The British Library Reading Room (Day 3)

[Taavi]

Where many come in search of answers, and frequently find more questions.

[WinstonP]

Reverend Poole doffs his hat (a half size too small; the curious would note that a label inside the band notes the owner as M. S. Dunster) and drapes his coat over an arm.

Well Harwood, here we are. If there are answers to be had, this is our best chance to find them... in a book at least. Remind me- have you been before? I have some ideas of what we are looking for, but if there are any particular works you'd like to consult, let me know.


Rev. Poole and Harwood then make their way into the Reading Room itself. Poole consults a small notebook and makes a first book request... (once I look at my own actual notes)

[WinstonP]

Ah, yes, here it is...
I've had the notion to look into the papers of some of our magically inclined ancestors... distant ancestors of course. I've not heard much about capturing spirits in bottles with pendulums, but I do recall some breeds of folk magic employing 'witch bottles'... different sorts of spirits captured there mind you... or 'witch balls', which were more protective and less... foul. I'm hoping I might find some early record of perhaps some bottle magic in the notes of one of those 17th century witch-hunters - Matthew Hopkins or Bezalel Thompkins or some unknown mystic of that era. I thought I might start first with some trial records or maybe a expanded edition of The Discoverie of Witchcraft...


Reverend Poole spends his remaining point of Occult and makes his first book request...

[Taavi]

Poring over the ancient archives in the cotton gloves provided, Reverend Poole glazes over as woman after woman, all gone to dust now, is put to the question on the faintest of evidence, until an extraordinary record from Hopkins' adventures in Cambridgeshire jolts him into awareness. Souls in bottles? He reads on...

[Taavi]

It seems that Hopkins travelled to a village in Cambridgeshire, where the villages lived in fear of their own preacher, one Guilliam Scott, who was rumoured to have sold his soul during "the blacke pilgrimage of Chorazin" and, in the turmoil of the civil war, was teaching that God had fallen just as the king had and demons would sieze heaven just as Cromwell had seized the throne (a set of metaphors likely to please no-one). Guilliam threatened to imprison the souls of those who dared defy him in bottles. He was served by a hunchback called Abel, who the villagers claimed was his demon familiar, but who was employed as Sexton and had free run of the (sacked) former Anglican church where Guilliam preached.

The trial proceedings seem quite farcical - no-one was willing to testify against Guilliam to his face, until he suddenly died of "noxious miasmas", mid-trial - and although plenty of people make claims against Abel, he refuses to confess no matter what ordeals he is put through, showing seemingly superhuman endurance. The villagers claimed that Guilliam had a collection of books of sorcery, bottled souls, &c, but none of it can be found. There is no clear end to the matter in the surviving records. Clearly Hopkins was not proud of the outcome, as he doesn't mention the trial in his book.

Ps name of village to follow, I can't find my notes!

[WinstonP]

Poole takes careful note of this mysterious trial and its Scott, shuddering slightly at seeing Chorazin mentioned again... I must talk to Harwood about that...

He pauses for a moment and skims through the notes he made while studying the Wooden Book. Was there some reference to a Guillaume Scott or this curious Abel fellow?

After a moment's reflection he reaches into the inner pocket of his vest, and pulls out his private index of the books in the vault at the Chapel of Little St. Hugh. Did this Scott end up at Smithfield?

Wait a moment... the Cultus Chorazos... dear Lord, they fled London to Cambridgeshire before fleeing north to Scotland. What have we found?

[Bookman]

Harwood reveals his reader's card like a magician.

It's alright Father, I made some use of their...special collections for my doctorate. In this case I think I shall start from John Wickham Legg. Particularly his copy of Culpepper's True and Frank History of the Papacy. Legg somehow got hold of the 1821 with some interesting appendices which could only be published in Protestant England. I want to try and use his knowledge of alternate Popes and false claimants and such like to try and draw up some sort of background to this Collegium and their theological inheritance. I thought I might run at it with reference to Di Florizio's Myths of Transubstantiation, see if there are any crossovers on the timeline. It might give us a baseline to look further for the wellspring from whence cometh Cor and Glencoe. I'm still intrigued as to how the Don thinks he can stop this brewing Civil War.

He follows the Reverend through, fills out his card, finds a table and starts to sort his notes, after making a mental one to ring the shop after the second post arrives.

Spoiler:

Point of Theology for me, I have some uses for occult lined up.

[WinstonP]

Rev. Poole snaps his head up mid-way through a snore.

"Sorry there chap. Must have nodded off..."

(I've finally worked out my password issue; I'll post more soon.)

[Taavi]

The Reverend doesn't find any mention of Guillam Scott or Abel in his notes on the wooden book. Scott died during the trial of a miasma caught in the gaol, was buried in Cambridgeshire, and so didn't end up at Smithfield stake. Abel's fate is unknown.

[Taavi]

Harwood plows through the stack of scurrilous anti-Papist ranting brought to him by the librarians.

