0:00:06 > 0:00:10The annual procession through the streets of St Abans in Hertfordshire
0:00:10 > 0:00:12has all the hallmarks of a modern-day carnival.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17But the townsfolk are marking something else -
0:00:17 > 0:00:19an act of sacrifice that happened here
0:00:19 > 0:00:22in the Roman town 1,800 years ago.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31They are remembering Alban - a Roman centurion,
0:00:31 > 0:00:33who came from a sophisticated world
0:00:33 > 0:00:35of mosaic floors and central heating.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38And into his own home he took a fugitive priest
0:00:38 > 0:00:41and gave him shelter and sanctuary there.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44And, in fact, was so moved by the man's story
0:00:44 > 0:00:47that he himself converted to Christianity.
0:00:51 > 0:00:57But this new religion was undercover and banned in the Roman Empire.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00When the authorities came to take the priest,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04Alban swapped his clothes with him and offered himself up instead,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07and for this act of bravery, he paid with his life,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10becoming Britain's first Christian martyr.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23When the Romans departed, their empire threatened,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26the new religion disappeared from view.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31It was only centuries later that Alban became a saint.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34And today's great cathedral remains powerful proof
0:01:34 > 0:01:36that he wasn't forgotten.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40He may have been Britain's first Christian martyr,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42but he certainly wasn't the last.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46Many more saints would be created during the complex battle
0:01:46 > 0:01:51for supremacy between a growing state and a growing church.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58In this series, I'm setting out in search
0:01:58 > 0:02:00of the Sacred Wonders Of Britain.
0:02:02 > 0:02:03From the end of the Ice Age
0:02:03 > 0:02:06through to the Reformation of the 16th century,
0:02:06 > 0:02:08I'll be discovering how Britain's
0:02:08 > 0:02:11rich and varied landscape inspired our ancestors
0:02:11 > 0:02:16to express their beliefs by reshaping the world around them.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23My journey so far has revealed the ancient and ever-changing
0:02:23 > 0:02:28sacred face of Britain, just below the surface of the modern world.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33In this film, I'll be seeing how Christianity adapted
0:02:33 > 0:02:36the beliefs of ancient times,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and just as the new religion had a man at its centre,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43so would a new generation of sacred wonders.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49I'll be discovering why the medieval church created its own heroes -
0:02:49 > 0:02:52the saints and martyrs -
0:02:52 > 0:02:54and how their shrines became centres of power,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58great enough to vie with the power of kings themselves...
0:02:59 > 0:03:01..and inspiring the construction
0:03:01 > 0:03:03of some of our very greatest buildings.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12This was an era that lasted for a thousand years,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15until one king brought much of it crashing down.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32After the Romans left Britain in 410 AD,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35a blanket of darkness fell on these islands.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39There's an information blackout.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43For two centuries, a jumbled tribal world of pagan gods and druids
0:03:43 > 0:03:45disappears entirely from view.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55But in the 6th century, the light began to shine again.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Something happened in a most unexpected place.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03My first sacred wonder is a tiny island
0:04:03 > 0:04:06off the west coast of Scotland -
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Iona.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10I'm pulled there because
0:04:10 > 0:04:15something remarkable emerged here that has drawn people ever since.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31I've made the crossing from Mull to Iona several times,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33but there's a feeling I get,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35both on the crossing and on the island,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37that I don't get anywhere else in Britain.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48It's got a known history going back one and a half millennia,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and for the longest time, it seems that it's been special.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58When you land on Iona,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01you immediately sense its ancient history.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04The great restored medieval abbey dominates an island
0:05:04 > 0:05:06only three miles long.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10Outside are the mysterious stone crosses
0:05:10 > 0:05:13that have been standing here for 1,200 years or more,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17beckoning generations of pilgrims from far and wide.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Inside, among the finely carved corbelling,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28are the weather-worn remnants of a very stately past.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35It was to this place that some 48 early Scottish kings
0:05:35 > 0:05:40are traditionally said to have been brought for consecrated burial,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44including Shakespeare's blood-soaked 11th-century king Macbeth
0:05:44 > 0:05:46and his victim, Duncan.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51They were taken over an ancient track -
0:05:51 > 0:05:53the Road of the Dead -
0:05:53 > 0:05:56to their final resting places in St Oran's graveyard.
0:05:59 > 0:06:00But why here?
0:06:00 > 0:06:05Why did kings choose to be buried in such a remote location?
0:06:08 > 0:06:12To find an answer, I'm going further back in time to the Dark Ages
0:06:12 > 0:06:15and a lonely beach on the wild southwest of the island
0:06:15 > 0:06:19for one of the most celebrated arrivals in British history.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25This is the bay that is known as The Bay Of The Coracles,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29and it's where, in 563, Columba landed
0:06:29 > 0:06:31with a party of his fellow monks
0:06:31 > 0:06:35after a long sea voyage in an open boat -
0:06:35 > 0:06:39a coracle made from wicker and stretched ox hide -
0:06:39 > 0:06:42and they had travelled all the way from Northern Ireland.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48The legend everybody loves is that St Columba was
0:06:48 > 0:06:52a pious Christian monk, whose mission was to build a monastery
0:06:52 > 0:06:56and start the job of converting the violent heathens of Scotland.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03But that's not the whole story, it seems most likely that Columba
0:07:03 > 0:07:06was an Irish prince of the Kingdom Of Dalriada,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10which in the 6th century took in a vast swathe of territory - Antrim
0:07:10 > 0:07:15in Northern Ireland, the Western Isles and parts of West Scotland.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Without Columba, you don't get Iona's story.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31What was really started here was an interdependence between ruler
0:07:31 > 0:07:35and church, which would last for a thousand years.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39And it all begins within the clan - the 6th-century tribal family.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46Next to Iona Abbey is the site of the monastery that Columba built.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48I'm meeting Dr Ian Bradley
0:07:48 > 0:07:52to find out about the royal connections that got him started.
0:07:52 > 0:07:53What I believe is actually
0:07:53 > 0:07:58that he was invited over here by the King of Dalriada.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00Columba was very high born. If he hadn't been a monk,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03he might well have ended up as the high king of Ireland.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08What's in it for the king to import a fire-breathing Christian?
