Ian L Bass
University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Institute of Education and Humanities, Honorary Research Fellow
My research focuses on the history and archaeology of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with a particular interest in crusading, the English episcopate, pilgrimage, and saints' cults.
I successfully defended my PhD thesis in 2020, written during a Vice-Chancellor Scholarship at the Manchester Metropolitan University.
I have previously been employed as Student Finance Officer at the University of Worcester, and Finds Liaison officer for Herefordshire and Shropshire, and for Lancashire and Cumbria, through the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, and have held academic posts at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Huddersfield University, and the University of Central Lancashire.
In February 2020 I was elected Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Royal Society of Arts, and an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.
Supervisors: Professor Janet Burton and Dr Kathryn Hurlock
Address: United Kingdom
I successfully defended my PhD thesis in 2020, written during a Vice-Chancellor Scholarship at the Manchester Metropolitan University.
I have previously been employed as Student Finance Officer at the University of Worcester, and Finds Liaison officer for Herefordshire and Shropshire, and for Lancashire and Cumbria, through the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, and have held academic posts at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Huddersfield University, and the University of Central Lancashire.
In February 2020 I was elected Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Royal Society of Arts, and an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.
Supervisors: Professor Janet Burton and Dr Kathryn Hurlock
Address: United Kingdom
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Publications List by Ian L Bass
Books by Ian L Bass
In this, the 700th anniversary of his being made a saint in 1320 we tell the story of his colourful life – a scholar, politician, priest and bishop – and chart his long struggle to sainthood.
As one of Hereford’s own saints, we see how Cantilupe has influenced cathedral and diocese over the centuries.
Lavishly illustrated with over 80 colour images.
Published Articles by Ian L Bass
Using the hitherto-overlooked articles of inquiry concerning the Holy Land and those signed with the cross in the episcopal and priory registers of Richard de Swinfield, bishop of Hereford (1283-1317), Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln (1280-99), and the dean and chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, this article examines the contribution these inquiries can make to our knowledge of how the Church and papacy accounted for crusaders, their votive obligations, and what they owed to the Holy Land subsidy. The articles of inquiry are dated to between 1283 to 1291, and the present article highlights that the three recensions of this text reflect differing stages in a cumulative process of inquiry that reached its apogee in the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Based on the substantially differing construction of the Canterbury lists to those in Hereford and Lincoln, the case for the Canterbury lists being part of a third round of inquiries between 1283 and 1291 is argued. The present article first traces the historiography of the lists, then provides an analysis of their manuscript context. An examination of the process of the inquiries, and finally the content of some of the questions follows. Appended to the article is the first comparative edition of the three recensions based on the manuscript registers.
On 3 April 1287, the remains of Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford 1275-1282, were translated to a new shrine in the north transept of Hereford Cathedral. Here, the dead bishop began to perform a multitude of miracles, and a thaumaturgic cult that would attract pilgrims from many parts of England, Wales and Ireland was in gestation. This article explores the impact that the cult of Thomas de Cantilupe had upon the Mortimer family and their lands. To do so, it analyses the relationships that the Mortimer and Cantilupe families held to one another in light of the Second Barons’ War, the Mortimer involvement in the miraculous cult, and the spreading of miracles through shared stories of healing and wonder. In using accounts from two relatively understudied manuscripts it closely examines the impact the cult had on the Welsh Marches showcasing the human stories which can still be read and understood 700 years after they occurred.
Book Reviews by Ian L Bass
PhD Thesis by Ian L Bass
In this, the 700th anniversary of his being made a saint in 1320 we tell the story of his colourful life – a scholar, politician, priest and bishop – and chart his long struggle to sainthood.
As one of Hereford’s own saints, we see how Cantilupe has influenced cathedral and diocese over the centuries.
Lavishly illustrated with over 80 colour images.
Using the hitherto-overlooked articles of inquiry concerning the Holy Land and those signed with the cross in the episcopal and priory registers of Richard de Swinfield, bishop of Hereford (1283-1317), Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln (1280-99), and the dean and chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, this article examines the contribution these inquiries can make to our knowledge of how the Church and papacy accounted for crusaders, their votive obligations, and what they owed to the Holy Land subsidy. The articles of inquiry are dated to between 1283 to 1291, and the present article highlights that the three recensions of this text reflect differing stages in a cumulative process of inquiry that reached its apogee in the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Based on the substantially differing construction of the Canterbury lists to those in Hereford and Lincoln, the case for the Canterbury lists being part of a third round of inquiries between 1283 and 1291 is argued. The present article first traces the historiography of the lists, then provides an analysis of their manuscript context. An examination of the process of the inquiries, and finally the content of some of the questions follows. Appended to the article is the first comparative edition of the three recensions based on the manuscript registers.
On 3 April 1287, the remains of Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford 1275-1282, were translated to a new shrine in the north transept of Hereford Cathedral. Here, the dead bishop began to perform a multitude of miracles, and a thaumaturgic cult that would attract pilgrims from many parts of England, Wales and Ireland was in gestation. This article explores the impact that the cult of Thomas de Cantilupe had upon the Mortimer family and their lands. To do so, it analyses the relationships that the Mortimer and Cantilupe families held to one another in light of the Second Barons’ War, the Mortimer involvement in the miraculous cult, and the spreading of miracles through shared stories of healing and wonder. In using accounts from two relatively understudied manuscripts it closely examines the impact the cult had on the Welsh Marches showcasing the human stories which can still be read and understood 700 years after they occurred.
The paper focusses on research conducted into the vitae of several medieval saints and how they all followed a constructed model that had been cemented by Becket's martyrdom.
Drawing on a wealth of documentation, this paper examines in depth a few miracles which happened amidst the backdrop of Rhys ap Maredudd’s rebellion in 1287 and the aftermath of the Edwardian conquest. The examples range from a rugged knight with an arrow embedded below his eye, to a Welsh malefactores who was hung and resuscitated. This paper also focuses on the oral transmission of these wonders. The bishop of Hereford was, by his landholdings and interests, ostensibly a Marcher Lord, and this adds the question of how his cult spread through oral transmission of these ‘wonder’ tales into native Wales.
The source itself is just one of many which has been recognised by scholars such as Ronald Finucane and Robert Bartlett as important for understanding the medieval concepts of miracle and wonder, as it offers us an insight into how the small city of Hereford became home to one of England’s most prolific miracle workers.
Items from Exeter College MS 158 are uploaded thanks to the kind permission of the rector and scholars of Exeter College, Oxford.
Attached is my transcription and translation of the first folio - 1r.
More information is available by request. I will slowly upload the miracle collection here once I have done more research. I am also willing to share the entire transcription.