27 March 2015 A.D. Richard III Buried with Solemnity
27 March 2015 A.D. Richard III Buried with Solemnity
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Ashworth, Pat. “Richard III buried with solemnity
and joy.” Church Times. 27 Mar 2015. http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/27-march/news/uk/richard-iii-buried-with-solemnity-and-joy. Accessed 27 Mar 2015.
Richard III buried with solemnity and joy
Reburied: the coffin containing the body of Richard III is lowered into
its new purpose-built tomb in Leicester Cathedral, on Thursday
THE day began dull and damp. The streets of
Leicester were washed with rain, and gusts of wind whipped vestments and caused
hats to be firmly clasped to the head. But the weather proved to match the
dynamic of a service that was first solemn, and then joyful and uplifting.
The Public Orator of the University of Leicester,
and one of the liturgists who worked on the service, Professor Gordon Campbell,
told the story of Richard in his eulogy of this "son of the
Midlands", whose posthumous reputation he described as "less than
glorious", but who had the greatest following of all monarchs, excepting
the present Queen. People had assembled today in a spirit of reconciliation, he
said, and the purpose was "not to enter into argument about whether
Richard was a good king, or even a good man".
The coffin remained shouldered as the eulogy was
read, and the cathedral procession then led the bearer party to a plinth in
front of the altar, where it was laid. The opening prayer, from the Dean of
Leicester, the Very Revd David Monteith, was from the medieval rite of
reburial, and the opening hymn, G. K. Chesterton's "O God of earth and
altar", arranged by Vaughan Williams, contrasted the imperfections of
earthly life ("not least as exemplified by our faltering rulers", an
explanatory note suggested).
Woven into the service from the beginning was the
parallel story of the mortal remains of Joseph, carried by Moses and the
Egyptians to his homeland. "That passing over Jordan we celebrate today as
we commend the soul of Richard to God," the Dean said in his greeting,
declaring: "Here, in the cathedral, history meets the present. Here eternity
breaks into time."
Footsteps penetrated the deep silence as the Duke
of Gloucester reverently placed Richard's Book of Hours, the personal prayer
book retrieved from his tent on the battlefield, on a white cushion by the
coffin. The Collect that followed the Lord's Prayer, found only in the medieval
rite, made direct reference to the journey of Joseph's body, concluding with
the words: "Kindly and mercifully receive us with your servant Richard,
whose bones we transfer to a new tomb today."
The male voices of the choir lent a strong monastic
flavour to the singing of Psalm 114, accompanied by the plainsong Latin
antiphon "In Paradisum". The psalm, with its focus on the miracles of
God in bringing his people out of Egypt, was followed by the Duke of Norfolk's
reading of that story from the book of Exodus. More of it followed in Psalm
138, accompanied by the plainsong Latin Antiphon "De terra".
In his sermon, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd
Tim Stevens, alluded first to the triple mandate given to the Looking for Richard
Project: "Search. Find. Honour." Richard belonged, he said, "not
just to archaeologists, chroniclers, and curators, but to all of us."
Crowds in their tens of thousands had been captivated, and had come to this
ancient place of prayer "not to judge, condemn, or praise, but to stand in
rapt and reverent attentiveness".
He said: "Whether we are Ricardians or
Shakespeareans, whether we see through the eyes of Olivier, McKellen, or
Cumberbatch, whether we recognise a warrior or a scholarly, pious thinker, today
we come to accord this King, this child of God and his mortal remains, the
honour and dignity denied him in death."
The Leicester cityscape of friaries, abbeys, and
castles from which Richard had ridden to battle 500 years ago was now
embellished by mosques, temples, and gurdwaras, the Bishop said. He is widely
liked and acknowledged by the faith communities here as the spokesmen for all
of them on matters of religion. "This city, which will be home to
Richard's grave, now strives to build harmony in place of conflict: to offer to
a war-torn world a vision of mutual respect and honour across language,
culture, and belief," he said.
He reflected on where the coffin lay: between the
chapel of Christ the King and the high altar. "We are reminded that God's
power is not like that of kings, presidents, or prime ministers. God is not an
infinitely magnified mirror of human control. We may no longer believe in the
divine right of kings, but we still have some way to go before we recognise the
God of power whose mercy is most fully seen in weakness."
It was not reputation, but God's mercy that was
"the last word for any of us", he concluded.
Poem: the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who is soon to portray Richard
III, read a specially commissioned poem Richard, written by the Poet Laureate
Carol Ann Duffy for the service
The bearer party shouldered the coffin to take it
through the gates of the Nicholas Screen to the newly created ambulatory, east
of the main sanctuary and west of the chapel of Christ the King. The Countess
of Wessex and the Duke of Gloucester, bringing up the Book of Hours, stood by
the coffin as the Archbishop of Canterbury first asperged the coffin with water
from the font, and then censed it.