0:08:08 > 0:08:11A huge amount - he gets legitimation for his rule,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14he gets the full backing of the church.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17The church gets land, it gets endowments...
0:08:17 > 0:08:19It's a wonderful mutual relationship.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22And we're gradually seeing in this period a transition
0:08:22 > 0:08:25from this violent anarchic society to a much more ordered,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28settled rule of law.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33What would Columba's religious settlement have looked like?
0:08:33 > 0:08:36It would have been very different from anything we see here now.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Now, we the great stone Benedictine Abbey,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41restored, of course, in the 20th century,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43so the first thing we've got to do
0:08:43 > 0:08:46is erase all this wonderful site in front of us.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52There was nothing permanent about Columba's early settlement here -
0:08:52 > 0:08:56a church and communal meeting house, surrounded by perhaps
0:08:56 > 0:08:59a dozen or so cells for the monks to sleep in.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02All this would be enclosed by the monastery's boundary -
0:09:02 > 0:09:03the vallum.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09We're standing, as it were, at the edge of the compound here.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12And we can see the vallum, or the ditch.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Now, that was delineating the sacred space.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19In the vallum, you can see the continuity
0:09:19 > 0:09:22with the sacred spaces of older times.
0:09:22 > 0:09:23Just like the stone circles
0:09:23 > 0:09:26and earth embankments of prehistory I've seen,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30the vallum here would contain elements of the new other world
0:09:30 > 0:09:33and isolate them from the outside.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36The sacred enclosure may even have been laid out
0:09:36 > 0:09:38before the monastery itself was built.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44This was a sacred place where the law of God prevailed rather than
0:09:44 > 0:09:48the law of man. So for example, you were completely safe here,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51and many people would come here for sanctuary.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53There would have been the little wooden church,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56where the monks would have gone five times during the day
0:09:56 > 0:09:58and three times during the night to chant the psalms.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02If you look at the Rule of Columba, it says the measure of your prayer
0:10:02 > 0:10:05should be till the tears come,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08the measure of your daily labour should be until you're sweating.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12So it's very tough, it's a very tough kind of Christianity,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14very difficult for us to get into today.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17But in the context of people living very short lives,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19living pretty violent lives,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22someone who is saying there is a better world,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24there is Heaven and, in a sense,
0:10:24 > 0:10:26this is the way you can achieve that world,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29through living according to these rules,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32is, I suppose, in a way, very attractive.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Virtually everything that Columba
0:10:37 > 0:10:39and the first monks built here has vanished.
0:10:42 > 0:10:43But as an archaeologist,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47I've learned to look beneath the surface for clues.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52One of the many fascinating details about Iona
0:10:52 > 0:10:56is the survival in the landscape of Gaelic place names,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58particularly in the case of sites and locations associated
0:10:58 > 0:11:00with the monks -
0:11:00 > 0:11:02The Hermit's Cell, The Bay of the Coracles
0:11:02 > 0:11:04and according to the map,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07somewhere just down here
0:11:07 > 0:11:10that I've always wanted to see called the Bay of the Ruins.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20This is an intriguing little spot.
0:11:20 > 0:11:26There's various bumps on this quite flat terrace
0:11:26 > 0:11:27that overlooks the sea.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31What we're looking at now, there's no reason why it couldn't be
0:11:31 > 0:11:35from the time of the early monks' habitation of this island.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39And it's by coming to a site like this
0:11:39 > 0:11:44that you're able to burrow down, away from that Benedictine Abbey
0:11:44 > 0:11:47and get to the reality of life
0:11:47 > 0:11:52for those religious fanatics of the 500s and the 600s,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55men who were looking for the hardest places they could find
0:11:55 > 0:11:59to enhance their understanding of creation.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03The monks were hard-working men.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05They would have to be just to survive.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07They would farm, they'd be fishing,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10they'd keep animals, maybe some sheep.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14And on these outlying islands, there would be seals,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17so the monks could go out and harvest that for meat as well,
0:12:17 > 0:12:19and for the skins and the oil.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24We think of monks with those bald spots
0:12:24 > 0:12:27on the tops of their heads, shaved in,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29but the monks here had a different style -
0:12:29 > 0:12:31they shaved their heads from the top to the front
0:12:31 > 0:12:34and then grew their hair long at the back.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37They'd have been very striking. And they wore robes of un-died wool.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39They'd have maybe hoods as well
0:12:39 > 0:12:42so they could get some sort of protection from the elements.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44But then you've got Columba,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47who's taking austerity to another level almost.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51His reputation is for sleeping on stone slabs
0:12:51 > 0:12:52with a rock for a pillow.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55He is Mr Austerity.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57They don't come any harder than him.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04The incredible thing about the ethos of Columba
0:13:04 > 0:13:08was that it was formulated not by monks in Ireland,
0:13:08 > 0:13:09but much farther afield.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16Irish monasticism really derives from the desert monasticism
0:13:16 > 0:13:20of Egypt and Sinai and Palestine in the third and fourth centuries,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24which is a reaction against the perceived corruption of the Church.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31The desert fathers move progressively into the desert
0:13:31 > 0:13:33with this very acetic, austere lifestyle.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38And this is what the Irish monks are really emulating.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43It's a truly exotic plant that is moved from the heat
0:13:43 > 0:13:47of eastern Africa and planted here of all places.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50In the Far West. Yes, it is. I mean, there are, of course,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53these extraordinary connections between the Far East of Christianity
0:13:53 > 0:13:56and the Far West. We know that Egyptian monks land up in Ireland
0:13:56 > 0:14:01in the 5th century, so I think one text resonates from the Bible
0:14:01 > 0:14:02with these Irish monks,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04which is God's words to Abraham in Genesis -
0:14:04 > 0:14:08"Go out from your family and your kindred and your land
0:14:08 > 0:14:10"to a far land which I will show you."
