Pilgrim Ways

hanged, drawn and quartered. The bodies of the three monks were left suspended on the gallows where they might serve as a warning to others and then parts of the abbot‟s body were taken on a gruesome pilgrimage to the towns and cities and placed on exhibition. With his companions, Richard Whiting was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1888.

The foremost historian of the period, Professor Jack Scarisbrick, believes that Whiting had refused point-blank to surrender his house: “Grasp that,” he says, “and the story falls into place. The usual tactics - forcible retirement, bribes, faction stirring inside the community having failed, there was only one thing for it: a treason charge so that, like the abbots of Reading and Colchester, he could be declared forfeit of is house. This was still not watertight, because he did not „own‟ the house and its lands. God did. So it was crucial that Parliament should have passed an act in 1539 confirming the King‟s title to any religious houses which had „happened‟ to come into his possesion or would do in the future. Whiting wasa very brave man. He probably had (ital) been hiding the abbey‟s most precious treasure rightly!”

The abbey was laid waste and the stones ripped out and used for new buildings. The holy objects disappeared - some doubtless concealed to this day in hiding places chosen to prevent their desecration by Henry‟s agents. Others passed into private hands. One, the Glastonbury Cross, which had marked the burial place of King Arthur, turned up at the British Museum in 1981, but once the owner had identified its provenance he concealed it and despite a brief spell in prison refused to give it up. Perhaps that incident sums up the enigmatic past of Glastonbury.

New Beginnings There are occasional sightings or glimpses of reality which lie concealed beneath unexcavated legends and mythology. Like the quarry which tantalizingly appears out of the undergrowth only to quickly conceal itself again it all adds to the appeal of the chase. For the modern pilgrim Glastonbury continues to intrigue and to inspire. The practical details are all competently explored in the visitor centre, which was officially opened by Dr.George Carey when he was bishop of Bath and Wells. For Catholics, there is also the story of return. In 1903 the exiled French Sisters of Charity founded an orphanage in Glastonbury, complete with chapel. In 1940 the foundation stone of the new church of St.Mary was laid, on a site adjacent to the Convent, close to the entrance to the abbey. The Bishop of Clifton consecrated the building one year later. This Church is home to the restored Shrine of Our Lady at Glastonbury. The statue was blessed by the Pope‟s representative in 1955 on the Feast of the Visitation and a gathering of pilgrims took place which was probably the greatest number assembled since the royal visit of Edward I. Here and in the quietness of the magnificent grounds answers abound to most of the questions which haunt our lives.

The Ammerdown Study Centre is the ideal contemporary setting in which to ponder the contiuing impications of Glastonbury. It was founded in 1967 by Lord Hylton, an independent Catholic Crossbench Peer, well-known for his ecumenical work in Northern Ireland and for championing human rights, especially those of asylum seekers, domestic workers, and exploited children.

Faced with a large mass of buildings, some very dilapidated, he consulted with Dom.Aelred Watkin OSB, a former headmaster of the nearby Downside School, and with Dr.John Coulsen, then lecturer in theology at Bristol University. In the climate of the post Second