It was the most moving part of the service,
accompanied as it was by the anthem "Ghostly Grace", specially written
by the English composer Judith Bingham. It was a mystical, deeply atmospheric
piece, the words drawn from the Revelation of St Mechtilde; Psalm 42, from a
Wycliffe Bible; and the epitaph of Marmaduke Constable, one of Richard III's
inner circle: "And now he abydith God's mercy and hath no other socire,
for, as ye see him here, he lieth under this stone."
Prayers from the Archbishop began with a prayer
from the medieval rite:
Almighty and eternal God
Creator and redeemer of souls,
Who by the prophecy of Ezekiel deigned
To bind together dry bones with sinews,
To cover them with skin and flesh,
And to put into them the breath of life:
As we return the bones of your
servant Richard to the grave,
We beseech you to grant him a
peaceful and quiet resting place,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, for ever and ever.
The coffin was lowered into the grave. The
Archbishop scattered a handful of soils from Fotheringhay, Middleham, and
Bosworth, symbolising the King's birth, life, and death. The words that
followed - "From the earth you formed me, with flesh you clothed me; Lord,
my Redeemer, raise me up again at the last day" - prefaced a deep silence
in the cathedral.
The responsory came from the RC Administrator of
the diocese of Nottingham, Canon Thomas McGovern.
And then came a change of mood and atmosphere, in
the shift to proclaiming and celebrating the hope of resurrection.
You could feel the tension breaking as the choir
sang Philp Moore's dramatic arrangement of Psalm 150, accompanied by the
plainsong Latin antiphon "Omnis Spiritus". Featuring four horns as
well as the organ, it was an outpouring of praise, an allegro of joining and
ever stronger voices. A gust of wind sprang up round the cathedral, rattling
the rafters.
Many familiar faces were present, but celebrities
had no special prominence at a service where everyone who had played a part in
the story was a celebrity in their own right. But Benedict Cumberbatch, who is
soon to play Richard III, read "Richard", commissioned by the
cathedral from the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and beginning, "My
bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil, in human Braille. My skull, scarred
by a crown, emptied of history. Describe my soul as incense, votive, vanishing;
your own the same. Grant me the carving of my name."
And then the sun poured through the stained glass,
a radiance that remained throughout the singing by the whole congregation of
the Gospel canticle, based on the Benedictus. The Dean gave the Dismissal
Gospel before the National Anthem, in a fanfare and arrangement for the service
by the Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir. The congregation went out
joyfully to Elgar's Organ Sonata from the cathedral organist, Simon Headley.
The service was not the final chapter in the story.
The next day, the Reveal service was held, at which the tomb, covered now with
a 2.5-ton piece of Swaledale fossil stone, was visible for the first time. A
celebration more local and community than national and international, it was to
emphasise hope and dignity, a looking to the future, the beating of swords into
ploughshares.
Many people in this city, as the Bishop and Dean
told reporters earlier in the week, had known war first hand, and came to
Leicester to escape civil war. This service would speak to the people of
Leicester directly, in a ceremony in which the tomb was revealed by 80 dancers
from Leicester's Curve Theatre.
Welcomed: members of the public wait outside the Cathedral before the
service, on Thursday morning
Background planning
LEICESTER CATHEDRAL had emphasised from the outset
that the reinterment of Richard III was not to be a funeral. Despite the King's
hasty and undignified night-time burial, it is thought inconceivable that
prayers should not have been said for this medieval Christian.
"Hello" rather than "goodbye"
had thus been the dominant thought. But, as the Dean put it to reporters this
week: "There is no escape from the fact that we are welcoming the bones in
the form of the coffin. So we are presiding over the dynamic of death."
Liturgists, historians, and musicians had all
contributed to what was a contemporary service in contemporary language but
which drew from other texts and traditions, particularly a service from the
15th century for the reburial of high-status individuals. The King would have
organised such events in his lifetime, scholars are assured. While neither a
pastiche nor an "authentic" recreation of a medieval service, it was
very much structured on a rite discovered in the British Library in 2009 by Dr
Alexandra Buckle, an Oxford historian.
Such a service might have been assumed to be a
mass, the Canon Precentor of Leicester Cathedral, Dr Johannes Arens, said, but
it was based on the regular pattern of prayer used by monks at the time. The
service at which the remains were brought into the cathedral on Sunday was
compline; the reinterment was morning prayer; and the service on Friday, at
which the tomb was be revealed, was noonday prayer.
"The medieval manuscript was highly
interesting," Canon Arens said. "It showed that, while human remains
were in church, the normal pattern of prayer continued."
Major institutions in the city and county came
together in partnership to bring about the event, and the service was designed
to emphasise that that was part of the impact of King Richard in the present
day, and also the pattern of Leicester's life for the future. The procession,
too, reflected that.
Among the groups with special connections to the
Richard III story - including descendants of soldiers and personnel who fought
at the Battle of Bosworth - were clergy and parish councils representing the
villages and parishes that have had the story as an integral part of their
local heritage for over 500 years.