0:14:13 > 0:14:17In the centuries to come, Iona's monks would go far and wide -
0:14:17 > 0:14:20converting all Scotland.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23And Columba would be made into a saint.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25His grave became a shrine,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29a magnet for Scottish kings as a route to Heaven.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35We will never know whether all 48 kings were buried here.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41But kings like Macbeth, as Shakespeare tells us in his play,
0:14:41 > 0:14:45knew this island in their own language as Colm Cille,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48St Columba's Island, when they were drawn here.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53And it's a place that continues to draw us all.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57If you were a wandering monk
0:14:57 > 0:15:02in search of some spot from which to contemplate
0:15:02 > 0:15:05the perfection of creation,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07well, here you are.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Some of those early Christians had to take the message
0:15:10 > 0:15:13to the ends of the earth,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17but if you stumbled across a place like this on your journey,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20you might well be stopped in your tracks...and forever.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24On Iona, on an evening like this,
0:15:24 > 0:15:25you could persuade yourself
0:15:25 > 0:15:28that you had found everything you'd ever want,
0:15:28 > 0:15:29everything you'd ever need.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38But the saints would soon occupy a place not on the fringes...
0:15:39 > 0:15:43..but at the very centre of medieval Christian life.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47This is Durham Cathedral,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50the mighty house of God built by the Normans.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55And right here, under this canopy,
0:15:55 > 0:16:00are the bones of its founder, a man who went to the ends of the Earth
0:16:00 > 0:16:03in death as much as in life.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07So important was this man, St Cuthbert,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11to medieval English Christians, that his banner was flown
0:16:11 > 0:16:13at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314
0:16:13 > 0:16:16in hope of success against the Scots.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23And this year, one of the world's most hallowed books
0:16:23 > 0:16:26made its way north from the vaults of the British library
0:16:26 > 0:16:30to be back in its spiritual home, next to the saint who inspired it.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35But the epic story of how Cuthbert
0:16:35 > 0:16:38and this book came to be linked to this place
0:16:38 > 0:16:41all begins on Holy Island, or Lindisfarne,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43off the coast of Northumberland.
0:16:48 > 0:16:49In its own right,
0:16:49 > 0:16:53it is regarded as one of the iconic landscapes of Britain,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55well known for its distinctive castle
0:16:55 > 0:16:59and treacherous tides that can cut off the unwary traveller.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05I'm taking the old pilgrim route,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08a safe path across the sands at low tide.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15The first monk, Aidan, actually came here in 634 AD
0:17:15 > 0:17:18to convert the Saxons at the invitation of their king.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Now, we don't know for certain
0:17:21 > 0:17:24whether Aidan came here first of all by boat or by land,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26but it seems pretty certain
0:17:26 > 0:17:28that he was looking for a new Iona,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30because that's where he was from.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33And when he caught sight of Lindisfarne from here,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35he probably thought he was onto something.
0:17:37 > 0:17:38And he was.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43You can't dispute the windswept beauty of the place.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45And the ruins of the Norman Priory
0:17:45 > 0:17:48still have a romantic, mysterious quality.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53But I'm here to find out how, back in the 8th century,
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Lindisfarne produced one of the medieval world's greatest books
0:17:57 > 0:18:00and a saint the North would call its own.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05Somewhere in the vicinity of these ruins,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08probably quite close to the parish church,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11would have been a timber-framed building with a thatched roof -
0:18:11 > 0:18:12a scriptorium -
0:18:12 > 0:18:16and I like to think that it was in there that one of the great marvels
0:18:16 > 0:18:20of medieval literature was created 1,300 years ago.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It's the Lindisfarne Gospels.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Books were rare, magical new inventions,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35and only the monks had them.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38They could tell stories not just in words,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40but in vivid, exquisite imagery -
0:18:40 > 0:18:43a combination that held immense missionary power.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49The Lindisfarne Gospels are the earliest surviving
0:18:49 > 0:18:53British collection of the first four books of the New Testament -
0:18:53 > 0:18:55the story of the life of Jesus.
0:18:57 > 0:18:58Even in modern times,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01there's a copy kept in the parish church.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04What do you think books, by definition,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08would have meant to a population who largely couldn't read?
0:19:08 > 0:19:12I think they were seen as a treasure house.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14And that, in a sense, is the reason
0:19:14 > 0:19:16you've got all this wonderful decoration.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18Here was the Gospel,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21the great story of Jesus,
0:19:21 > 0:19:23and even if you couldn't read it,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26obviously there are some pictures in it.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28The saints who wrote it are depicted.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31All through the book, there are animals everywhere you look.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Yes. This is all to do with the tradition
0:19:35 > 0:19:37of celebrating creation.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40So here we've got St John and his eagle,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43And then on these pages here,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46all the borders around the sort of central cross
0:19:46 > 0:19:49are decorated with these wonderful, fantastical
0:19:49 > 0:19:53- birds and things. - It's all birds - feathered wings,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56birds' heads and beaks snapping each other's tails,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59- feathers...- That's right. - Would they have communicated
0:19:59 > 0:20:02something to people beyond the words?
0:20:02 > 0:20:08I think probably an expression both of completion and eternity,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12but always there's a mistake on every page
0:20:12 > 0:20:15because they all realised that this isn't Heaven,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19- and therefore there had to be a mistake.- Perfection is for God.- Yes.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25But this extraordinary book was also written in memory of a man
0:20:25 > 0:20:27who is indelibly linked to this island -
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Cuthbert, the sixth Bishop of Lindisfarne.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35His perfect life and journey inspired this epic work.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41How long would it take? Given that this is all done by hand.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43How many hours and days?
0:20:43 > 0:20:45It's going to be years
0:20:45 > 0:20:47because we can see from the script
0:20:47 > 0:20:49that it is the work of one person.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52And it's very much a spiritual discipline.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56It's someone engaging in prayer.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00And it's something that Cuthbert himself would have understood,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03that you go away to pray, to be with God
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and to be fighting for good
0:21:05 > 0:21:07and for fighting against evil.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18That's it, the B has a little curve backwards.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21- It's not a straight spine.- Mm-hm.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Under the eye of Dominic James, a modern-day scribe,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29I'm briefly trying my hand at this kind of devotional meditation.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32I think possibly, as you are busy writing,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36you'll find that you get some sort of
0:21:36 > 0:21:38feeling of being with the letters.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42It's a very therapeutic activity.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45What would you do if you're working like this
0:21:45 > 0:21:48and you're a long way into some illuminated piece,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50and you make a mistake?
