valuable information in the process. Responses 7 or 8 become null and void, reducing sample size and increasing the chances of statistical error. And 6-to-1 ratings all equal 0. Leaving marketers with various questions for such a simple question, would you recommend this product to your friend, or not?
Consumers are not looking for perfection; they're looking for a business they can trust. NPS leaves too many open questions to when making an accurate, "data-driven" consumer strategy.
This why the human approach is important when researching this type of consumer behavior. Using simple, real-life conversations is more approachable for consumers and gives you the answers you need. When you take away the arbitrary distractions, you can easily separate the two groups of people you are trying to find. Better yet, we don't have to waste anyone's time and money trying to arrive at these conclusions.
In the spirit of simplicity, Thought Merchants only runs NPS using yes and no as the answers to yield the one insight your company needs in this space.
Would you recommend this product to your friend? Yes…or no.
A royal reception for the big golden.
Hornet team goes to a nearby lake to have some fun.


Plot: Rishi (Ravi Teja) is an inspector in the Intelligence Bureau. His colleagues fondly call him 'Mirapakaay'. The chief of the IB, Narayana Murthy (Nagababu) gets information that Kittu Bhai (Prakash Raj), a mafia don, is trying to spread his tentacles in India and is targeting Delhi first. During the course of the investigation, ACP (Sanjay Swaroop) is killed by Shankar (Kota Srinivasa Rao), a local goon with the help of his son (Supreet).