"Reverent attentiveness": the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd
Tim Stevens, speaks at the service in Leicester Cathedral
'It's been an extraordinary year'
THE Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens,
is sitting on a low wall in the bright sunshine of the cathedral gardens, in
much demand by the media, and grateful for his chaplain's watchful provision of
coffee and croissant.
It is Wednesday morning of re-interment week, and
the crowds queuing to file past the coffin stretch as far as the eye can see.
Several of the cathedral canons are out and about
among the crowds, as they have been daily, answering questions, engaging in
conversation, responding to requests for prayer. Cathedral staff in one section
of the queue are offering Cadbury's Roses from a generously large tin - a
gesture that is going down well. White roses are everywhere, most prominently
on and around the statue of the King.
The reinterment is a particularly English event,
the Bishop has just explained to press people from Scandinavia. It is the
Archbishop of Canterbury's constitutional responsibility to preside at the
burials of kings, and what they will see acted out at the service will
demonstrate the Church of England's function of offering hospitality to
Christians of other traditions and to other faiths.
"The cathedral has the role of common ground,
and the grave of Richard III can be seen in future as a place of
reconciliation," he said. "We are seeing that in the crowds around
the cathedral this morning, from all backgrounds and faith traditions, and full
of neighbourliness and goodwill. That's what monarchy can do for us, and it's
happening in front of the eyes of the world."
I ask him when he was first aware how big this
might all become. "I remember the moment when it was established beyond
any doubt that it was Richard III. . . I remember any number of moments
thinking, how do we plan a week's events to give expression to what we believe
about this, and to do it in a way that allows a national and international
audience to participate. . ?
"And I remember the moment when we sat down
and realised how much it was all going to cost."
The cathedral raised the money - £2.5 million,
which included the reordering of the church to accommodate the tomb - from
private donations. On the cusp of the main event, the Bishop reflects: "We
see now that the energy, the expertise, the imagination, the creativity, and
the teamwork that has been going on has unlocked a huge amount of interest, as
well as a huge amount of generosity.
"I think that's important, because it ought to
give us all confidence that when the Church sets its mind to do something for
the wider community, for the nation, it can do it. We mustn't lose confidence,
and think that our main task is to strengthen our own position, or build our
own work. We are here to serve the nation and the wider community - that's what
the vision behind it is. And I think you can see how fruitful it is."
The amount of correspondence, and media and public
interest when the re-interment plans were announced, gave cathedral staff some
indication of how big the event might be, the Bishop says. But the size and
scale of the story were not expected in parts of the media, and some had been
quite sceptical: "'Can anything good come out of Leicester?'" he
quotes, mischievously.
Accompanying the coffin on its procession into the
city from the Bosworth battlefield and the surrounding villages, "seeing
the villages with people lined four and five deep, two or three miles on either
side of each village; and then ten miles out of the city, five deep all the way
in, I realised that the people were getting it, and that, sooner or later, the
media would catch up."
The atmosphere and mood of the crowd -
"immensely interested, courteous, respectful, warm, and appreciative"
- is what he describes as "drawing down the best of ourselves. It's making
us sense our pride in our country, our sense of connection to our national
story, our sense of connection to this particular city and county. That's a
gift you can't put a price on.
"Also, it's building ecumenical relationships;
so there are now warm friendships between the leaders of the Catholic churches
in the city, and our cathedral and churches, which are now deeper and stronger
than they were. Far from being competitors with each other for the memory of
King Richard, we are partners, and that's a partnership which will gain in
strength.
"But I think that, above all, this is an
unbelievable evangelistic opportunity to actually say to the world something
profound about what we believe about death and resurrection.
"A lot of historians and scholars argue about
King Richard's reputation, but, at a moment like this, we see something more
important than reputation, and that is that eternal salvation and our eternal
destiny is not dependent on our reputation, but on God's mercy. That's what
we're celebrating tomorrow, and that's more important than any number of TV
personalities or film stars."
People have come here for all kinds of reasons, he
reflects, "some because it's their birthday, some to remember a loved one,
some because they have always had an interest in Richard III. Some don't know
why they're here at all, perhaps just to be part of something. I think it's a
reminder that a lot of people live quite fragmented, individualistic, and
atomised lives, and there's a big story here that you can participate in, and
feel a sense of connection. That's immensely important."
He retires in July, and acknowledges, "It's
quite a good gig to go out with, really. . . It's been an extraordinary year. I
think, in a way, it's a reminder that when God gets hold of something, what
we're in for is always bigger, deeper, richer, more colourful, more intense,
and more abundant than anything we could have expected."
He sips his coffee and reflects, "I think as I
watch the crowds queuing round this cathedral, that there's something ironic
about it. Because the word of life has been proclaimed, and new life in Christ
has been on offer at the altar in this cathedral for hundreds of years - but
often given only to two or three people.
"All of a sudden, they are prepared to stand
for hours to receive something. But what I hope they'll go away with is an
understanding that what's important is not just the remains of the King, but
the life of the King of Kings."
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