0:21:50 > 0:21:54- Mistakes traditionally happen in the last line.- Yeah.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00If you made a mistake, you'd practise a few new words, verbally.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02NEIL LAUGHS
0:22:02 > 0:22:04The best thing is to leave it,
0:22:04 > 0:22:10give it 24 hours maybe, and then scrape it with a knife.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15One monk wrote, "If you do not know how to write,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18"you will consider it no hardship,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20"but if you want a detailed account of it,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24"let me tell you that the work is heavy,
0:22:24 > 0:22:25"it make the eyes misty,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29"bows the back, crushes the ribs and belly,
0:22:29 > 0:22:34"brings pain to the kidneys and makes the body ache all over."
0:22:34 > 0:22:36- That's a hangover. - How are you feeling, Neil?
0:22:36 > 0:22:39THEY LAUGH
0:22:39 > 0:22:41I've had that, but it wasn't from writing!
0:22:46 > 0:22:49Cuthbert had risen quickly to become Bishop
0:22:49 > 0:22:53and head of the monastery that Aidan had founded here on Lindisfarne.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57As a young monk, he had been noticed for his intuition
0:22:57 > 0:22:59and his ability to heal
0:22:59 > 0:23:03which made him hugely popular with the Saxons he was converting.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11But at this time, there were other missionaries coming into England
0:23:11 > 0:23:13and they were bringing hierarchy
0:23:13 > 0:23:15and central control from the Pope in Rome.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Cuthbert and his monks had to bow to the new rules.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24The Celtic Church in England was slowly dying.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Many of the monks of the Celtic faith retreated to Iona,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35but Cuthbert remained on Lindisfarne with some of his followers.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Increasingly though, even monastic life felt too crowded for him.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43And so he withdrew, first of all to this little islet
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and eventually to Inner Farne way out there.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59It is out here that the intertwined birds and mammals
0:23:59 > 0:24:03in the pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels come to life.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Raw creation is all around you in a great noisy chorus.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11How could you ignore it ?
0:24:13 > 0:24:16This is where Cuthbert spent much of the rest of his life -
0:24:16 > 0:24:21in solitary prayer, the foundation for his future sainthood.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Cuthbert came here to do battle with demons.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Hermits and anchorites occupied a special and heroic place
0:24:30 > 0:24:32in medieval Christian life.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Such men and women had given up everything
0:24:35 > 0:24:39so that they could pray continuously for the good of all mankind.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42To them, islands like this were battlegrounds
0:24:42 > 0:24:46populated by devils and malign spirits.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47They weren't drawn here
0:24:47 > 0:24:51by our modern notions of serenity and romance.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58When he died, the monks took their bishop's body
0:24:58 > 0:25:00back across the sea to Lindisfarne for burial.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04But this is the point at which
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Cuthbert's afterlife as a saint really begins.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13It was the custom for holy men like Cuthbert to be buried
0:25:13 > 0:25:16for only long enough for the flesh of their bodies
0:25:16 > 0:25:17to dissolve into the soil,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20and then the bones would be dug up and washed
0:25:20 > 0:25:25and wrapped in linen for pilgrims to touch and to revere.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29But when, 11 years after his death, Cuthbert was exhumed,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32his body was found to be completely intact,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35still fleshed, the joints still flexible.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40Now, this was interpreted as a sure sign of his perfect holiness,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44and Lindisfarne was quickly established as a shrine.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48A new saint was being born,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52but the local pilgrims wouldn't have long to enjoy him.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Things were beginning to change for Lindisfarne.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04The foothold of Christianity in the north of Britain was always tenuous
0:26:04 > 0:26:06in the Middle Ages.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08In the turbulent years of the 9th century,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11there were fresh invasions of Britain,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15and these incomers weren't Saxons, they came from that direction.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17They were Vikings from the north,
0:26:17 > 0:26:19and they brought their own gods.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27In the face of sustained attacks,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30the monks had no option but to leave.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35They gathered their most precious possessions -
0:26:35 > 0:26:37including the Lindisfarne Gospels,
0:26:37 > 0:26:38and fled the island.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43But they also took their revered leader.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Cuthbert's coffin, containing the still uncorrupted body of the saint,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51was loaded onto a cart.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55And then they hit the road, for an incredible seven years.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07We don't know exactly know where the monks went on their wanderings from Lindisfarne.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13The venerable Bede, writing in the 8th century,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17has them crossing the Pennines all the way to Workington in Cumbria
0:27:17 > 0:27:19and then on to the Solway Firth.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23but the journey has been remembered in the local place names.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Not far from Holy Island,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29there is a rocky outcrop called St Cuthbert's Cave,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32where the monks are said to have sought refuge
0:27:32 > 0:27:33with their precious cargo.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41Look at these...
0:27:41 > 0:27:43lots of little...
0:27:44 > 0:27:46..hand-made crosses.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51So people are still coming in here with something on their minds.
