Mathew Lyons

We’ll never know what treasures the Tudor Reformation robbed us of

Amy Jeffs likens the shattered world of medieval Christianity to the dispersed relics of the many saints whose memory Henry VIII hoped to obliterate

The ruins of Kirkham Priory, North Yorkshire. The Augustinian priory, founded on the banks of the Derwent in the early 12th century, was forced to surrender in December 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. [Getty Images] 
issue 07 September 2024
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  • Saints: A New Legendary of Heroes, Humans and Magic

    Amy Jeffs

    riverrun, pp. 400, £30

In 1693, quarrymen working near Caerleon, outside Newport in Wales, uncovered an alabaster sculpture of a figure they did not recognise. The man wore a suit of armour, which had once been covered in gold leaf. In one hand he held a sword, in the other a pair of scales.

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