chambersrobert

"On the 23rd of June 1626, a cod-fish was brought to Cambridge market, which, upon being opened, was found to contain a book in its maw or stomach. The book was much soiled, and covered with slime, though it had been wrapped in a piece of sail-cloth* It was a duodecimo work written by one John Frith, comprising several treatises on religious subjects. - - - The treatises contained in this book were written by Frith when in prison. Strange to say, he had been long confined in a fish cellar at Oxford, where many of his fellow-prisoners died from the impure exhalations of unsound salt fish. He was removed from thence to the Tower, and in 1533 was burned at the stake for his adherence to the reformed religion. The authorities at Cambridge reprinted the work, which had been completely forgotten, till it turned up in this strange manner. The reprint is entitled VoxPiscis, or the Book-Fish, and is adorned with a woodcut representing the stall in Cambridge market, with the fish, book, and knife. (R. Chambers: Book of Days) www.thebookofdays.com/months/june/23.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frith

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Crab

"His food consisted of bran, dock-leaves, mallows, and grass; and how it agreed with him we learn from a rare pamphlet, principally written by himself, entitled The English Hermit, or the Wonder of the Age. 'Instead of strong drinks and wines,' says the eccentric Roger, I give the old man a cup of water; and instead of roast mutton and rabbit, and other dainty dishes, I give him broth thickened with bran, and pudding made with bran and turnip-leaves chopped together, at which the old man (meaning my body) being moved, would know what he had done, that I used him so hardly. Then I shewed him his transgressions, and so the wars began. The law of the old man in my fleshly members rebelled against the law of my mind, and had a shrewd skirmish; but the mind, being well enlightened, held it so that the old man grew sick and weak with the flux, like to fall to the dust. But the wonderful love of God, well pleased with the battle, raised him up again, and filled him full of love, peace, and content of mind, and he is now become more humble, for now he will eat dock-leaves, mallows, or grass.'" (R.Chambers: Book of Days) www.thebookofdays.com/months/sept/11.htm

"And the arm and the hand that he put to our Lord's side, when he appeared to him after his resurrection, is yet lying in a vessel without the tomb. By that hand they there make all their judgments. For, when there is any dissension between two parties, and each of them maintains his own cause, both parties write their causes on two bills, and pu them in the hand of St. Thomas; and anon, the hand casts away the bill of the wrong cause, and holds still the bill with the right cause, and therefore men come from far countries to have judgments of doubtful causes." (R. Chambers: The Book of Days)

The Miracle of St. Thomas. "Von Diemeringen tells two stories. The first relates that Ogier built a church at Calamia in onour of St. Thomas and adorned the coffin with gold and silver and jewels. The Assyrians carried it off to Mesopotamia, where it remained for 60 years. It was then returned, and in order that the people might know that it was the true coffin they caused the hand and arm to be left outside the coffin. A great miracle then happened. If parties had a dispute they pu their bills or statements of claim into the hand, which rejected the false bill and retained the true one. The second story tells how the Saint administered the sacrament in person during Passion Week. Outremeuse tells the story twice. The church is described with its shrine adorned with gold and jewels. The body was intact as on the day it was placed there. Outremeuse then tells the story in much the same words as von Diemeringen. They placed the hand above the bier, and the hand gave judgment by rejecting the parchment containing the false plea and retaining the true one, 'jusqu'à tant que chis qui ly at mis en sa main l'en oste'. The reference to the administration of the host by the hand is interesting, in view of von Diemeringen's second story. Obviously both stories were widespread. As will be noted the translator of the vulgate Latin text could not swallow the second story: 'sed non est ita & nunquam fuit'." (Malcolm Letts: Mandeville's Travels, Volume I)

www.thebookofdays.com/months/dec/21.htm