0:27:51 > 0:27:57It's tempting to see this cave as a refuge, a temporary resting place,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00for heavily laden wandering monks,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03but truth is, we'll never know.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05But the folk history of early Church
0:28:05 > 0:28:09is written into the landscape here, it's in the place names.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12There's a another St Cuthbert's cave in the Cheviots.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Down towards Rothbury, there's a lake.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17There's always a hill or a well or a glade or a loch
0:28:17 > 0:28:23that's dedicated to the memory of some monk or saint.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26And the places have been sacred for a long time.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29They may well have been sacred in their own right
0:28:29 > 0:28:31even before the monks and saints arrived.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38If you consider the various beliefs practised in Britain
0:28:38 > 0:28:40over 6,000 years or more,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43you can see that the Christian imprint has been the biggest.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47It had the power to transform the landscape.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55When the monks reached a place where the cart bearing Cuthbert's coffin
0:28:55 > 0:28:59refused to move any further, they built a church.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03And in time it became the mighty cathedral of Durham.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08And St Cuthbert's relics were right at its spiritual heart.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14And it was in this way
0:29:14 > 0:29:17that sacred places were established throughout Europe,
0:29:17 > 0:29:22through the deeds of, and the memory of, holy men like Cuthbert,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25who joined the ranks of the Virgin Mary
0:29:25 > 0:29:28and the apostles as objects of reverence,
0:29:28 > 0:29:33and just as Christ had healed, so too would the relics of the saints.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44In the south-east of England is a revered city that has been
0:29:44 > 0:29:48the centre of English Christianity for 1,400 years.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50Canterbury
0:29:59 > 0:30:01In medieval times,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Canterbury was already the centre of English Catholicism.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08But millions of pilgrims would be drawn here,
0:30:08 > 0:30:13to a man whose story of martyrdom spread all over the Christian world.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17I'm here to see how this saint was used as a weapon,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21and how a new sacred wonder grew up around him.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Canterbury's reputation had grown steadily through the Middle Ages
0:30:31 > 0:30:34since its first church, St Martin's,
0:30:34 > 0:30:38the oldest in England, had been converted from a Roman temple
0:30:38 > 0:30:40and used by the missionary St Augustine
0:30:40 > 0:30:43when he came here as early as 597 AD.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47But six centuries later,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51that cathedral over there witnessed the climax of a titanic struggle
0:30:51 > 0:30:54for power and supremacy between two men -
0:30:54 > 0:30:57one, the Pope's representative in England,
0:30:57 > 0:30:59Archbishop Thomas Becket,
0:30:59 > 0:31:01the other, King Henry II.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Its outcome was to catapult Canterbury cathedral
0:31:09 > 0:31:12into a stratospheric level of fame.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34It was here on 29th December 1170
0:31:34 > 0:31:36that Thomas Becket was killed,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39murdered by four of Henry II's knights.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41They chased him, then cut him down
0:31:41 > 0:31:44with a fusillade of blows from their swords.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49An eyewitness said, "The ravening wolves threw themselves upon the pious pastor.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53"Most pitiless executioners of the Lord's anointed."
0:31:53 > 0:31:57They cut off the consecrated crown of his head with their swords
0:31:57 > 0:32:01and as he lay on the ground, they smashed his brains across the floor.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04It was one of the most famous murders in all of history.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17This act was the culmination of years of tension
0:32:17 > 0:32:20between the King and Beckett, his former friend,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24as to who would have ultimate control in the affairs of the Church.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28But what I'm interested in
0:32:28 > 0:32:33is how quickly, and why, the Church made Becket into a saint.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Within hours of his death, the monks here had scraped up his blood
0:32:38 > 0:32:40and he'd been declared a martyr.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48I'm with Anne Duggan, an expert on Becket.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53It's such a grizzly story to our modern ears.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58The idea of collecting the blood, it's so morbid.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00At the time I think it was seen
0:33:00 > 0:33:03as an echo of collecting the blood of Christ.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07You have to, I think, understand that in Christianity the blood of Christ
0:33:07 > 0:33:11was regarded as one of the most powerful redeeming features
0:33:11 > 0:33:12of his sacrifice.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16Becket's blood was looked at in similar ways.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19It too could act as a curative
0:33:19 > 0:33:25and tiny droplets of the blood were put into a bowl of water
0:33:25 > 0:33:30and that sort of tincture of water and blood was what was offered
0:33:30 > 0:33:35- to the sick people. - That's St Thomas' water. - And that is St Thomas' water.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38By being murdered in the way that he was,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42I suppose Becket himself became the ultimate weapon
0:33:42 > 0:33:44that the Church could use against the state and the king.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47The church certainly propagated the image of Becket
0:33:47 > 0:33:52as a hero defending right, a hero defending the liberty of the Church,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56the liberty of the Church against an aggressive king.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03So Canterbury quite suddenly became
0:34:03 > 0:34:06the epicentre for vast numbers of pilgrims,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08drawn by the extraordinary happenings
0:34:08 > 0:34:10in the vicinity of Becket's tomb.
0:34:14 > 0:34:15Look at these.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18These are the stained-glass windows, the miracle windows
0:34:18 > 0:34:20of the Trinity Chapel,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24and each of them depicts one of the many, many miracles
0:34:24 > 0:34:26that were reported
0:34:26 > 0:34:28at the shrine of Thomas Becket.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31One of my favourites is just over here.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37The bottom four panels here depict the miracle of the forester.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41You can see that he's encountered a band of poachers
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and he's been shot right through the throat with an arrow.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Up here, he's drinking St Thomas's water,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52water blessed by proximity to the saint and to the shrine.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55He makes a full recovery and here he is in the bottom panel,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00praying and giving thanks at the shrine of Thomas Becket.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04And the green box on top of the shrine is a money box.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06All donations gratefully received!
0:35:10 > 0:35:13Pilgrims came from all over the country and they headed
0:35:13 > 0:35:17straight down into the crypt to see the tomb of the saint himself.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21In the league table of saints. as it were,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23where did Becket rank?
0:35:23 > 0:35:26In England he was number one by a long shot.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29He outranked every single saint in England,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32I think partly because he was a real man
0:35:32 > 0:35:34and there were enough people who knew him
0:35:34 > 0:35:38to propagate the image of their kind of Becket.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43For example, in 1420, we know that at least a 100,000 people
0:35:43 > 0:35:48came through Canterbury, praying and saying thanks.
0:35:48 > 0:35:53What kind of people would go on that trail at the time?
