CHAPTER 25
Teilo’s tomb, which is on the other side of the high altar from the Mathew Chapel, is not the only one in the church belonging to a saint. Perhaps the most important tomb inside the chapel itself is that of St Dyfrig or Dubricius. He was the successor of St Teilo in the role of bishop and, as we have seen, is credited with crowning King Arthur at Caerleon. His tomb and effigy, however, are medieval, his remains having been moved to Llandaff in 1120.
Like the tomb of Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook at St Mary’s Abergavenny, Dyfrig’s is sunken into the wall. Lying on it, fully robed and holding a bishop’s crosier, is an effigy of the saint dressed as a bishop. However, what interested me more was that, set into the wall above it, was a small replica shield. This did not display any heraldic arms, real or imagined. Instead, there was a representation of the aftermath of the Crucifixion. This consisted of a calvary cross with a ladder leaning against it. Also shown were other implements mentioned in the Gospels as being used either prior, during or after the Crucifixion of Jesus: the Spear of Longinus, the whipping post and flail, the three nails and hammer used to drive them in, the reed with the vinegary sponge, etcetera. I studied this shield intently and then suddenly something struck me. On the shield, hanging over the cross itself, was a wreath representing the crown of thorns. This, however, was positioned in the precise position that a single rose would be in the normal Rosicrucian emblem. Could it be, I wondered, that this was an early version of the Rosy-cross emblem? After all, roses are notoriously thorny and, therefore, it is only a small step to make the assumption that the crown of thorns was, in fact, made from the stems of roses.
Figure 4: Tomb of Bishop John Marshall in Llandaff Cathedral.
This threw a whole new light on the matter, although it would be some time before the full significance of this shield would sink in. Then, turning round, I received another shock: right opposite the tomb of Saint Dyfrig was that of John Marshall, the bishop who gave Sir David Mathew custody of the skull of St Teilo in 1480. This, as befitting his status, was quite a large affair, with his effigy lying on top. What immediately caught my attention was another plaque attached to the end of it. This one was square rather than shield-shaped, but it depicted the same scene of the aftermath of the Crucifixion. Again, there was the cross with its crown of thorns, the ladder, the whipping post, the nails, the spear and the reed with sponge. The main difference was that, this time, there was a haloed figure standing at the foot of the cross, presumably Jesus Christ himself, although it could have been meant to represent some other saint.
I was amazed when I saw this plaque. For a start, it meant that the image depicted on the Dyfrig shield was not unique, and this implied that the cross with its crown of thorns was not an accidental design. Also, this was clearly an emblem associated not so much with the Crucifixion itself as its aftermath. The tableau was of Calvary after the Crucifixion when the body of Jesus Christ had already been removed. Yet the removal from of Jesus’ body from the cross didn’t just happen. The Bible tells us that it was brought down by Joseph of Arimathea, who subsequently laid it in his own tomb. The ladder would have been his and so too would a pair of pincers, shown on the Marshall plaque, which would have been required to remove the nails. This seems important given that Joseph of Arimathea, or ‘St Ilid’ as he is called in Wales, was the apostle who first brought Christianity to Britain according to the legends and many lists of saints. Also important is that one of these plaques was attached to the tomb of Bishop Marshall. He would have been alive during the Wars of the Roses and knew Sir David Mathew, to whom he entrusted the skull of Teilo. This implies that the symbol of the cross with the crown of thorns hanging from it was also known in Wales at that time. Sir David Mathew died in 1484 and Bishop Marshall in 1496. Given that the later Rosicrucian documents imply that Christian Rozencreutz, the legendary founder of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, died in 1488, this all seemed significant.
While there is no suggestion of a direct connection, the fact remains that the cross with the crown of thorns was a potent symbol in Wales at the time. It could be argued, therefore, that a type of ‘Rosicrucianism’ (whatever we really mean by that term) had its origins in Wales at the time of the Wars of the Roses. Quite how this may have morphed into the later Rosicrucianism of the 17th century was something that I now wanted to look into. I didn’t have to look very far.