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De laude Cestrie - Lucian

Edited by Mark Faulkner

Excerpt 20

Ciuium sit uidere et prudenter aduertat saltem literatus habitator Domini uocem: tu es Petrus et super hanc petram edificabo ecclesiam meam (Matt 16:18). Quanta uerborum consequentia, quanta rerum euidentia infra muros Cestrie, magis in occiduis et propius occidentem iuxta portam maris condita sit ecclesia Domini Saluatoris, reuera tanquam firmitas et fundamentum basilice Petri apostolorum principis, 1 ut uidelicet nomen dignatio deriuaret, racionem rebus ostenderet, oculus solem uideret, suauitatem operum Dei sensatus agnosceret et excitatis de sompno lectoribus approbata ueritas eluceret. Itaque metientes secundum literam Pauli nosmet ipsos nobis (2Cor 10:12) , ut temporibus uideamur concordare modernis, quamuis diu modernum esse non possit quod maris instar rota mundi uertit ac uoluit, attestatur et astruit stilum nostrum, etiam uenerandorum canicies sacerdotum Sacerdotale testimonium. Walterum loquor et Andream, 2 quorum unus in edicula Christi, alter in basilica Petri, De porta Petri. ille decanus diu extitisse dinoscitur, iste deuotus famulus apostoli scitur, qui longo temporum tractu sacris altaribus ministrantes, propicio Saluatore, felici gradu functi sunt , et arras iam, ut uidetur, diuine bonitatis adepti, laborum suorum tesauros, ad celestia transtulerunt. Istis liquet et ceteris qui norunt locum et loci situm, quam iocunde luceat ibidem ueritas promissorum, quomodo uelut literaliter pariat et portet petra Petrum, quomodo Verum Principium et Magister Humilitatis apostoli sui firmauerit principatum, statuerit edificium, muniens a mari, et protector contra portas inferi Aecclesia Christi quasi basis ecclesie Petri. quam benigne fecerit semetipsum basim benedictionis oculis intelligentium, et solidum apostolice fidei fundamentum.

Footnotes

1.
Lucian inverts Christ's words by arguing that the church of the Holy Trinity is the base and foundation of the church of St Peter in Chester. Back to context...
2.

These two names are touched with red in the manuscript.

A 'Walter the Priest of Holy Trinity' witnessed a grant of land at Claverton (Ches.) to the Benedictine Nunnery of St Mary c. 1170: abstract in Calendar of the Patent Rolls ... Henry IV, i. 301 (no. 6); for the date Irvine 1907, 95. A Waltero ecclesiae sanctae Trinitatis presbytero ('Walter, priest of the church of the Holy Trinity') witnessed CCALS DVE 1/R1/2 (printed Ormerod 1882, i. 429), a document which records a transaction which occurred shortly after the celebration in Chester of Hugh de Nonant's consecration as bishop of Coventry on 31 January 1188. Taylor 1912, 26 also refers to a document witnessed by 'Andrew, chaplain of St Peters' and 'Walter the chaplain' witness a grant, but, unless the dating of c. 1225 is wrong, this document cannot be relevant: Calendar of the Patent Rolls ... Henry IV, i. 299 (no. 16), Irvine 1907, 98-9.

'Andrew the chaplain of St Peters' witnessed a charter of St Mary's, Chester's Benedictine Nunnery, in c. 1200: Irvine 1904, 16 (no. II).

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