0:35:53 > 0:35:55Virtually everybody,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59it was one of the most inclusive social events that ever happened
0:35:59 > 0:36:03which is precisely why, when Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06he chose a pilgrimage to Canterbury
0:36:06 > 0:36:08as an image of English society.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Virtually everybody was on it,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14from millers, to a prioress, to a married lady
0:36:14 > 0:36:17and the kings of England who went regularly.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20So although Becket was in heaven,
0:36:20 > 0:36:25his mortal remains were still imbued with a very physical power.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28That was what was believed most certainly.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31You touch the tomb, you almost touch Becket,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33touching Becket, you touch the man in heaven.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36That man in heaven prayed directly to God.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40So he was a source of a direct conduit
0:36:40 > 0:36:42and that's true, I think, of all relics.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47and even the fake relics, for the believer, had the same consequence.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51Because underlying it is not the physicality, it's the belief
0:36:51 > 0:36:54in a supernatural reality.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58And these places are gateways to heaven.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Canterbury had created a mega saint
0:37:04 > 0:37:07and it took full advantage of its creation.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12A pilgrim visiting here would be offered just about every kind of amulet or charm,
0:37:12 > 0:37:18bits of bone with miraculous powers, locks of hair, vials of holy water.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26And along with all this, the pilgrims had to be fed and sheltered.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37This is the Eastbridge Hospital,
0:37:37 > 0:37:39one of the original pilgrims' hostels,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42and this place was for the poor,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44not those who could afford better lodgings.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Probably been sleeping rough during their journey to get to Canterbury.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50They'd hand over fourpence
0:37:50 > 0:37:54and be allocated space in one of these cubicles in here,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56maybe two, three to a berth.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00And after all their journeying,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04they could finally lie down on a thick bed of rushes maybe
0:38:04 > 0:38:06and contemplate all that had happened.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13This really is one of relatively few places left
0:38:13 > 0:38:18where you can get any sense of the surroundings
0:38:18 > 0:38:24that were experienced by those 12th and 13th century pilgrims.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27And this space that I'm in now
0:38:27 > 0:38:30is fundamentally the space that they were in then.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38For 350 years, Canterbury made its living from Chaucer's pilgrims.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44The soaring Gothic stonework of the 14th-century Cathedral nave
0:38:44 > 0:38:49was created with the money from their visits to Beckets shrine.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54This was vast economic activity devoted solely to the glory of God
0:38:54 > 0:38:57and the gateway to Heaven grew ever higher.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I do love the idea that we've done this since the first great stones were raised
0:39:06 > 0:39:08at Avebury 5,000 years ago,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12and that the same impulse can be seen today.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20Becket's tomb and shrine had been moved in 1220
0:39:20 > 0:39:23from the crypt to pride of place in the Trinity chapel.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26And his cult grew ever greater.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Surely no commoner ever enjoyed such reverence.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Then along came a king who was prepared to tackle
0:39:37 > 0:39:41the power of the Church head on, regardless of its armoury
0:39:41 > 0:39:44of excommunication and hell and damnation.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48He declared himself the supreme leader of the Church.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51And with his lineage at stake, it was a risk worth taking,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54and there was also the prospect of untold wealth.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03When Henry VIII declared himself supreme head of the Church
0:40:03 > 0:40:08his first act was the destruction of the saints' shrines and their contents,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11in order that these powerful weapons of the Church
0:40:11 > 0:40:14might not become a focal point for rebellion and resistance.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19Becket's tomb was smashed to pieces.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Every fragment was destroyed.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Henry VIII's new reformed Church
0:40:27 > 0:40:30would still have Canterbury as its premier see,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33and nowadays the cathedral is of course
0:40:33 > 0:40:35the worldwide centre of the Anglican faith.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47But you can't erase the foundation of any sacred place that easily.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52There's something that not many people know about.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55In a small parish church just yards from the cathedral
0:40:55 > 0:40:59there's a remnant of what it was that put this place on the map.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08'In a side chapel at the Catholic Church of St Thomas the Martyr
0:41:08 > 0:41:11'is an altar in which there are two tiny caskets.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15'Reliquaries.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23'One contains a fragment of Thomas Becket's finger bone.'
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Imagine that. From the very man.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29'The other a piece of his burial shroud.'
0:41:29 > 0:41:32That's a piece of the cloth he was wearing
0:41:32 > 0:41:34when he was martyred and buried.
0:41:37 > 0:41:38Amazing.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41'The story goes that back in 1220,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45'when Becket's tomb was being moved from the cathedral crypt,
0:41:45 > 0:41:49'two visiting Italian cardinals managed to secure these fragments
0:41:49 > 0:41:52'and take them to monasteries in Europe.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54'Seven and a half centuries later
0:41:54 > 0:41:58'they still exercise their spiritual power.'
0:41:58 > 0:42:03What do you think personally when you see these objects, these relics?
0:42:03 > 0:42:05I see a man of great faith,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09a man who was prepared to stand for what he believed in.
0:42:09 > 0:42:15- It gives you a perspective on your own faith as well.- Mm-hm.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20Relics have always been a part of the sacred life of the Church.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30Henry VIII's Reformation wrecked the sacred history of medieval Britain.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Churches had their shrines obliterated
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and their stained-glass windows broken.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42Abbeys and monasteries were sacked and stripped of their wealth.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48One place was singled out for the most savage treatment of all.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55In the west of England there's an ancient town that has
0:42:55 > 0:42:57lured many of us for generations.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04I'm ending my tour of Britain's sacred wonders here in Glastonbury,
0:43:04 > 0:43:09because it is the symbolic power of the Tor, the hill at its heart,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12and the tower that sits on it, that brings together
0:43:12 > 0:43:15the deep strands of belief we've practised through the millennia.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26Today this small Somerset town has a welcoming reputation
0:43:26 > 0:43:28as a centre for people practising all kinds of
0:43:28 > 0:43:32contemporary spirituality, and not just in a Christian sense.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37But during the Reformation
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Glastonbury was a place of terror and despair.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46On the 15th November 1539,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50Richard Whiting, the pious octogenarian abbot of Glastonbury,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53was hauled through the streets of that town and then
0:43:53 > 0:43:58dragged up onto that hill behind me, Glastonbury Tor, for execution.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04On the tower of the Church of St Michael he was hanged
0:44:04 > 0:44:08with two of his monks in a grisly parody of the Crucifixion.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17I can't help thinking that the horror of it all was partly inspired
0:44:17 > 0:44:23by fear and suspicion - fear about the great depth of history here.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29Glastonbury had the oldest and most powerful claims of all -
0:44:29 > 0:44:33that it was the birthplace of Christianity in England,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37and that its greatest saint was a man who many had come to believe
0:44:37 > 0:44:39was the great-uncle of Jesus,
0:44:39 > 0:44:41who had brought with him
0:44:41 > 0:44:44the Holy Grail, the cup of everlasting life.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57The story begins in 1184, when the original Benedictine abbey here
0:44:57 > 0:44:59burnt down in a disastrous fire,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02destroying the monks' most precious relics.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06When they set about building a new one,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10help came in the form of a stupendous discovery.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16While some of the monks were digging the foundations for a new abbey
0:45:16 > 0:45:18they came across a tomb.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20In fact what they found was a stone, a carved block.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22Underneath was a leaden cross,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26but inscribed on the surface quite clearly was,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30"Hic iacet inclitus Arturius in Insula Avalonia."