As might be expected, the sources play up the various periods of schism and controversy within the Catholic church. There are many dark references to anti-popes and alternate claimants to the papacy. A notable source seems to be the works of one Cardinal Benno, cardinal to Antipope Honorius II, who accuses Pope Gregory VII (the Great) of being part of a line of secret necromancers within the Church going back to Sylvester II. Honorius II himself is accused by some sources of being the author of the Grimoire of Pope Honorius. Various Protestants build on these suggestions to claim the existence of secret cabals of necromancers and Jesuits, bearing the authority of this or that (anti)pope, who struggle against each other for supremacy and "infest Europe to this day". According to these sources, the split in the papacy between Rome and Avignon was just the manifestation of deeper conflict between various demon-worshipping cults.

In the light of the Reverend's findings, it is notable that many of the sources attempt to draw some connection between their preferred Satanic conspirators and the ancient town of Chorazin in Israel, owing to prophecy that the Antichrist would be born there. This is perhaps the explanation for the occasional cryptic mention of "the black pilgrimage to Chorazin".

[WinstonP]

How much time is left before the Reading Room closes?

If time permits, I shall spend a new point in History and request 15th-18th century travelers accounts from the Levant, focusing on anyone who might have passed near this "Chorazin" place in their travels. Failing that, perhaps some Classical authors; Byzantine imitators of Strabo or one of the lesser Roman chroniclers of the wars in Judea?

I'll figure out how I spend my other points shortly.

[Bookman]

Blast, there went ten minutes typing in one ludicrous keyboard accident. Let's try and reconstruct that.

Harwood sits back trying to think.

Chorazin, must surely be linked to Chora Azos? What did the Rev say that meant? The Realm of Azos? So did the Leader preach a wisdom gained from there? What kind of wisdom comes from the home of the antichrist? Methodius would not be impressed, woe to you, oh Chorazin! So how does this all fit together?

Coe writes his book dealing with distillation of blood. Not long after a servant of the Bathory family starts a cult and has to flee to London and then Cambridgeshire and Scotland seeking a book or Brazen Head, as possessed by Virgil of course. Chances are very good that the man from Finchley is the man in Cambridge and the one in Hungary. If he made it to Scotland then he might well have made it to Spain with the flight of the Earls, assuming he survived the 1597 purge, or at least that his servant did...

Could the Leader be using the bottles as a form of immortality? Body-hopping with the aid of a servant by being drunk by new hosts? Perhaps that explains how he kept running for so long - perhaps the Don is the latest host? Perhaps the noxious miasma was not something which killed Scott but rather something coming out of him, to return to its bottle? And what was that servant? Survived being put to The Question, perhaps he had some sort of supernatural endurance – perhaps he's a golem like Jake's after? Did he then disappear again to Scotland with the right bottle?

So the Don is almost certainly linked back to the Cor family and may well be linked to Chora Azos as well, particularly if the various accusations at everyone else's Fisher Ring are representations of this. The link to Chorazin is true for a very specific antipapal line. The Cor line links to a Chorazin line which reforms as various cults all led by a charismatic man with odd sacramental beliefs, an interest in blood and a bottle issue. He is after a book – the Cor codex. I must see if there is anything in it on a, what would it be, 'nigrae peregrinationis'. He makes his black pilgrimage to Chorazin and returns with some form of power, possibly this all ties into the knowledge in the Alhambra's mysterious tower, or to finding many-pillared Irem, this is the Key to the Stars he holds, or at least the Key to opening it. He travels across Europe seeking...something (and possibly a new host for his spirit) before returning to Spain where his line continues to seek out information from the Tower. Which brings us back to the Don and his quest for the Irving (for possibly the same reason as the Sette of course) all linked to the Moorish state of Granada and ancient wisdom therein, mentioned in the Thousand Nights and One Night translated by Burton who was part of the Sette and referenced in Irving who was great friends with Walter Scott, Scottish nationalist, treasure hunter and folklorist who shares his name with our Cambridgeshire occultist. I wonder which Scott is referenced in those notes in the Irving – the Baronet or the Cultist?

Harwood moves quietly across to the Reverend.

I wonder if it might be worth my returning to the Codex. Given the amount of play Chorazin and Chora Azos are getting here I wonder if I should check Cor's notes for a black pilgrimage or more direct references to Chorazin? This might help us tie them more cleanly in or rule them out.

And let me check if Verity has responded, he thinks to himself.

[andyw666]

Jory:

Jory makes his way to the mighty British Library and traverses its depths to the Reading Room wherein he pounces on Poole and Harwood and has a loud, stage-whispered conversation.

"What ho Chaps! Thought a bit of digging here at the library would be a lark. Should be tickey-tockey, what?"

Jory will endeavor to request back issue newspaper articles relating to scandals involving Dr P Caslett and also recent scandals involving the Kings College Hospital.

While waiting for any useful material to materialise, the Captain will surreptitiously pull a small hip flask of Scotch from his stachel, take a swig and pass it around to his compatriots.

OOC,Can Jory spend a pt of [i]Library Use[/i] on this?

[Taavi]

How much time is left before the Reading Room closes?
If time permits, I shall spend a new point in History and request 15th-18th century travelers accounts from the Levant, focusing on anyone who might have passed near this "Chorazin" place in their travels. Failing that, perhaps some Classical authors; Byzantine imitators of Strabo or one of the lesser Roman chroniclers of the wars in Judea?
I'll figure out how I spend my other points shortly.

