Richard Norton
I am a retired academic theologian now working as an independent scholar. I have taught theology in the UK, Sudan and Zimbabwe. My specialisms include English Medieval Mysticism - especially Julian of Norwich - and Religious Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries and the development of the Papal Magisterium.
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Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx 1147-1163, was leading figure in this effort, writing four works explicitly praising Henry's ancestors and including himself as an interested party in forming a new concept of kingship and government. Aelred sought a point of unity between the invading culture and so-called Englishness in the Arthurian legends. Henry was to become the new Arthur, the most chivalrous and Christian kings. But this, for Aelred was not enough to secure the new regime after the civil war between Stephen and Matida. What was needed was divine authority. So Aelred traced Henry's genealogy to Adam and therefore Christ. In this way he laid the foundation of the legal fiction of the Kings Two Bodies, one human and the other divine (christomemites) and the notion of the Divine Right of English Kings which held for another five hundred years.
Drafts by Richard Norton
Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx 1147-1163, was leading figure in this effort, writing four works explicitly praising Henry's ancestors and including himself as an interested party in forming a new concept of kingship and government. Aelred sought a point of unity between the invading culture and so-called Englishness in the Arthurian legends. Henry was to become the new Arthur, the most chivalrous and Christian kings. But this, for Aelred was not enough to secure the new regime after the civil war between Stephen and Matida. What was needed was divine authority. So Aelred traced Henry's genealogy to Adam and therefore Christ. In this way he laid the foundation of the legal fiction of the Kings Two Bodies, one human and the other divine (christomemites) and the notion of the Divine Right of English Kings which held for another five hundred years.