0:45:30 > 0:45:33"Here lies Arthur in the Isle of Avalon."
0:45:33 > 0:45:36A few feet below that, an ancient oak coffin
0:45:36 > 0:45:40with two skeletons inside, one a man, one a woman.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43That would be the sixth-century English king Arthur
0:45:43 > 0:45:46and his queen, Guinevere.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52This was a great PR coup for the monks and their monastery.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57For people in the medieval period, Arthur was always real -
0:45:57 > 0:46:03the original wise king, furious in battle, just in word and deed.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07Pilgrims started to flock to Glastonbury. The place was on the map.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10What I love about the story is that around the same time
0:46:10 > 0:46:12the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury
0:46:12 > 0:46:17on the other side of the country was also becoming popular with pilgrims.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19But there was no stopping the rise of Glastonbury
0:46:19 > 0:46:25and a few decades later, in 1278, Edward I came here with his queen
0:46:25 > 0:46:29to witness the reinterment of Arthur's bones, right here.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39But that's not all. The whole basis of the King Arthur story
0:46:39 > 0:46:42is built on an even older legend, and it's this.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49Just two decades after Christ's crucifixion,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53St Joseph of Arimathea came to Glastonbury from Palestine.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Joseph of Arimathea is a big figure in biblical history.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04He was reputedly the great-uncle of Jesus Christ, and the man
0:47:04 > 0:47:07who donated the tomb in which Christ's body was laid
0:47:07 > 0:47:09after the Crucifixion.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14Joseph was also the keeper of one of the greatest icons
0:47:14 > 0:47:16in Christian mythology.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22With him, he's supposed to have brought the Holy Grail - the cup
0:47:22 > 0:47:26that was used at the Last Supper and also the vessel used to collect
0:47:26 > 0:47:29the sweat and blood of Jesus.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31He's then said to have buried it for safekeeping
0:47:31 > 0:47:33somewhere at the base of the Tor.
0:47:33 > 0:47:34So out there somewhere.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39The upshot of all this is that Glastonbury has been able to claim
0:47:39 > 0:47:43it's here that Christianity first arrived in England.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50All of this would seem to be ludicrously far-fetched,
0:47:50 > 0:47:53except when you look at Glastonbury in a different way.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58All that land down there used to be water.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Glastonbury was once an island in an inland sea.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13I'm meeting historian Ronald Hutton,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16to see if there's any truth at all in the legends.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Are the stories told here
0:48:20 > 0:48:23the invention of monks seeking validity?
0:48:23 > 0:48:27They could be, or they could be true, - you take your choice.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30In what sense could they possibly be true?
0:48:30 > 0:48:342,000 years ago, this bunch of hills are almost an island.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38Every winter the marshes around flood completely
0:48:38 > 0:48:41and over there is the sea, the Bristol Channel.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44We know there's a powerful coasting trade up and down western Europe
0:48:44 > 0:48:47in the Iron Age which links into the Mediterranean,
0:48:47 > 0:48:52so it's entirely possible that somebody from Palestine
0:48:52 > 0:48:55could have got here to Glastonbury around that time.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57But there's absolutely no evidence of it.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02If the message that is being preached is so strong
0:49:02 > 0:49:08in its own right, why do the monks there need to augment it with fancy?
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Because they're in competition.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13And in Glastonbury in particular there's a crying need.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17It's not until after the great fire in 1184 where we hear about Arthur
0:49:17 > 0:49:19in connection with Glastonbury,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22and once you've got Arthur you find you've got to have Joseph,
0:49:22 > 0:49:24because there is a new bestseller
0:49:24 > 0:49:27spreading across Europe by Robert de Boron,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30a French writer, which says that Joseph of Arimathea
0:49:30 > 0:49:32went to the Isle of Avalon.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34Now, the Isle of Avalon's already established
0:49:34 > 0:49:37as the place to which Arthur was taken, so once you claim to have
0:49:37 > 0:49:42Arthur, as the monks are now doing, you've got to have Joseph as well.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Is it just about, then, monks creating foundation myths
0:49:46 > 0:49:50for the satisfaction of their congregation?
0:49:50 > 0:49:54There's certainly a bit about monks creating myths, to put their abbey
0:49:54 > 0:49:58on the international map, but also there is faith involved.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03Because pilgrims reinforce faith, the belief in your monastery
0:50:03 > 0:50:06as being a holy site, according to the medieval mentality,
0:50:06 > 0:50:08actually makes it more holy.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12God takes more notice of you and therefore the people around you,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16so a monastery like a powerhouse of sanctity
0:50:16 > 0:50:19is in theory good for the whole county around it.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22The crops will be better, the people healthier, life better
0:50:22 > 0:50:23because God is smiling.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27I've learnt enough on my journey
0:50:27 > 0:50:31to realise that legends don't spring from nowhere.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34I like to believe there are some essential truths hidden
0:50:34 > 0:50:36in all of these sacred places.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39My favourite is the miraculous tree
0:50:39 > 0:50:43that's supposed to have appeared when Joseph arrived here.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Joseph landed somewhere down there at the foot of the hill,
0:50:51 > 0:50:53walked up here and immediately on arrival
0:50:53 > 0:50:56planted his staff into the ground,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59and it magically transformed into a thorn bush
0:50:59 > 0:51:01that flowers at Easter and on Christmas Day
0:51:01 > 0:51:05and in fact a cutting of the blossom is sent to the Queen
0:51:05 > 0:51:08to be a table setting for her at Christmas.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11The thorns represent the suffering of Jesus Christ
0:51:11 > 0:51:14and the trees, the bushes, have grown here ever since. But look.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16Someone's taken a chainsaw to this one
0:51:16 > 0:51:19and its replacement has been vandalised as well.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Fortunately there are other specimens
0:51:25 > 0:51:27of these rare trees around Glastonbury.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30Two of them are outside St John's Parish Church.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39I notice the sign says A Glastonbury thorn and not THE Glastonbury thorn.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41- Mm.- I take it that's careful and intentional.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45Absolutely, cos in Glastonbury anything can be turned into a myth
0:51:45 > 0:51:48if you're not careful. Er, one of the thorns...