There's enough time for this query. Helpful librarians bring forth stacks of dusty scholarly literature.

Despite its lurid reputation among the early Christian authors, Chorazin appears to have been undistinguished in Biblical and Roman times, noted mainly for fine grain harvests. Frazer's Golden Bough notes in a footnote the existence of a local "Corn King" crop fertility rite celebrating the marriage of Yahweh and Asherah and speculates that this may have been the reason for Jesus' condemnation of the place.
In about the 4th Century AD, Chorazin was levelled by an earthquake and became essentially depopulated. The earthquake apparently destroyed the town’s synagogue, and rebuilding was never completed, according to St Jerome, who wrote "...pilgrims were told that the Jews could not finish building the synagogue, because the workers, when asked by Jesus what they were doing, replied: 'Nothing,' and our Lord then said: 'If what ye do is nothing, nothing will it remain for ever'."

This was the time of the most apocalyptic literature concerning Chorazin, the so-called Revelations of Methodius, attributed to the fourth-century bishop Methodius. It has been described as "...arguably the most important Christian apocalyptic text after the Apocalypse of John in terms of its wide diffusion and subsequent influence." Of the Antichrist's origins, the Pseudo-Methodius says:
"...the Son of Perdition will appear. He will be born in Chorazaim, nourished in Bethsaida, and reign in Capharnaum. Chorazaim will rejoice because he was born in her, and Capharnaum because he will have reigned in her. For this reason in the third Gospel the Lord gave the following statement: 'Woe to you Chorazaim, woe to you Bethsaida, and to you Capharnaum - if you have risen up to heaven, you will descend even to hell'."

An interesting reference to the place is from the time of the 9th Crusade and the fall of Acre in 1291. Hayton of Corycus’ contemporaneous account La Flor des Estoires d'Orient (The History of The Tartars) mentions that a Scottish Baron de Soules, who was in the service of Otton de Grandison (the representative of Edward I and the later Justiciar of Scotland and the North) was upbraided by Otton for having neglected a mission to the Mongols intended to secure their agreement to attack the armies preparing to besiege Acre. Instead, de Soules had apparently diverted to Chorazin in search of a “puissant relique” which he claimed “would strengthen Christian men more than a score of heathen (i.e. Mongol) armies”. De Soules later returned to the Scottish borderlands in Otton’s train, so the two had perhaps reconciled.

After this, Chorazin largely passes out of history and into archaeology. The remains at Chorazin were visited and measured by Sir Charles William Wilson in the 1860s, when he noted a synagogue with "Corinthian capitals", various domestic buildings and one "with remnants of Ionic capitals", all in the black basalt which made them "barely to be distinguished at one hundred yards distance from the rocks which surround the town." Sixty years later, Gustaf Dalman also recorded Chorazin's location in this "desolate basalt wilderness", and described the synagogue, with its decoration of sculptures of "animal motifs, representations especially of grape-gathering and grape-pressing, and of centaurs fighting with winged lions, a Medusa, an armed soldier, and an eagle”. Dalman speculates that these unusual sculptures represented some pagan influence from the pan-Hellenic culture of the time.

A minor controversy attaches to the expedition of Ory, who excavated the site in 1926. He wrote that a second synagogue was found 200 yards west of the first one, and he described it very accurately. However, later expeditions found no trace of this building.

[Taavi]

Jory will endeavor to request back issue newspaper articles relating to scandals involving Dr P Caslett and also recent scandals involving the Kings College Hospital.

OOC,Can Jory spend a pt of [i]Library Use[/i] on this?

One item of interest from some years ago is found in some press clipping files. Dr Caslett is mentioned in a story about Kings College doctors being over-eager to classify the corpses of those who had died in the hospital as indigent (and hence available for medical students, autopsies, etc.) Aggrieved family members of Mrs J. Smith, late of Southwark, lament being unable to bury Grandma and describe a Dr Caslett as “callous” and “you could tell he didn’t mean it” (when he apologised for the mistake).

No need for a library use spend.

[WinstonP]

Rev. Poole looks up from his books and notes the lateness of the hour. He collects his notes and begins to look for Harwood and Jory so that we might depart together, either back to Grant's or perhaps, if they are buying, a public house for hushed conversation.

[Taavi]

Just to note: I've heard from both Bookman and Andyw666 that they will be rejoining, but due to the season, travel etc it may be delayed.

[Bookman]

Harwood nods to the Reverend in agreement about leaving with a barely concealed excitement, darting occasional glances at the clock.

I don't know about anyone else but I need to get back to the shop to see if a letter has arrived. I think some examination of the book is in order, see what further we might be able to find about Cor and Azos and this Black Pilgrimage.

[Taavi]

As the reading room is now closing for the day, the men of Grant's venture once more into the street, returning to their musty haunt, or perhaps in search of a refreshing beverage?

[Bookman]

Harwood is heading back to Grant's, he will happily wander back with anyone heading that way or he will head off on his own. He will travel at some speed whatever the situation.