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towers were completed in 1745, and further rebuilding and
restoration took place in the 19th century.
My question on the abbey’s age is thus answered: William
the Conqueror had his coronation at the site of the present
day abbey, but the newer abbey we see today is, for the most
part, some 600 years old.
Some 3,300 people are buried within the church and cloisters
of the abbey, though this does not include monks buried in
the cemetery behind the chapter house. Among the famous are
Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling (writers),
George Frederic Handel, Henry Purcell Ralph Vaughan Williams
(musicians), and Laurence Olivier (the last to be buried in
the abbey, in 1991). Because both Chaucer and Purcell worked
in the abbey, they were buried there; their renown made it
an honor to be interred nearby, and the abbey soon became
a popular place for the high and mighty to be memorialized.
Among the more interesting individuals buried within the abbey’s
walls is Thomas Parr, an Englishman who supposedly lived for
152 years, through the reigns of 10 monarchs. Parr did not
marry until he was 80, and twenty years later he did penance
for being unfaithful to his wife and having an illegitimate
child. Parr’s recipe for longevity was reputed to be:
“Keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm
by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed, and if you want to
grow fat [prosperous]
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keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.”
In 1635, Parr was taken to London to visit Charles I, who
asked Parr what he had done to live so long. Parr replied,
“Sire, I did penance when I was 100 years old.”
Old Parr died within a few weeks of arriving in London, apparently
due to a change in his diet and the pollution of the city.
The Scotch whisky Old Parr is named for him and carries the
dates of his birth and death (1483-1635) on its label.
—The abbey’s real name is the Collegiate Church
of St. Peter, Westminster.
—During the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th
century, Henry VIII diverted money from Westminster Abbey
to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The expression “robbing
Peter to pay Paul” may come from this period, since
the abbey was dedicated to St. Peter.
Sources: www.wikipedia.org,
www.westminster-abbey.org.
LITERARY
GENIUS
This week’s selection comes from the well known Italian
author Machiavelli, whose most famous work, The
Prince, was published posthumously, and had
an enormous effect on European thought. Some of the methods
of leadership espoused in Machiavelli’s work are still
followed to this day, perhaps because Machiavelli so clearly
understood the true nature of men, and did not allow ethical
concerns to cloud his judgment.
The Prince was aimed at Italian
aristocrats, and is largely concerned with telling them how
best to acquire and maintain the strongest possible dominion
over their subjects. Machiavelli felt that a prince should
be utilitarian and make the best use of the men he had, rather
than seek to enlighten them. He further felt that it was more
important for a prince to be seen
as ethical than for him to be ethical.
Following is a selection on a subject that has always been
of great interest to me: whether it is better for a leader
to be feared or loved.
 FROM
IL PRINCIPE (THE PRINCE)
Niccolò Machiavelli
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Chapter XVII: Concerning Cruelty And Clemency,
And Whether It Is Better To Be Loved Than Feared
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COMING NOW TO the other qualities mentioned above, I say that
every prince ought to desire to be considered clement and
not cruel. Nevertheless he ought to take care not to misuse
this clemency… Therefore a prince, so long as he keeps
his subjects united and loyal, ought not to |