0:51:48 > 0:51:51This is a graft from the thorn at Wearyall Hill.
0:51:51 > 0:51:57Does the thorn bring people who are looking for other elements
0:51:57 > 0:51:59of the myth, the Arthurian legend?
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Do you get people here looking for the Grail and all the rest?
0:52:03 > 0:52:05Yeah, we do. Only very recently
0:52:05 > 0:52:07I had somebody in church one Sunday morning
0:52:07 > 0:52:10who was quite convinced that St John's Church
0:52:10 > 0:52:12here in Glastonbury had the Holy Grail
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and they felt that they'd had a calling from a higher being
0:52:15 > 0:52:18to collect it and so they'd come for it.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21I'm glad to say that it very much was a myth
0:52:21 > 0:52:23on that particular day, that neither he nor I could find it,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and he went away in the hope that one day I might send it to him
0:52:26 > 0:52:28if I happened to find it.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33I'm sure it must be the case that here, of all places really in England,
0:52:33 > 0:52:39must have a gravitational pull for people with an imagination.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Yeah... With an imagination, yes, but also with deep spirituality.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45The important thing from my point of view
0:52:45 > 0:52:46is to try and propagate the Gospel
0:52:46 > 0:52:51and if that means that it's through a symbol of the thorn and what that means
0:52:51 > 0:52:54or indeed coming into church, then that's what it's about really.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00I can see that Joseph's legend has just as powerful a draw on us now
0:53:00 > 0:53:02as it did 600 years ago.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08In an obscure corner of St John's Church there's a rare fragment
0:53:08 > 0:53:12of medieval glass that shows how they told the Grail story then.
0:53:15 > 0:53:16Look at this.
0:53:16 > 0:53:23What you've got is a medieval depiction of the two vessels,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27technically the cruets that were used to gather the blood
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and the sweat of Christ as he suffered on the cross.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34You can see the little tadpole-like droplets.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38And they're either side of a cross, but it's no ordinary cross,
0:53:38 > 0:53:43it's suggestive of a tree, possibly a thorn tree, and it's
0:53:43 > 0:53:48fascinating that that's a glimpse of what pre-Reformation people
0:53:48 > 0:53:50were thinking and valuing.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53It's a story that has proven endlessly resilient.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08According to the legend, when the Grail was buried, and some people
0:54:08 > 0:54:11say it was buried alongside Joseph himself, its contents,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15the sweat and blood, were spilled, and ever since then two springs
0:54:15 > 0:54:17have flowed at the foot of the Tor,
0:54:17 > 0:54:19and I'm going to see one of them now.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25At the bottom of Glastonbury's distinctive hill,
0:54:25 > 0:54:27the Tor, is the Chalice Well.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34This is where the liquid from one of the buried cruets was spilled.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40Christ's blood was transformed into a flowing spring,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43to this day known as the Blood Well.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52Oh, yes, very metallic taste. It's like...like rust.
0:54:52 > 0:54:53And that flavour
0:54:53 > 0:54:58and also the red staining is a result of the water collecting iron
0:54:58 > 0:55:02from the rocks deep underground as it's rising to the surface.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Comes out of the ground at a steady 25,000 gallons a day
0:55:06 > 0:55:09and in times gone by, in periods of drought,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13water from here was the only reliable source for the town,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16so apart from anything else that makes it special.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26The Chalice Well isn't just for Christians.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31Anyone can come here, and they do, for healing and inspiration,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34quiet and contemplation.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36And there's no doubt that
0:55:36 > 0:55:40this feels like a very old place of worship, with its groves
0:55:40 > 0:55:46of ancient yews and its constant outflow of pure, life-giving water.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51We've always revered water - as a place for offerings
0:55:51 > 0:55:56in the Bronze Age, and as a god for Romans in nearby Bath.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00And now I'm finding the symbolism bubbles back
0:56:00 > 0:56:02in another guise in Glastonbury.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10If you like, you can unwrap the story of the Chalice Well still further.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14Some Celtic legends allege that the springs were
0:56:14 > 0:56:19entrances to an other world - a paradise within the Tor,
0:56:19 > 0:56:23guarded by a fierce god, where the souls of those who had recently died
0:56:23 > 0:56:27would feast and carouse whilst they awaited rebirth.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32So why wouldn't the monks respond,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35evicting the Celtic deity by transforming the spring
0:56:35 > 0:56:40into holy water and building their own church on top of the Tor?
0:56:45 > 0:56:48You could go on and on examining and exploring
0:56:48 > 0:56:52the lore of Glastonbury, bathing in the feel of it.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57The multitude of stories here and the pleasing shape of the landscape,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00it's easy to be drawn in by it.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Is it logical or is it not? I don't know.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08But there's no doubting the need for sacred places
0:57:08 > 0:57:13and for the stories they encourage us to tell each other there.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18They give depth and meaning to us as humans about existence.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23On my journey I've learnt that the meanings of these places
0:57:23 > 0:57:27have evolved as much as our beliefs have developed.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31And just by looking around on the top here
0:57:31 > 0:57:33you can tell we'll always need them.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Ultimately, when you strip everything back,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43it's about our profound connection with the landscape.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45From the Stone Age to the New Age
0:57:45 > 0:57:49we've revered the hills and lakes, springs and rivers.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51The places that sustain life
0:57:51 > 0:57:54and that nurture our most basic sense of aesthetics.
0:57:57 > 0:58:03It's about finding a context for fear and joy, and an explanation.
0:58:03 > 0:58:04It's also about a simple need
0:58:04 > 0:58:08for places where we can gather together as communities.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12Places where the world of the human
0:58:12 > 0:58:15and the world of the divine come together.
0:58:15 > 0:58:20One of the most enduring prophecies about this place is that
0:58:20 > 0:58:23it's possible to find paradise on Earth before Judgement Day.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28And if you are looking for a place where that might happen
0:58:28 > 0:58:30this is a good one.