Mured up thus unkindly, he was soon sobered, and beginning to kick
against the walls, was surprised that the stones gave way under the
pressure he applied to them. He soon had worked a big enough hole (not,
of course, in the wall which Justice had just built in order to immure
him) to allow his passage.
He now found himself in the adjoining Abbey of St. Mary, and his only
hope of safety lay in his passing as one of the regular inmates of that
establishment. He, too, therefore subjected himself to the Rule of
Silence, and acquiring in a remarkably short space
[Illustration: COLLEGE STREET, ST. WILLIAM’S COLLEGE AND CHAPTER HOUSE]
the esteem of his new brothers, was appointed cellarer.
Alas! after a year, temptation was too much for him. He made an unworthy
use of his office and underwent a second sentence for riotous
misconduct. He was carried by the unsuspecting monks to the place where
he had been before immured and was left to his fate. He was still under
his drunken delusion singing merrily, to be heard by the reverend
brothers of St. Leonard’s. The news of Jucundus’s continued existence
was carried to his superior, who, recognizing his former subject’s
voice, ordered the cell to be opened and knelt in awe before the
revivified but still merry Jucundus.
Within and around St. Leonard’s gateway are collected a number of Roman
stone coffins which have been found in York. One coffin in particular is
of more than usual interest, for it is believed to be connected with a
Christian burial. Evidences of Christianity during the Roman occupation
of York are rare. A record exists that Eborius, Bishop of York, was
present at the Council of Arles in 314. The discovery of this coffin
tends to confirm this statement, by showing that there were Christians
in York amongst its Roman inhabitants. In this Roman stone coffin were
found a glass jug and a disk--which are considered to be the cruet and
paten of the viaticum--and a bone tablet carved with a Latin
inscription “SOROR AVE VIVAS IN DEO”, which is rendered in English,
“Sister, hail, mayest thou live in God”.
After the departure of the Romans, the pagan Anglians drove the
Christians out of the district to the westward, and when the Anglians in
York had themselves embraced Christianity, they suffered the like from
the Danish invaders. Subsequently the Danes embraced Christianity, and
adjoining the abbey grounds is the church founded by the conqueror of
Macbeth, Jarl Siward, to the Norwegian sainted King Olaf. Siward was
Earl of Northumbria and a great warrior. On his deathbed he commanded
his attendants to put on him his armour, and thus fully equipped, he
died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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