Most of the music for compline was by English composers, all immaculately sung as plainsong by the senior trebles and adults of the cathedral choir. The centrepiece of the service was Herbert Howells’s motet, “Take him, earth, for cherishing”, based on a poem by the Roman Christian poet Prudentius, and composed for John F. Kennedy’s memorial service.
The RC Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, preached a sermon that emphasised the brutality of medieval wars and the tumultuous life and times of Richard III, a “child of war”, a “refugee in Europe”, whose reign was marked by unrest and who remained a controversial figure in the continual re-assessment of the Tudor period, “when saints can become bones and bones can become saints”.
Baptism did not give holiness of life but gave it enduring shape, he reflected, describing the king as “a man of prayer, of anxious devotions”. The Franciscans, Cardinal Nichols believed, would have buried Richard with prayer, even though that burial – which followed the ignominious parading of his naked and violently wounded body through the streets after the battle – had been hasty. He ended with the prayer that Richard “be embraced in God’s merciful love”.
I wonder how this sounds across the pond? I mean that as a genuine question, because of a sense of my own limitations. I am a Brit by birth, but for the crucial first two decades of my life lived abroad as we followed my father’s employment. Now at (nearly) 68 I still find myself misjudging English responses. The whole Richard III thing has baffled me. I could never have anticipated this level of public response. Yet reading this report from the Church Times I realised how wrong I had been. I also thought, respect to Leicester Cathedral, who estimated rightly the public interest and emotion. The cathedral has also shown an admirable and creative ministry at work through this event, drawing in the wider community of the city, enlisting the arts and crafts, and showing also great ecumenical sensitivity. A model of cathedral ministry, I would say.
For us across the pond, Richard III lives on forever in the pages of Shakespeare, however fair the portrayal. I suppose I expected it to stir the British sould but looked to more of a royal presence, and perhaps a bit more pageantry. On the other hand, I can understand how folk like the Queen might want to soft-pedal it. I am sorry to see the all men-and-boys choir tradition go by the boards because it is so thoroughly English and there is no sound like it. I am glad the ABC was on hand.
How interesting! I had not seen detailed reports of the ceremonies or of the numbers of people who attended the services or watched the procession through the streets. I suppose, from the British point of view, it is not often they can see the burial rites of a king. Richard’s reputation will necessarily have been shaped by the Tudors who defeated him and succeeded to the throne.
I see there is now an effort to find and exhume King Stephen, a grandson of the Conqueror.
He’s always seemed a bit of an infamous figure to me. There has always been a cloud over how he became king resulting a pretty big bash over the head at Bosworth Field and the ensuing Tudor dynasty. The personal depiction in Shakespeare isn’t totally accurate, but at least he gave us a nice play.